eaten most of her food this morning, which gave Noelle some encouragement. Maybe if they kept things calm today, the little girl wouldn’t suffer another night terror at bedtime.
They left the restaurant and stopped at the strip mall that was only a couple of miles away. Despite her concerns about money, Caleb seemed determined to get them each a change of clothes, including sweatshirts for the cooler nights, swimsuits and toiletries. Kaitlin was thrilled to have another sparkly swimsuit, jumping up and down with excitement when Caleb agreed to buy it for her. Noelle winced at the total, but he readily paid in cash.
It wasn’t until they were walking back out to the parking lot, with Kaitlin skipping between them, that she noticed the license plates on her car. She stopped abruptly and stared.
Caleb instantly noticed her reaction. “Noelle, I only swapped them to keep us safe.”
Logically she knew that, but he’d broken the law just the same. Apprehension swelled in her chest. “What if we get caught?”
His gaze was full of empathy. “Please try to trust me in this. I won’t do anything to hurt you or Kaitlin. We’ll take Kaitlin swimming and then hit the road. We’ll be far away from here soon enough.”
She took a ragged breath and gave a jerky nod. When Caleb opened the back of her car she stored the bag inside, hoping he didn’t notice the way her hands were shaking.
Never in her life had she committed a crime. She always followed the rules. As a preschool teacher she took her job as being a role model for her students seriously. Granted she wasn’t perfect. After all, she’d failed her previous foster child. She’d thought for sure she was getting through to the youngster but Stephanie had run away and had been found dead of a drug overdose.
No matter how much she’d prayed for peace, Noelle still carried the guilt over Stephanie’s death. She’d done her best to make amends by helping Kaitlin.
She lifted Kaitlin into her booster seat and wondered if she’d made a grave mistake by trusting her instincts as far as Caleb was concerned.
* * *
Caleb glanced over at Noelle for the third time in five minutes, wishing she would say something. Anything. But she didn’t. She merely sat there, looking devastated. The shadow of fear was back in her eyes and he knew that his actions had put it there.
He shouldn’t care what she thought about him, but he did. For so long, no one had believed him. Not the D.A. Not his teammates. Certainly not the media. He wasn’t sure that Jack had really believed him, despite what the lawyer had claimed.
Even his closest friend, Declan Shaw, hadn’t believed him.
So why was he surprised that Noelle, a virtual stranger, was suddenly acting as if he deserved to go back to prison?
The silence between them stretched as they made their way back to the motel. Most of the cars that had been parked outside were gone, probably because it was near the designated checkout time.
But he wasn’t leaving until Kaitlin had a chance to swim. He parked in front of their room and slid out from behind the wheel. “Why don’t you change into your swimsuits and I’ll meet you out at the pool?” he suggested.
“Yay! I getta swim in my sparkly suit!” Kaitlin shrieked. He smiled grimly. At least one of them was happy.
“Sure.” Noelle’s less than enthusiastic response made him feel bad, but there wasn’t much he could do to change what he’d done. Especially since he wasn’t about to apologize for swapping out the plates. As far as he was concerned it was a small price to pay for keeping his daughter safe.
He carried the bag inside and then left them to change. He walked down to the office, relieved to see a woman sitting behind the counter, rather than the crabby old guy. He waited for her to finish with another couple who were checking out before he stepped up to the counter.
“Hi, we’re in room twelve and we’re checking out today, but would you mind if we did a late checkout so my daughter can swim before we leave? It would really mean a lot to her.”
The woman scowled and shook her head. “Rules are rules. I’m afraid I’ll have to charge you an extra fee for a late checkout.”
He narrowed his gaze, but didn’t bother arguing with her. He wondered what she and the old man had to be so crabby about anyway? “Fine, I’ll load up the car now, then. Here’s the amount we owe.” He handed over the cash, tapping his foot impatiently as she took her time counting out the bills.
“Leave your key in the room,” she instructed.
“I will.” He turned and left, trying not to be annoyed. The girls were finished changing by the time he arrived. Noelle had a towel draped over her shoulders. “We’ll just head out to the pool, okay?”
“Sure. We have to pack our stuff and vacate the room, so I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
Noelle didn’t meet his gaze, but took Kaitlin’s hand and headed outside. He quickly changed into a pair of swim trunks and a T-shirt before putting everything they’d purchased back in the plastic bag. He moved the car so that it wasn’t right in front of the room, and parked it off to the far side of the parking lot, but within view of the pool. Then he took the bag to the pool area with him, figuring they could change their clothes in the restrooms located in the small building adjacent to the swimming area.
When he arrived he found Noelle and Kaitlin in the shallow end of the pool. Noelle was holding Kaitlin as she moved around in the water, while his daughter giggled and splashed.
He wished he was the one holding his daughter. He’d been secretly thrilled when she’d given him the coloring picture at the restaurant, but that brief moment of closeness seemed to have vanished.
And he would have done anything to bring it back.
He set their bag off to the side and joined them in the water, swimming laps while Noelle and Kaitlin played. After about an hour, he noticed his daughter was shivering and decided it was time for them to leave.
“But I don’t wanna leave,” Kaitlin wailed.
Noelle wrapped a towel around his daughter. “Kaitlin, you’re shivering and your lips are blue. Let’s go and change our clothes, okay?”
“B-but I’m n-not c-cold,” Kaitlin protested, despite the way her teeth were chattering.
He had to smile at his daughter’s stubborn streak. He had no idea how much she enjoyed the water, and he knew that he needed to find another hotel with a pool. Maybe if he acted as if this was nothing more than a fun vacation, she wouldn’t have any more nightmares.
He took his own clothes inside the men’s room and quickly changed. When he returned he wrapped his wet things in one of the smaller plastic bags.
Noelle and Kaitlin emerged from the women’s room a few minutes later. “Here, I’ll take your wet things,” he said.
“Thanks,” Noelle murmured as she handed over their wet clothes. Some of the tension seemed to have eased between them as she lifted her face to the sun. “Feels good to be warm.”
“I know.” He felt bad about dragging them away from the cozy motel, but he couldn’t help the nagging feeling that they needed to keep moving. Even though he’d changed the license plates, it wasn’t as if they still couldn’t be found. For all he knew, the guy whose plates he swapped with had already informed the authorities. The cops could already be, right now, looking for the stolen tags he’d put on Noelle’s car.
“No, I don’t wanna go for a ride!” Kaitlin ran in the opposite direction, toward the plastic deck chairs lining the far side of the pool. Today, Noelle had dressed her in purple, his daughter’s favorite color, with matching purple barrettes in her hair. Her cleft chin was thrust forward in a stubborn way that made him smile. Maybe he was a tad biased but he thought Kaitlin was the cutest kid on the planet.
Noelle let out an