Tess in Boots (3 page)

CHAPTER 4

The next morning,
before the sun came up, I was all packed and staring at a blank pad of paper wondering what to write. Logan had a key to my apartment, and in the past, he came over and let himself in after business trips. This time, he would open the door to an empty apartment and a note that would leave him riddled with fear he’d lost me, his one true love, forever. But how to word such a note?

I wanted to sound as vague and casual as possible.

Well, if I was being honest with myself, I
wanted
to write:

Dearest Logan,

I have run away in a desperate attempt to get you to chase me down and win my heart with a very grand romantic gesture. Please come with roses, preferably on a white horse. No cake this time.

XOXO,

Tess

That's what I
wanted to write. But today, I was the new Tess. The new, non-pathetic, c'est la vie Tess. So I wrote:

Needed to get away for a bit.

-Tess

Wow. I admired my loopy, careless scribble as I placed the note on the entry table where he couldn’t miss it. Then, I loaded two large duffel bags onto my shoulders, pulled my bulging suitcase through the doorway, and locked the door behind me.
I walked slowly, struggling under the weight of my bags. They were heavy, but I wasn’t sure what I needed at the vineyard, and I wanted to be prepared.

I
was a few steps away from my front door when I remembered the cardboard box on the kitchen table. I dropped my bags, scrambled to unlock the door, and tucked the box into the coat closet, throwing a quilt over it as an extra precaution. No sense letting Logan find out my entire life had fallen to pieces. Not until after he chased me down, anyway.

With one final look around the apartment, I shut the door, turned the lock, and was off.

***

“
Annie, it’s me.” I concentrated on not spilling my coffee as I walked through the parking lot of the rest stop.

“
Hey. How are you holding up?”

“
I’m okay.” I spotted my car and walked toward it. “You?”

“
I have two interviews lined up for tomorrow,” she said.

Leave it to Annie to get right back on the horse.

“That’s amazing!” I clicked the button to unlock my car and slid into the driver’s seat.

“
Thanks. How about you?” she asked.

“
I found… something.”

“
Already? What?”

I placed my coffee in the cup holder.
“It’s a… uh, temporary position in marketing.”

“
Where?”

“
Out of town,” I said.

“
Out of town where?”

“
North Carolina.”

“
What?”

I sighed.
“Jake inherited a vineyard, and he wants me to help him get the word out.”

“
Oh gee whiz.”

“
I know. But I could use a getaway. I’m only going for a couple weeks, tops.”

“
Where are you now?” she asked.

I glanced at a nearby sign. “I think I’m somewhere in
Delaware.”

“
Well, be careful driving. At least you get to spend some time with Jake.”

“
Yeah. It’s not such a bad job.” It wasn’t a real job, though. We both knew it, but neither of us said anything.

“
Give me a call when you get there, will you?”

“
Sure. Call me after your interview?”

“
Will do.”

“
Okay. I gotta get back on the road. Talk to you later.”

“
Bye, Tess.”

I started the car and merged onto the highway. When I left this morning, I felt an unusual sense of bravery. Now that feeling was scaling back like the fuel gauge on the dashboard. Every inch of me
silently screamed to turn the car around. To go home and wait for Logan. To head back and try to put my life together.

I couldn’t listen to myself think. Not if I was going to go through with this. I needed to drown out the noise in my head, so I did something I hadn’t done in years. I turned up the radio as loud as it would go, rolled
down the windows, and sang.

***

Ten hours and two rest stops later, I was driving along an unmarked country road, running low on gas, and cursing my phone’s battery for dying somewhere in Virginia.

Jake’s directions seemed simple enough, but as soon as I turned off the main highway, all the street signs mysteriously disappeared, leaving me with no way of knowing where to go next. I would have to find a gas station, and soon. I considered merging back onto the highway, but the last exit I remembered passing was at least ten miles down the road, maybe even farther. I wasn’t sure I had enough gas to make it there.

As I drove along the winding road, climbing and diving with the slope of the mountains, I looked around for any signs of civilization. There were a few old houses tucked away in the trees. Other than that, the town seemed empty, as though it was abandoned years ago. Under any other circumstances, it would have been peaceful, but it was starting to look more and more like something right out of a horror movie. This would be the perfect place for some crazed lunatic to hide out, waiting for a girl like me to turn off the highway and get lost. In fact, I thought with a shudder, there probably
was
such a lunatic lurking about. He was probably the one who hid all the street signs.

The fuel warning light came on
, and I began to pray for the second time since my world fell apart. “Please, God, don’t let me run out of gas. Please, God, don’t let me run out of gas.”

I repeated the words in a frantic whisper until
I rounded a corner and saw a large brick building. It was a firehouse, I realized as I got closer. Though it wasn’t quite the gas station I’d been hoping for, it was better than nothing, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I pulled into the gravel lot. The parking lot was packed. There were cars everywhere, and I had to park at a precarious angle in the far corner. I wasn’t sure why such a small town would need so many firemen on duty, but it would be dark soon, and I was glad to be somewhere safe. At least I wouldn’t have to go knocking on some stranger’s door for help.

