her. Watching Walker as he watched Natalee, I wondered if I was approaching the situation all wrong. It was starting to look like he had a romance of his own budding.
“Why don’t I go check her apartment again, and you can talk to Natalee. You might be able to get more out of her than I could,” I told him.
Walker’s cheeks flushed. “That doesn’t seem like a great plan. Sorry, brother, but she won’t tell me anything.”
“What makes you so sure?”
He shrugged. “She’s Hailey’s best friend. That would be like someone trying to get information about me from you. Would you tell them what they wanted to know?”
“If it was someone who was in love with you, I sure as hell would.”
“Awe now that’s bullshit, and you know it. I have a better idea, why don’t you go back to Fort Davis and if I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Not a chance in hell,” I shot.
Natalee approached us as she tied her apron around her waist. She smiled at Walker but glared at me. It was getting to be a rather infuriating routine. I’d plead with her for Hailey’s location, and she would tell me to go fuck myself. When she lingered by us for a few extra minutes, though, I became hopeful.
“Please, just tell me where she is.”
“Not a chance in hell. What the hell did you do to her?” she snapped.
It caught me off guard. She hadn’t asked me anything about mine and Hailey’s relationship.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. I thought that things were going well.”
“You know,” Natalee said, “I will never understand men. You have a good woman who loves you, who ripped up the check you gave her, and yet you still pushed her away.”
“I didn’t push her away!”
“So, you didn’t tell her the ‘jail sentence’ was almost up?”
“I…I might have said something like that, but I was only joking.”
“You’re an idiot,” Natalee said.
Walker looked at me with a victorious smile on his face.
“Wait!” I yelled after her. “Please, I know that I’m an idiot. Between the two of you, no one will let me forget it. I said something stupid, but you have to tell me where she is. I love her, and I want to be with her.”
“Then why didn’t you tell her that!”
I groaned. “I don’t know! I got scared. I came in, and she looked so perfect sitting there, talking about all the things she wanted to do in the summer, and it just hit me that we weren’t making plans together. She was making plans for herself.”
“She was excited to spend the rest of her life with you!” Natalee snapped. “Do you know that she was planning a trip to Hawaii in the summer as a surprise for both of you? She knew that she would want to get a real honeymoon after—” Natalee flushed a deep red as she turned away from me.
There was something that she wasn’t telling me. I could tell from the way she hid. Allyson used to do the same thing when she was trying to keep a secret from one of us. I’d always been able to get her to tell me what it was, though. Natalee wasn’t Allyson, and she wasn’t going to betray her best friend. The best that I could hope for was a location.
I’d been calling Hailey every single day since she’d left. After the first two days, the calls stopped ringing through. It wasn’t until I called from a different line that I realized she must have blocked my number. The thought of her being so angry made me sick. Why was it so hard for me to admit my feelings? I always seemed to put my foot in my mouth. For years, my father had told me to cool my temper and think before opening my mouth, now I was paying the price for ignoring that advice.
“After what?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter. If you really love her, then you need to go fix this.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do, but I can’t find her, and you won’t tell me where she is at.”
“Oh please, you’ve stopped by her apartment complex every single day since she left you. Are you really that slow? She hasn’t gone anywhere, you idgit. She was right there all along.”
“But her truck—”
“She sold it so she could get health insurance. Paid for the year upfront.”
“Why would she suddenly care about something like that?” I asked. “I mean, I know it’s something you