and the preacher.
Not even his brothers or her friends. No one.
They hadn’t been able to afford anything bigger. She hadn’t cared. He certainly hadn’t either.
“Emerson? Can you hear me? Are you seriously not going to talk to me?” This time, there was no mistaking the irritation in his voice. He could probably see the seconds ticking away and knew they were still connected.
She closed her eyes and bit both lips. She could do this. “It is three AM on this side of the ocean, Reid. Excuse me if it takes me a little while to respond, since I was sleeping, deeply and soundly, before I was rudely awakened by your call.”
Yeah, that was her haughtiest tone. She didn’t know what he wanted, but she figured she needed that advantage. She couldn’t talk to him sounding like she’d just woken up. And she definitely couldn’t talk to him sounding like she’d just been interrupted from dreaming about him.
Wouldn’t he love that? He’d never lifted a finger to do anything to get her back. She didn’t need to give him that—that she was still dreaming about him—as ammunition as well.
“Oh. Yeah. I guess it is. I’m sorry. I never thought about the time difference.”
Of course he hadn’t. He’d never called before. Email or text were what they used to communicate.
She thought she heard him sigh. “I’m sorry. I never had to worry about time zones with emails before.”
“It’s not a problem, Reid. Not unless you’re going to be upset with me for not waking up on your time schedule.”
“Of course not. I’m sorry.”
Of course he was. He’d said it three times. She wished she could let loose and laugh and tell him it didn’t matter. But he’d hurt her and let her go, and she needed some kind of defense against him.
“I assume there’s a reason for your call?” she prompted. Just hearing his voice did crazy things to her insides, and she couldn’t continue to talk to him. Awake or no.
“Yeah. Of course.” This time, there was no mistaking his sigh.
She could almost see him running a hand through his hair and settling his hat back down on his head. He’d done it all the time when he was agitated and upset.
He was probably pacing as well. She almost smiled at that.
She thought better when she was still, with complete and total silence all around her, while Reid needed action, movement, noise, and he thought through it all. She’d never figured out how. But Dallas had inherited all of that, and it definitely made her understand her son a little better to know he took after his dad so closely.
“Dallas was on the airplane today...”
Immediately her heart jumped into her throat, and she threw the covers off her legs and jumped out of bed, like she was actually gonna go do something, although she didn’t know what.
“Did his airplane crash?” She put her phone on speaker and started bringing up the news. Was there a plane crash she didn’t know about?
“No. No. No, everything’s fine. Dallas is fine. Houston is fine. Both kids are fine. Everyone’s safe. Everything’s okay. There was no plane crash or anything. He’s fine. He’s right here beside me.”
She left her phone on speaker but dropped her hand into her lap and slumped on the bed. Her heart still thumping.
Reid wouldn’t have done that on purpose. Not scared her. Sometimes he was completely clueless, typical male, but he would never have hurt her or scared her on purpose.
Two scares in one night.
The first hadn’t really been a scare. Hearing Reid’s voice had been...nice. Painful, and unexpected, but still nice.
She could recover from the second as well.
Losing one of her children was unthinkable, and with them flying, it was always a thing that was in the back of her head. But they’d been doing it for so many years she supposed she had gotten used to it.
“Okay. Everything’s fine. But Dallas is supposed to be on an airplane, and yet he’s standing beside you? That’s what you said?”
“Yes.”
“So there’s still a problem. But nobody’s hurt. And everyone’s okay? Right?”
“Yeah.”
His one-word answers were starting to annoy her. She wasn’t supposed to have to play twenty questions, especially not in the middle of the night. Still, he wasn’t volunteering information, which was unusual, because Reid didn’t normally have a problem talking.
Too impatient to wait, she said, “Okay, so we’ve established the fact that everyone’s okay, but there is a problem, because Dallas is not on the airplane where he belongs.