Read Online Abandon by Stephanie Dorman - Free Book Online Page B

 
    Handing Cort her keys out of her jeans pocket, she began to clear the table and move to the sink.  “I’m gonna do the dishes and then we’ll get ready and go ‘scouting’,” she told Jenna, turning on the water in the sink.   It came out blissfully hot and she mentally thanked her client for having the foresight to have the water heated by gas instead of power.
    “Sounds good, I’ll go get dressed now.” Jenna replied, moving some more dishes towards her.    Annalise looked out the sliding glass doors at the lake as she scrubbed the dishes clean.  There were worse places to be stuck, and worse people to be stuck with.

Chapter 10:  Cort
    Deep Creek Lake, Western Maryland
December 14, 2012
    There were two things that were causing Cort to be on edge on the drive to Cumberland.  The first was he was driving Annalise’s car.  In the history of them dating Annalise’s car had been her baby and as such, she had never let him drive it.  One of the things she often joked about was the fact that she missed her calling as a precision driver in a heist team, and her car showed it.  It was tricked out to provide the most capable handling at high speeds including tightened steering and a turbo on the engine.   In truth, he had never driven a car like Annalise’s as he preferred safe, comfortable and most of all, affordable.  He didn’t know how much she had spent on her car, but it he imagined it was more than he was willing to spend, or really anyone should spend.  A car was to get you from point A to point B with minimal fuss.  There was no need for all the bells and whistles.
    The second part that unnerved him was the fact that Katy was sitting next to him.  There wasn’t anything she was overtly doing to put him on edge but it felt strange, being that this was Annalise’s car.  It smelled like her, a mix of cotton candy and cigarette smoke that had haunted him in his dreams.  There were personal touches, like the football that hung from her rearview mirror and the little alien figurines that were stuck on her dash.  He had bought those for her on one of their vacations out of a 25 cent machine and they had stuck them up there almost immediately.  It seemed bittersweet that she had never removed them, and he wondered why should would keep such a permanent reminder of him in something that was so important to her.  
    Katy reached for one of them, poking it with her manicured finger.  “I wonder where she got these?”
    Cort inhaled deeply, trying to focus on the road.  “Probably one of those 25 cent machines you see outside grocery stores,” he responded, hoping Katy wouldn’t put the pieces of the puzzle together in her head.  He didn’t think he had ever bought her something from a machine, so she would have no way of knowing it was a habit of his.  Hopefully.
    Katy relaxed and looked out the window at the trees as they passed by.  “They’re cheesy.  Why would you waste money on something like that?  Who carries change around these days anyway?”
    Cort didn’t respond, instead letting his mind wander back to the days that he and Annalise were dating.  He had never carried change, probably something that Katy thought made them a good pair.  The truth was, Annalise had always been prepared for his random adventures into cheap toy machines.  It didn’t matter what store they stopped at, in her pocket, in her car, in her purse, she would always manage to pull out those two magical quarters for him to indulge.  It was one of the things he had always adored about Annalise.  She had let his childish side take over and never judged him.  She had always just smiled as if she was in on some kind of secret that was only between them as she handed him the quarters.
    Katy would never be that kind of girlfriend, but then again Katy was never supposed to be his girlfriend.  Katy was supposed to be a one night stand.  His baser instincts to get laid had eventually caved under the