Taming Hollywood's Baddest Boy - Max Monroe Page 0,76
a missing person’s report on myself.
Good God, I need to get the hell out of Dodge before something else goes wrong.
Before I leave the sheriff’s office, I use their phone to call the lunatic who got me into this mess.
“Hello?” Birdie answers on the first ring.
“Hi. It’s me,” I respond. “Your not missing sister.”
“Oh, thank god!” she exclaims so loud, I think my eardrum might’ve burst. “You’re alive!”
“Oh, I’m alive. So alive that I got to join my own fucking search party,” I say. “Did you seriously put out a missing person’s report on me?”
“Of course I fucking did!” she shouts. “And I was about an hour away from heading to the airport and coming to Alaska myself!”
“You knew I was looking for someone who lives off-grid, Birdie.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t call or text me back for over a fucking week!” she exclaims. “I had no idea what happened to you! I thought you got eaten by a bear or something!”
“Well, funny thing. Out here in no-man’s-land, the cell service is non-freaking-existent. Not to mention, I shattered my fucking phone on a rock. So, yeah, I haven’t been able to call you, and I couldn’t remember your fucking number when I could call you from Lou’s sat phone. But I did send you an email.”
“Who the fuck is Lou?”
I’m two seconds away from telling her I’m referring to Louis Lennox, famous Hollywood actor, but think better on it. Now is probably not the time. “It doesn’t matter, but I did send you an email.”
“I know I’ve been busy with rehearsals and shit, but Neil stays on top of my emails, and he never mentioned one from you. Which, seeing as I had to leave rehearsals early yesterday because I was so freaked out that I hadn’t heard from you, I’m pretty certain that’s something he would’ve fucking mentioned.”
Neil is her manager. “Well, that doesn’t make any sense because I sent you a damn email. It said all of the things that would’ve prevented you from calling out a fucking search party.”
“What email address did you send it to?”
“Are we really getting into the logistics of this right now, while I’m still standing in the police station? Any second, Sheriff Townsend could change his mind and arrest me for inciting panic.”
“What email address, Billie?” she asks, her tone hard and firm with annoyance.
“Your Hotmail one,” I answer.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she retorts, and her voice starts to rise to ear-shattering levels. “I haven’t used that one since high school! And who in the hell uses a Hotmail address these days?”
I probably should’ve figured canarybirdieluvstosinghotmail was an email address of the past. Whoops. But in my defense, I couldn’t use my cell phone for reference, and I was a little distracted with… Yeah, no need to recount the painful details.
“Goddammit, Billie! I was so freaking out over here!”
“Jesus. Just calm down and stop yelling. I’m okay. Everything is okay.”
“I thought the worst had happened,” she says, and her voice is a near whisper.
Considering Birdie and I have experienced the worst firsthand, I know exactly what she means.
Fuck. My gut clenches with guilt.
I was so wrapped up in all things Luca Weaver that I pretty much forgot about everything and everyone else. God, I’m such a pathetic asshole.
“Dammit, Billie,” she mutters on a sigh. “I was so worried.”
“I’m so sorry, Birdie. I really didn’t mean to make you think I’d gone missing.”
She sighs again.
“Please forgive me?”
“Forgive you?” A soft laugh escapes her throat. “It’s going to take me a long-ass time to get over this.”
“That’s understandable.”
“Like, at least six months. Probably a full year.”
“Again, I get it. Take all the time you need.”
“Maybe even two years,” she adds. “God, Billie, I was really thinking the worst over here.”
“I can only imagine. Again, I’m so, so, so sorry.”
“So, you’re okay?”
“I’m okay.”
“And everything went okay on the hiking trip?”
“Not at all. Everything is pretty much one step down from the worst-case scenario you’ve been picturing over here. No bears involved,” I say. “Just a broken heart and a career that’s about to go up in flames.”
“Jesus. What happened?”
“It’s a long story…” I pause, and the stress of the day starts to wear on me. Tears flood my eyes again, and all I can think about is getting home. I just want to get the fuck out of Alaska. Also, I don’t want to have a crying jag in the middle of this police station. Lord knows, even though this town is so small the police