Читать книгу Leverage - Janie Crouch - Страница 11

Chapter Four

You would think she’d just told him she had a nuclear device in her back pocket the way he was acting. Shelby watched from the booth as Dylan went over to pay Sally at the register for their meal.

Shelby tried to think through their conversation to figure out what had happened, where it had gone wrong. Shelby certainly wouldn’t be surprised to figure out it was something she had said. It always tended to be something she’d said.

But things had been going so well with Dylan tonight. Laughing and talking with him had been easy. Not full of those awkward pauses that tended to populate Shelby’s conversations. Especially ones with really hot guys.

Not that she tended to have too many of those.

Everything seemed to be going great, and then Shelby had watched as Dylan Branson just shut down right in front of her eyes. The light flirting, the laughing, the lack of awkward pauses they had enjoyed the whole evening—totally gone in a split second. The emotional temperature in the room had dropped twenty degrees in just a moment.

Generally, Shelby was always looking for a way to get out of conversations, to find a way to return to her natural solo state. But with Dylan she hadn’t felt the need to withdraw. They both seemed to be enjoying the conversation. Enjoying each other. So, yeah, his abrupt termination of everything hurt. More than Shelby expected.

Not that she’d been expecting Dylan to ask her to go steady or anything, but they’d been having a good time and then: pow! Right in the middle of a sentence he was suddenly finished with her.

See, this was why Shelby avoided people whenever possible.

And then when she told Dylan she had to go with him on the flight? She thought his eyes might bug out of his head.

She hadn’t been sure how to respond. When it became clear Dylan wasn’t going to elaborate, Shelby had tried to explain. “I have to go. The codes are in my head.”

“Well, then write them down or something.”

Write them down?

“Do you think Megan and I are idiots?” Shelby asked. “If I could just write them down, do you think I would be here with you right now?”

Dylan had shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Shelby had struggled to keep her temper under control. How could this even be the same man she had been talking to so comfortably just ten minutes before? “Well, I wouldn’t. If I was able, I would have already used that newfangled thing called the internet to send the codes to Omega. I have to go.”

Dylan shook his head. “How big can the codes be if they’re in your head?”

Shelby had just sat back and glared at him. “Big.”

At that, he stood up, took the bill the waitress had brought a few minutes before and gone over to pay. The restaurant looked to be closing up soon.

Shelby didn’t want to explain to him about her photographic memory of anything having to do with numbers. Fifteen minutes ago she wouldn’t have minded talking about it, almost had mentioned it when they were discussing her job. But that was when she was talking to good Dylan rather than jerk-face Dylan, who had somehow taken his place. She really wasn’t interested in telling him much of anything now.

Maybe Shelby should mention to Megan that schizophrenia might run in her husband’s family.

When Dylan didn’t immediately return, Shelby looked over at him. Through the window she could see he had stepped outside. He was on the phone now, obviously not happy with whomever he was talking to. Shelby hoped it wasn’t Megan.

Shelby also wished she knew what she had done to turn Dylan so hard and cold. Besides just existing and needing a ride. Which was why she was even here. Although that obviously hadn’t been explained to Dylan.

Shelby finished her tea as she watched Dylan talking on the phone outside. Another storm had come up and lightning played through the night sky. Shelby didn’t think they could take off in all this anyway. Maybe she should drive or look into taking a commercial flight. She could live through being surrounded by all the people at an airport and on an airplane if she had to.

Plus, how much worse could it be than being in an airplane with someone who seemed annoyed by her very existence?

Shelby got up and headed toward the door. She would just go her separate way from Dylan Branson. And hope when she met Megan’s husband, Sawyer, that he didn’t have the same temperament as his brother.

Shelby opened the door. Dylan’s back was to her as he spoke on the phone. “Yeah, I get it. She’s needed, too. All I’m saying is that this should’ve been made more clear to me, Burgamy.” Dylan turned around, looking at Shelby while listening to the other person on the phone. “Yes, crystal.”

Dylan disconnected the call without saying anything further. Good to know he was gruff with everybody, not just Shelby. They stood for a moment, not saying anything. Lightning flashed around them again.

“Look, I’m not sure what exactly happened here.” Shelby gestured toward the inside of the restaurant. “But obviously there was some sort of misunderstanding. You weren’t expecting me or whatever. And that’s fine. I’m just going to make other travel arrangements.”

Dylan rubbed his eyes wearily. “No, that’s not going to work. DC is too far to drive.”

“I can see about a commercial flight.”

“By the time you got to an airport big enough, that would take nearly as long as driving. Listen, I’m sorry I was abrupt before. I just didn’t have all the information.” Dylan shrugged. “I can fly you to DC. But since this storm seems to have stalled out right on top of us, it’s going to be a few hours. Probably three or four.”

Four hours? Shelby looked at her watch. It was after 10:00 p.m. She didn’t relish the idea of sitting in her car for that long, but surely Sally’s diner was going to close soon. Shrugging, Shelby turned toward her car.

Dylan touched her arm. “Look, the airfield is out near my house. Why don’t you just come stay at my place, get a few hours of sleep, then we’ll be ready to go when this series of storms passes.”

Shelby moved away from his touch. “Uh, no, thank you.”

“Why?”

“Are you kidding me?” Shelby’s voice was pretty loud. A couple leaving the closing diner looked over at Shelby and Dylan. Dylan waved, but Shelby ignored them.

“No, I’m not kidding you. It’s a logical solution.”

