Giving It All by Arianna Hart Page B

front of the owner.”
    “But this was gravel.”
    “Easier than sand. Pushing a truck through sand sucks. Snow and mud are just as bad.”
    “I can’t even imagine.”
    “No, you can’t.”
    Ellie went quiet as she drove through the night. It was black as tar, clouds covering the stars and there wasn’t a streetlight for miles. This was Grant’s third trip into Canton today and he felt like he had every curve memorized. As they drove on, he went over the op in his head, running through different scenarios and possible outcomes. It should be an easy sneak and peek, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t have a plan in place. It didn’t take much to go from easy to a soup sandwich.
    “What exactly are we looking for?” she asked as they turned onto Canton’s main street.
    “Anything that seems out of the ordinary. You know what’s ordinary, I don’t, which is why you’re so vital to the success of this op.”
    “That sounds so cool. I’ve never heard of an accountant being part of an op.”
    “There are whole divisions of accountants who dig out intel that’s vital to the safety of our country.”
    “I know. I was recruited by the F.B.I. when I was in college, but I’d have had to move to at least Atlanta, or more likely Washington. With my grandma’s health, I couldn’t be that far away.”
    “Nothing’s stopping you now.” Grant didn’t know why he was encouraging her, but a part of him hated that she’d given up a well-paying career to stay in Dale.
    “Are you kidding me? Everything is stopping me now. I can’t leave your mom in the lurch after she helped me out when I needed it. I have clients who depend on me. It’s not easy to get an accountant from Canton to come out to Dale. A lot of my clients are elderly and don’t want to or can’t make the hour-long drive. I have responsibilities here. I can’t just abandon them to flit off because it sounds cool.”
    “Are you saying that’s what I did?” He could feel his temper creep up again, something that had rarely happened before he was injured. Now it happened all the damn time.
    “No, you followed your dream and worked darn hard for it. Your parents were young and in great health when you left. You had nothing holding you here.”
    “How do you know how much effort I put in?”
    “I had a part-time job at the gym after school and know how much time you clocked in the pool and weight room your senior year.”
    “You worked at the gym? I don’t remember seeing you there. What did you do?”
    “I stocked towels, cleaned the machines, checked the chemicals in the pool, stuff like that. Trust me, I was around. I had to wait for you to finish your laps so I could shock the pool.”
    “I have a pretty good memory and I don’t remember that.”
    “Grant, you never saw me. I tutored Jenny at your kitchen table and you’d walk right by me.”
    He really didn’t remember seeing her at all. There were some holes in his memory due to his injury, but that had more to do with things that happened right after he’d been blown up than things that had happened when he was a teenager.
    “I’m sorry,” he finally said.
    “Don’t be. Trust me, you weren’t the only one who looked right past me. I tended to blend in with my surroundings, and I actively cultivated that. I was clumsy and awkward, and if you had stopped to talk to me, I probably would have tripped over my tongue and made a fool of myself. You were a senior and had the world in the palm of your hand. I was a shy, geeky sophomore. There was no reason for you to notice me.”
    “You were my neighbor. I could have at least said hi to you at school.”
    “Let it go. That was over a decade ago, and I turned out just fine without your attention. Where should I park?”
    “Pull around to the back. No sense announcing our presence, even if I have every right to be here.”
    Ellie squeezed her car between a Dumpster and a portable storage container. “That’s new. I wonder if Greg