It felt good to get out of the car and stretch my legs
. I half-ran, half-hopped across the gravel to the main door of the firehouse.

I opened the door, expecting to see someone there, but the front hall was empty.

“Hello?” My voice echoed off the bare cinderblock walls.

There was no answer.

I could hear a commotion coming from the floor above me. It sounded like footsteps, and there was something else, too. Music? No, loud talking. Or perhaps both.

I shrugged. Maybe the firemen hung out upstairs between calls, or after work. There had to be someone up there who could point me in the right direction.

I found some stairs in the corner and climbed them in a hurry, leaning toward the noise as I went. There was a heavy steel door at the top of the stairs, and when I opened it, the noise grew even louder.

T
he room was full of boisterous men who were laughing and slapping each other on the back. No one glanced my way or even seemed to notice me there. Nearby, several of the men were playing a game of pool. I tapped one of them on the shoulder. He turned around and looked down at me with a perplexed expression.

I cleared my throat and leaned in so he could hear me above the country music blaring from a speaker in the corner.
“Excuse me. I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m not from around here.”

As I spoke, I noticed a couple of the guys had seen me. They
elbowed one another and snickered. The chatter in the room died down into a hushed whisper. Someone turned the music down. Way down. Something seemed… off.

The room
grew so quiet I didn’t need to shout anymore.

“
I was hoping you could give me directions,” I continued.

The man raised an eyebrow. “You lost?”

I was trying to be polite, but I forgot myself for a moment and let out my breath in a huff.

What kind of question is that? No, buddy, I’m just stopping by to say hi because I have nothing better to do.

“Of
course
I’m lost,” I said.

For a moment, the room was still. And then, a voice called out
in a suggestive tone from somewhere in the crowd. “Sure you are, baby!”

I turned toward the voice
. Everyone in the room gawked in my direction.

O
ne of the men near the pool table threw his hands into the air “Y’all, I
said
no strippers. Heather’s gonna
kill
me!”

He spoke with a heavy drawl, and when he said the word
kill
, it sounded like he was saying
keel
. I was so amused by this I didn’t register what he said at first.

“
Come on!” another voice called from across the room. “You can’t have a bachelor party without a stripper!”

A collective cheer erupted among the men.

A stripper?

Bachelor party?

“Oh…” I took a step back as the weight of my mistake sank in. This was
not
a bunch of firemen hanging out at the firehouse to pass time after a shift. This was a bachelor party. I walked into a random bachelor party asking for directions. And they thought I was a stripper.

Of
course
they did.

The man who I tapped on the shoulder hadn’t stopped looking at me with that inquisitive stare. The corners of his mouth
turned up into the slightest hint of a smile.

“
I’m not a stripper,” I said, but it was too loud for him to hear me. I said it again, slower this time, so he could read my lips. “I’m not a stripper.”

He held a hand up high to silence the crowd.
“That’s enough, y’all. The man said no strippers.” He gave me an admonishing look and said, “Miss, I’m sure you’re a real nice lady, but we won’t be needing your services. Let me show you out. Come on, now.”

“
I’m not a stripper!” I protested, but he was already ushering me out of the room and down the steps. I could hear the faint sound of him chuckling over the loud booing coming from upstairs.

We stepped outside
, and he squinted against the orange glare from the setting sun. He was tall and lean, and his eyes were unrealistically blue. I hadn’t noticed them inside, because it was so dark. But out here, they were striking, and very… distracting.

“
Where were you heading?” he asked.

My heart
pounded from the adrenaline of what just occurred. I hesitated for a few beats, trying to decide whether I should say something else to clear my name. But as the seconds ticked by, I became so enthralled with the man’s eyes I forgot all about it.

Are
those contacts?

“
You said you were lost?” he asked again.

“
Oh.” I jumped a little. “Right.” I went to my car to retrieve the napkin I scribbled the address on when I realized my phone was going to die. When I turned from the car, he was right behind me. I sucked in my breath and handed him the napkin. He took a look at it and gave a knowing nod.

“
You know it?”

“
I’ve been by there once or twice,” he said.

“
Is it far?”

He shook his head and pulled a pen out of his pocket.
“Let me see your hand.”

“
My hand?”

He nodded as he took my left hand and began to draw a map on the back of it.

“All right,” he said, “it’s easy as pie. Turn left outta here, and then you’re gonna get to an overpass, and you’ll see a bunch of initials spray painted all over it.”

“
What initials?”

“
You know, names and initials. Love graffiti.”

“
Love graffiti?”

“
Yeah, so-and-so loves so-and-so. That kind of stuff.”

“
How will I know I’m at the right overpass?”

He smirked.
“There’s only one.”

“
Oh.”

He went back to drawing on my hand.
“Anyway. You’ll go under the overpass, and then you’re gonna want to take your next right. After that it’s the third left once you pass the gas station. You can’t miss it.”