Run To You

black gum spot on the concrete. A tear splashed on the ground next to the gum. Oh God. She didn’t know what to do. She was stuck in a town where she knew no one. No one besides the man who’d just shot her heart. No one but Sadie.
    Two more tears dropped to the concrete as she concentrated on her breathing and options. She couldn’t fall apart now. On the steps of the Casa Bella Apartment Complex in Lovett, Texas. She sat up and brushed her cheeks. She had to think. She didn’t have time for tears. She’d been in bad positions before. With Carlos in Vegas. Singing on a stage while brawls broke out. Getting grabbed by Ricky and pursued by the Gallos. This felt worse than all those times. Crying in a stairwell, her heart shattered, was a lot worse then getting hit in the head with a flying bottle. Several more tears ran down her cheeks and she brushed them aside. She didn’t have her phone or ID or cash or credit cards. Her backpack was at the JH. With Sadie.
    Sadie. Even if she had her cell phone, she didn’t have her sister’s number. Beau did. She rose and rubbed her shoulder against her face. He was the last person she wanted to see right now, and she’d rather chew off her arm than knock on his door. She might not have a choice though. She retraced her steps to the front of the complex and looked around. Beau’s Escalade was gone, which was somewhat a relief.
    The pregnant woman closed the back hatch of the van and waddled to the driver’s side door.
    “Excuse me,” Stella called to her, and brushed her face with the back of her arm. “Do you have a cell phone I could use for just one call?”
    The woman watched her approach and opened the driver’s side door to dump her enormous cowhide purse inside. She looked across the parking lot, then back at Stella. “Your man tore out of here in a hurry.”
    He wasn’t her man.
    The woman smiled and pulled the phone out of her purse. “He’d put his pants on, though.”
    Stella managed half a smile. “Thank you so much,” she said, and called 411. Sadie had a cell phone but the ranch had a landline. She’d seen it in the kitchen.
    “Verizon 411. What city and state?” the operator asked.
    “Lovett, Texas.”
    “What listing?”
    “JH Ranch.”
    “Just a moment.”
    The pregnant woman rubbed her big belly. “You headed to the JH?”
    Stella wasn’t sure she wanted to give out that information to a stranger. Not even one who looked as if she was about to give birth on the sidewalk.
    “I can give you a ride. I’m on my way to my in-laws about ten miles past.”
    “Oh, I don’t want to put you out.”
    “It’s on the way.” She waved away Stella’s concern. “I’ve known Sadie forever. We went all through school together. Lord, we were on the dance squad at Lovett High. The Beaverettes. What a time we had.”
    The operator came back on the line. “Connecting. Thank you for using Verizon.”
    “Her daddy just died a few months back, poor thing.” The woman shook her head. “I just saw her at the Gas and Go last week. She looked good.”
    The phone rang once and went to voice mail. Great. Someone was using it. She hung up and handed back the cell.
    “I’m RayNetta Colbert.”
    Stella looked into RayNetta Colbert’s brown eyes. The woman had three little kids strapped in her minivan and was so pregnant she could hardly walk. “Are you sure it won’t be a bother?” Normally Stella wouldn’t even consider a ride from a stranger. But today was anything but normal and what torturous thing could the woman possibly do? Make Stella babysit?
    “No bother.”
    “Thank you,” she said, and moved around to the passenger side. She opened the door and sat on a blue M&M stuck to the beige faux-leather seat. “I’m Stella Leon.” It still sounded so strange to say it out loud. “Sadie’s sister.”
    RayNetta grinned like she’d just won the Texas lotto and started the van. “Well shit fire and save matches! Welcome to Lovett.”

Chapter Fifteen
    “M aybe it’s Stockholm syndrome.”
    Stella looked at her sister in the pedicure chair next to her. “Maybe, except I wasn’t kidnapped and held captive.” It had been two days since she’d run from Beau. Two days of confusion and self-recriminations. Two days of every emotional pain imaginable.
    “He phoned Vince this morning.”
    The pedicurist inside Lily Belle Salon and Spa in Amarillo scrubbed Stella’s heel with a pumice stone. Stella wasn’t surprised Beau had called.