“Why would I stay with someone who out of the blue started treating me like I have the bubonic plague? No, thanks, I’ll just stay here.”

“You can’t stay here. The restaurant is closing.” Dylan’s voice had raised to a yell, probably to compensate for the thunder overhead. Unfortunately, the teenage waitress came outside just in time to hear his shout, but not the thunder. She stared at Dylan and Shelby with wide eyes.

“Is everything okay, Mr. Dylan?”

“It’s fine, Jennifer,” Dylan told the girl. “Be careful driving home in this mess.”

Jennifer kept watching them as she walked to her car. Looked as if Dylan’s yell was the most excitement she had seen in a while.

But the fact that Dylan knew Jennifer’s name reassured Shelby a bit, as did the fact that the girl was so shocked by how he was acting. Obviously, Dylan didn’t normally stand around the parking lot yelling at women.

“Sally is closing up for the night. You can’t go back in there.”

“Fine. I’ll just hang out in my car. Text me when you think it’s safe to take off and I’ll meet you at the airport.”

Shelby heard Dylan’s sigh. “It’s not an airport, more like an airfield.” A few drops of rain started to fall. It wouldn’t be long until the thunderous clouds produced rainstorms again.

“Don’t stay in your car,” he continued. “There’s a motel a couple of blocks down the road. Stay there at least. Not out in this storm.”

He was right. Shelby didn’t mind paying for a room she’d only spend a few hours in. Especially if it meant she wouldn’t have to talk to any other people unnecessarily.

Or have to stay with a man who had made up his mind to dislike her for no apparent reason.

Shelby left the shelter of the overhang near the diner’s front entrance to cross to where her car was parked. “Okay, fine.” She gave him her phone number. “Just text me or whatever when you’re ready.”

The rain was really starting to come down now. “I’ll follow you in my truck. Just to make sure everything’s okay.”

That was the exact opposite of what Shelby expected. She said nothing, just pulled up the collar of her jacket for protection from the rain. She thought she heard Dylan say something else to her, but she just wanted to make it across the street to her car. She understood why they had built the restaurant on one side of the road and the parking lot on the other—the diner had amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They wouldn’t want to use any of that prime real estate on parking.

But having to cross the street in the rain made Shelby wish they had put the parking closer.

She heard someone yell, but figured it was someone from the restaurant saying goodbye to Dylan. If he was trying to get her attention, he could just wait until they got to the motel. She wasn’t having a conversation out in the cold rain.

Shelby heard the squealing of tires as she reached the other side of the road. She looked up to see a car barreling toward her so fast she couldn’t even figure out what to do.

Her world tilted as a weight hit her from her right and she went flying sideways through the air. A split second later, the car sped through where Shelby had just been standing, not even slowing down. It sprayed water from puddles, soaking Shelby from head to foot.

From where she lay on the ground, Shelby sucked in deep breaths, trying to get her bearings. She’d been hit, right? But not by the car. She turned her head to the side and saw Dylan lying on the ground with her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes. Are you? What in the world just happened?” Her limbs were tangled with Dylan’s.

“That car almost hit you. I saw it speeding down the road and yelled, but you didn’t hear me.”

That wasn’t totally true. Shelby had heard him, she just hadn’t wanted to stop in the rain.

“Well, your reflexes are better than mine. Thank you.”

“I had forward momentum going for me, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it.”

What he really meant was Shelby wouldn’t have made it. Dylan could’ve stayed safely on the side of the road and would’ve been just fine.

They both began to sit up. Ouch. Shelby could already feel a rip in her coat at the elbow where she’d hit the hardest, although Dylan had taken the brunt of the fall.

“Are you okay?” she asked him. “You took your weight and some of mine.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Dylan got to his feet then offered his hand to help Shelby up. She gratefully took it, grabbing her purse and working her way to a standing position. Now everything was starting to hurt. And this was what not getting hit by a car felt like.

“Did the person driving just not see me?” They walked the rest of the way to her car.

“It’s possible.”

“But?” Shelby could hear the but in his tone. She was trying to get her keys out of her purse, but found her hands were shaking pretty badly. Dylan reached over and held the purse for her so she could manage to fish them out.

“But it actually sped up. Definitely wasn’t typical rainy-night-driving behavior.”

“Drunk, I’ll bet you. That’s the second time I’ve been almost run off the road. People around here need to pay better attention.” Shelby got her keys out and clicked open her car. She just wanted to get out of the rain.

Dylan was looking toward where the car had sped off. “Yeah. For sure.”

They walked together around to her driver’s side. He held the door open as she got into the car then shut it. Shelby cracked the window so she could hear what he had to say.

“The motel is just a couple blocks down on the right. Don’t go anywhere else, okay? Just check in and rest until I let you know we can take off.”

Shelby nodded. She wasn’t planning on doing anything but taking a hot shower and changing into dry clothes.

“I won’t. I don’t think I’m up for much dancing.”

A hint of a smile formed at Dylan’s mouth. “You’d be hard pressed to find dancing around here anyway. Unless they’ve got the karaoke set up at the Blue Moon, Falls Run’s bar.”

The rain was pouring over Dylan. Shelby kind of felt bad for all the mean things she had thought about him since he’d saved her life and all. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked him.

“Fine. Bye.”

Evidently, gruff Dylan was back.

“Okay, let me know when it’s time to go.” Shelby rolled up her window and started driving slowly down the road, not even looking back at Dylan in the rearview mirror. She was irritated at him and her whole body ached.

This was why she tried to stay alone in her house as much as possible.