Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,5
lost her surfer-girl tan, chopped off her hair and bundled herself in parkas and snow boots.
Checking his mirror for the hundredth time, Cade swung into Mike and Mo’s Service Station and parked around the back. No bathrooms on the outside meant bathrooms on the inside, and he didn’t want to wake up Gavin or send his mother inside on her own to make a quick change.
He popped the trunk. “I’ll get the stuff and you can change in the backseat.”
“Just what am I changing?”
“Jacket for sure—that powder blue color is unmistakable—and your hair.” Prettiest color he’d ever seen, like a field of waving wheat on a summer day.
He slid from the seat, dragging his gun from the passenger seat next to him and shoving it into the back of his waistband. He hoisted a black bag from the trunk and opened the back door.
He swallowed hard. Jenna had her feet on the floor, but her body was tipped over on the seat with Gavin tucked against her. Gavin had grown so much...and he’d missed it all. He’d caught glimpses of his son now and then and had photos, but he hadn’t been this close to him since his birth.
He stuffed the bag onto the floor next to Jenna’s boots. “There’s a black parka in there and a wig and some brown contact lenses—nonprescription.”
Jenna eased into a sitting position and twisted her head back and forth, taking in the empty alley behind the gas station. “This is weird. Why do you have this stuff?”
“For an occasion like this.” He crouched down and pawed through the bag. “I don’t have any clothes for Gavin, but I do have this.”
Jenna’s eyes widened at the electric trimmer in his hand. “He doesn’t need a shave.”
Cade cracked a smile. “It’s for his hair. Give him a buzz cut.”
“Oh.” Jenna ran her fingers through Gavin’s brown, curly locks. “And what about you?”
He lifted a shoulder. “They don’t know what I look like.”
Sitting sideways in his seat with his gun in his lap, Cade kept one eye on the parking lot in front of them and one eye on Jenna in the backseat, shrugging off her blue jacket and stuffing her arms into the black one.
She slicked back her hair and tugged the wig over her head. A cascade of brown waves fell over her shoulders as she flipped her head back.
“Contacts?”
“In the side pocket.”
She hunched over the bag and then leaned between the front seats to look in the rearview mirror.
Cade adjusted it for her and she scooted in closer, the scent of her light floral perfume stealing over him and taking him back to summer nights in San Diego and the bougainvillea that crept up the trellis on her patio.
She caught his eye in the mirror. “Better?”
He nodded at the brown-eyed stranger.
Digging through her purse, she said, “Might as well have the makeup match the coloring.”
Whatever that meant.
Again, she leaned forward, this time the long hair of the wig brushing the shoulder of his jacket. She pinched a small brush between two fingers and stroked it over her eyebrows, darkening them to match the hair. Next came black mascara, applied liberally over her long lashes. She blinked and then swiped a tube of lipstick across her lush lips, turning her mouth into a dark pink pout.
Cade cocked his head. Maybe she should’ve gone mousy instead of glam.
“What?” She was studying him in the mirror, a pink blush heightening her color—a natural pink blush.
“It’s just...I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his own short hair. “You look incredible. You’re going to attract a lot of attention.”
“But I don’t look like Jenna James.”
“No, you don’t look like Jenna James, the single mom and waitress at the Lovett Brewing Company.” That Jenna James would have to disappear.
She flattened her lips into a straight line. Hadn’t she realized he’d been keeping tabs on her and Gavin these past three years? Probably thought he’d forgotten all about them.
He didn’t blame her.
“Are you done?” He held up the clippers. “Do you want to do the honors, or do you want me to do it?”
“We can’t cut off all his hair while he’s sleeping.” She brushed Gavin’s curls from his forehead. “That’s a violation of his trust.”
What did he know about raising kids?
“Can you wake him up?”
She continued stroking Gavin’s face. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Gavin murmured and rubbed a fist under his nose, and Jenna squeezed his shoulder. “Wake up, Gavin.”
He blinked his eyes and popped up. He clapped both hands over