beat your chest more.”
“It’s not a caveman thing, and it’s not just us.” She expected him to be grinning as he said that, but he wasn’t. “There’s not a man alive who wouldn’t rip someone’s head off if he thought his chick was in trouble.”
“I’m not a chick.”
“Uh-huh.” Now he was grinning again. “That’s what Red used to tell me, too. I’m not saying a chick needs a guy to save her, ’cause most of you could kick our asses with one hand tied behind your back; I’m just saying we’d really like it if you let us do the ass kicking once in a while. Makes us feel useful—’cause let’s face it, we’re not really much good to you otherwise.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Ellie smiled down at her hands for a second. “It’d be useful to have someone else take care of things like snaking the drains every once in a while. No ass kicking needed there.”
“See, that’s good. Give that job to Hale, ’cause I’m telling you the God’s honest truth here—he’s yelling because he feels useless, and generally speaking, guys like us don’t do useless very well.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she laughed. “Does Reggie make you do stuff like drain cleaning?”
“Hell, no—we call Nick for shit like that. Red keeps me busy other ways.”
“Oh God,” Ellie laughed. “Just stop—I can’t take any more sex talk this week.”
Carter just shrugged over his grin. “Then Hale’s obviously doing it wrong. Maybe that’s why he’s so bitchy.”
“Not him. My mother.” After that jolt to poor Carter’s system, Ellie spent the rest of the ride into Vancouver telling him what had happened between her parents and how it had ended in her living room. By the time she was done, Carter was all but doubled over the steering wheel laughing.
“Uh-huh,” she chuckled. “You only think it’s funny because it’s not your eyes and ears that have been scarred for life.”
He dropped her at the hotel after extracting a promise that she’d contact Brett once she got to the suite, which she did via text.
@Pan Pacific rm 828. Gabbie & bf should be here later.
She didn’t expect him to respond right away. For starters, he was working, and besides that, she hadn’t exactly ended their call on a friendly note. Yet no more than two minutes later, his reply came back.
Ok. Thank you.
She had a couple of hours before Gabbie and Zack would arrive, time she could have spent relaxing or reading one of the books she’d brought. Instead, she spent the whole time staring out the window overlooking the harbor.
Brett was leaving. Did she really want his last memory of her to be the bitch who yelled at him? No; it was bad enough that that was probably his first memory of her—she couldn’t let it be the last one, too. If he was still talking to her, she’d call him tonight after his shift and apologize, but in the meantime, she needed to find Gabbie.
It wasn’t completely unheard of for her sister to be late, but she usually called if that was going to happen. When she didn’t, Ellie started calling her.
Four rings, then voice mail. The first time it happened, she didn’t think too much of it, but by the fourth time, panic began a slow steady crawl up her spine. What if something had happened? An accident? Or what if Kurt…No, she wouldn’t think that. Instead, she called her mom to see if Gail had a number for Zack. She didn’t.
Where could they be? Three hours late—how much longer should she wait before she called the cops? Was it twenty-four hours? If Ellie got a cab right now, how long would it take to get up to Kelowna? Four hours? Five?
Forget the cab—she’d rent a car. Except she couldn’t, because she didn’t have a license. Damn it!
She punched her sister’s number in again, and this time Gabbie picked up on the second ring.
“Oh my God, Gabbie, where are you? Are you all right?”
“No. We’re…” There was that horrible distinct sound of gagging, a toilet flushing, then more gagging. “Sick. I’m s-s-sorry, but—”
“Aw, Gabs, that’s awful. Do you want me to come up?”
“No, it’s…hup…hup…I gotta go.” The line went dead, but at least Ellie knew that her sister wasn’t.
After calling Gail back to assure her that all was well, sort of, Ellie stared down at the phone in her hand. Her only plan for the night had been to go to dinner with Gabs and Zack.