Elusive (On The Run Book #1) Read Free

day. I like
wearing this to work.” She gestured to her droopy, oversized waffle weave sweater.
It had been navy blue, but now she’d washed it so many times it had a faint
gray cast to it. Rumpled North Face khaki shorts, boat shoes, and jingly
miniature coin earrings completed her look. Helen stared at her for a moment, a
hurt look spreading across her face. Zoe said hurriedly, “I’m not saying
there’s anything wrong with your life, just that I don’t want it.”
    “But how can you not want it? How
can you live from paycheck to paycheck, or, actually, job to job, not knowing
if you’re going to have enough money?” Helen leaned forward. “Think of all the
fun we could have, if we worked in the same building. My cubicle would be down
the hall from you. We could eat lunch together everyday and see each other a
lot more than we do now.”
    Zoe’s stomach clenched. “And be
trapped in an office all day, filing papers and typing on a computer, a cog in
the massive machine of government.” She shook her head so adamantly that a few
strands of her dark red hair came loose from her low ponytail and brushed her
cheeks. “No way.”
    “You make it sound like a death
sentence. You type and file papers here all day.”
    “But I only do the work I want. I
turn down jobs, if I don’t want to do them. I’m in control.”
    Helen narrowed her eyes. “When was
the last time you turned down a job?”
    Zoe busied herself gathering up
the trash. “A few weeks ago. I told Kendra I couldn’t housesit.”
    “Because she has a cat! Come on,
Zoe, tell the truth. You didn’t take the job because you’re allergic.”
    Zoe turned away, dumped the trash,
and then hid behind the refrigerator door. “It wasn’t the cat. It was the fact
that Kendra is the devil incarnate. Looks like we’re going to get some rain.”
The overhead lights in the kitchen seemed to glow brighter as the light outside
shifted. The thick layer of dark clouds slid across the sky, bathing the
landscape in sepia tones. “Want something else to drink? I’ve got water and ice
tea.”
    “Water’s fine.” Helen had her arms
crossed, and a stubborn frown crinkled her forehead. “Don’t try to change the
subject.”
    Zoe filled two glasses with water
from the sink. “The point is,” she said as she crossed back to the island,
“that I can set my own hours. I value my freedom, and whatever happens,
happens. I can’t control things. If the Jetta dies, I’ll find something else or
get it fixed. And, I’ll always have some income, thanks to Aunt Amanda.”
    “At least you’ve got one sane
relative,” Helen said.
    Zoe’s Aunt Amanda believed real
estate was the ultimate investment. When she’d moved to Florida to live in her
Sarasota condo, she’d asked Zoe to act as the property manager for her
commercial properties, two stand-alone offices built side-by-side, like a
duplex, in a business park. After five years, her aunt decided to live in
Florida year-round and she’d deeded the commercial properties to Zoe, saying
she had plenty to live on from her other real estate investments. Zoe had tried
to talk her out of it, but Aunt Amanda had refused to listen and told Zoe to
consider the properties an early inheritance.
    “Amazing that I’m even halfway
normal, isn’t it, considering Mom carted me from one audition to another from
the time I turned three months old until I was eleven.”
    “Well, at least you got to live on
a tropical island for three summers in a row. I was jealous.”
    Zoe sipped her water, then said,
“Yeah, the island was great, but the downside is that now the three most
mortifying years of my life are available on DVD for $14.99.”
    “What is your mom up to these
days? You haven’t mentioned her lately.”
    “She’s at a spa outside of Sedona
for the next two weeks for a ‘Freeing Serenity Treatment,’” Zoe said.
    “What’s that?”
    “Not sure, but it involves total
separation from the stress of everyday