"She was quiet today. Didn't talk much and couldn't wait to get rid of me. She's depressed but this is just another stage for her."

"Where are you now?"

"Memphis."

"Are you checked into a hotel?"

"Yeah. She's in the room. I'm out, giving her some space tonight."

Giving her space? Alone, in a strange city? "What the f**k are you thinking? You can't leave her alone! If she's been quiet she may be closing in on herself. You can't leave her alone. She'll need someone to bring her back. She can't---"

"Woods! Calm down, man. Calm down." Tripp's voice was commanding.

"She can't be alone," I said again as emotion lodged in my throat. I hated to think of her alone.

"She needs to be alone. She needs to cry. She needs to decide if giving you this freedom she thinks you need is going to be possible. Her leaving is all about you, Woods. She didn't want to leave you. I've told you that already. She loves you so much that she left to give you the life she thinks you want. One where you don't have to deal with her shit. So, now that she's done that, she has to live with it. Give her time. She'll come back."

I had set my beer down and stood up. Gripping the railing, I closed my eyes and fought back the pain. I just wanted her. Just Della. Any way I could have her, I wanted her. I wasn't ever going to be all right. I didn't want her to be alone. I wanted someone to hold her.

"Hold her for me. Hold her tight. Don't let her be lonely. Don't let her hurt. Please."

"I will do what she allows me to do. But my arms aren't the ones she wants."

"Fuck," I growled as sharp pains wrapped around my throat.

"Just give her more time," Tripp said.

I took several long, steadying breaths. He had to get back to her. He couldn't leave her alone like this. "When we hang up, go back to her."

Tripp sighed. "Fine. But I had plans tonight. There's a hot little bartender giving me the eye."

"Do you need more money?" I asked him. I had been depositing money into his account since he had called the first night. I wanted her in nice hotels and I wanted her to eat well.

"She's going to notice soon that we aren't running out of money. I keep waiting for her to bring up the fact that we stay in the nicest part of each town and eat in high-end restaurants instead of fast-food chains. She's not an idiot."

"I'm holding on by a damn thread. Your phone calls and the fact I know she's in nice hotels and eating good food is the only f**king thing keeping me sane."

"I'm going to see if I can convince her to go back to my place in South Carolina with me. I have a nice place there. It's safe and I have a job I can go back to. I can get her a job, too."

I just wanted her to come home. "Whatever you need to do. But she stays safe."

"I'm keeping her safe. I promise."

"You took her from me," I reminded him. I couldn't thank him.

"She asked me to. I'm her friend, too."

"She needs me."

"No, dude. Right now, she needs to find the strength inside herself. The strength she doesn't think is there. Once she realizes that she isn't a burden, she'll be back."

"She has to," I said, then ended the call before Tripp heard the pain in my voice.

Della

The pizza hadn't even arrived yet when Tripp walked back in the door. I had been sure he was going to screw a stranger. "You're back?"

He shrugged. "I decided I'd rather have pizza instead of a beer."

Something was up. He wouldn't rather have had pizza than get laid. Tripp was a bit of a man-whore. I had figured this out pretty fast. Women liked him and he liked them right back---for about two or three hours, then he was gone.

"Why are you really back? You never choose pizza over . . . beer."

A crooked grin tugged at his lips and he shifted his gaze over to me. "By the way you just said beer, I'm going to assume you know what I'm normally up to when I step out for a drink."

I rolled my eyes. "Uh, yeah."

Tripp sank down on the edge of the other bed. "Well, tonight I was thinking about something and I thought we might need to talk more than I needed a beer."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that so I just waited.

The knock on the door stopped him from going any farther.

"Pizza," he said, standing up and going to pay for the pizza. I had also ordered a two-liter soda. It wasn't beer but it came with the special.

I watched as he set the pizza down on my bed and grabbed the two plastic glasses by the ice bucket and fixed us a drink. I had been thinking we needed to talk, too, I just wasn't sure when we would get the chance. Before we got any farther away from South Carolina, I planned on telling him we should go there.

"Meat lover's. It's like you knew I was coming back," he said.

"No. The special tonight was a large meat lover's and a two-liter soda for fifteen dollars. I went with the special."

"Lucky me," he replied.

"Talk, Tripp. I want to know what's more important than beer."

Tripp let out a small chuckle and took a drink of his soda. Then he settled his green eyes on me. "Impatient, aren't you."

I didn't reply. I just raised my eyebrows to let him know I was still waiting.

"We need to go back to South Carolina. I need to get back to my job and I can get you hooked up with a job, too. I have a place there and it will be good for you to stay in one place longer than a day and think about stuff."