She began to walk rapidly across the parking lot. When she got to the edge of the highway she looked around almost wildly, swayed, and stumbled.
Kieran caught up to her in a second. She tossed him a look of shaky bravado. “Got a cigarette? I haven’t had one in hours.” She stared down the street. “My ride should be here any minute—”
“Lori.” He caught her arm and held on. “What are you doing here? Where are you going?”
She laughed hoarsely. “Leaving town. A friend should be here any time to pick me up. I’m going to my sister’s in Calgary—oh, damn it to hell.” She dropped into an awkward crouch, pulling Kevin into her arms. “My ride never showed up. We’ve been here all day waiting. That bitch. I should never have trusted her.” She covered her eyes with a trembling hand. “I finally decided to do it, Kieran. I’m leaving Jerry. And if I don’t get out of here fast, I don’t know what he’s going to do.” She looked up, dark streaks of mascara running from the comers of her eyes. “It’s Kevin I’m worried about. If it was just me…”
He stopped her with a brush of his fingers across her lips. “You need a ride out of town? That’s the way we’re going.”
Hope flickered in her eyes. “You offering me a ride, Kieran Holt?”
“Yes,” he said. He touched her arm, and she turned to clasp his hand.
“And your girlfriend?”
He thought briefly of Alexandra, not bothering to correct Lori’s assumption of their relationship. Alexandra would want to help. She had that kind of heart.
“She’ll be glad to help you.”
Lori’s mouth twisted. “Yeah. I’ll just bet she will.” She sighed heavily. “I don’t know why you showed up here when you did, Kieran. If you were alone, I’d call it fate. And I’d have… tried—” She touched his cheek. “We were good together, Kieran. And I’ve never stopped loving—”
“Kieran?”
He twisted around at the sound of Alexandra’s voice. She stood a few feet away, red hair wind-tossed, her arms folded across her chest.
He met Alexandra’s gaze and saw confusion in it. Confusion and that same wary distance she’d put between them since they’d left Minnesota.
Distance that protected them both.
“Alexandra,” he said. Lori leaned against him, and he resisted the urge to push her gently away.
“Alexandra,” he repeated, “this is Lori Carstens. An… old friend of mine.”
She hesitated only a moment before extending her hand. “Glad to meet you, Lori.”
Lori smiled, a compression of her red lips that thinned her gaunt face even further. She touched Alex’s hand lightly and released it. “Hi.” She swayed a little; a shudder ran through her body. “Sorry. I’m just a little tired. I haven’t had much to eat today.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexandra said. She glanced at Kevin. “You don’t look well. Maybe you should sit down. There’s a bench in the lady’s room—”
“Alexandra,” Kieran said, “Lori needs our help. She was expecting a ride to Calgary, but it never showed up. She’s stranded here. I told her since we were headed that way, we’d take her as far as we can.”
Alexandra offered no protest, demanded no explanations. She moved to Lori’s other side and took her arm. “Come on. You and your son can sit down in the back of the truck while Kieran and I take care of a few last minute things. Okay?”
Lori flung a glance at Kieran and nodded. “If it’s really all right…”
“Of course it is.” Alexandra said. She and Kieran guided Lori to the truck, and Alexandra made a comfortable spot in the back seat, smiling at Kevin and talking softly to Lori until both were settled. Only then did she turn back to Kieran, leading him away until the row of gas pumps was between them and the truck.
Her features were drawn, her eyes narrowed with weariness. All thoughts of Lori vanished from Kieran’s mind. He wanted to touch Alexandra’s face, to smooth the lines from between her brows, knowing that he had put them there.
But she made it almost easy for him not to touch her. If he looked at her too long, or moved too close, she always flinched away. And kept her distance, as she did now, standing before him with her hands clasped behind her back, walled off from him utterly.