you still there?”
When there’s still no answer, I look down at my phone and see the connection’s ended.
I know it was probably his cell phone cutting out, but he doesn’t try me again, and I can’t call him back.
He’s gone, and the next time I talk to him, everything will have changed.
I lie back down, but when tears continue to hit my pillow, I get up for good and reach for the phone.
Logan
Blake’s rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when he meets me at the hotel bar at dawn.
“What the hell is so important you had to wake me up? I was enjoying being away from ranch hours for a change.”
“I’m sure you were. And I’m sorry to interrupt your time off.” I hold up my phone showing my new airline ticket. “I wanted to let you know I’m flying home.”
He’s awake now. His blue eyes widen as he grips my shoulder. “I need more than that, Wild.”
“Let’s just say I had a problem. And I’ve figured a way out of said problem.” Not a soul is around at this hour, but I lower my voice anyway. “I love Macey. I always did, but I thought I had to do this.”
He scratches his chin. “I don’t fucking get it.”
“I know. And I can’t explain more right now because I have to talk to Macey first.”
“Okay.” He holds up his index finger. “So the wedding’s off?”
“Yes.”
He holds up a second finger. “And you’re going home? To your girl?”
“Yes.”
Third finger. “You’re going to fix everything that you fucked up this summer?”
I roll my eyes. “Blake. Quit while you’re ahead.”
He pulls me into a hug. “I’m happy for you, brother.”
I slap his back. “Thanks. I’ll leave it up to you and my parents to fill in the guests.”
“Not a problem,” he says as he steps back and signals to the bartender. “But before you go to the airport? You and I are having a shot of whiskey to celebrate.”
Chapter Thirty
Macey
“So he loves you. And you sent him your book. And when he called, was Gigi with him?” Ginny asks when I wake her up at five-thirty.
“I’m sorry I called you so early,” I say again. “You need your rest right now. The second trimester is so important for rest and…”
“Shhh!” she says. “Do you know how mad I would have been with you if you hadn’t told me what’s going on? I’m actually a bit angry you didn’t tell me what happened at Brick’s right away. Logan said he loves you? I mean, are you kidding me?!”
“I know, and I’m just freaking out.”
“Okay. Tell me exactly what he said and how he said it. Or better yet, I’ll jump in the car and head over to your place.”
While I wait for Ginny to arrive, I try to calm myself with a cup of hot cocoa and a buttermilk biscuit from the batch I’d made this week, but comfort food isn’t enough to settle my nerves.
And something’s bugging me. What Skip said about Gigi’s mother—
Why does everyone keep bringing up Mrs. Phillips?
I gasp.
Daddy and Mrs. Phillips—he asked me about her twice. And then, they were chatting at the party…
They couldn’t have—
No.
They wouldn’t have.
But…
I know my father when he drinks. He would, and he has. With a multitude of women.
But what the fuck would that have to do with Logan and Gigi? Just a random coincidence?
I’m not sure I believe in random.
But I’m also completely stumped.
I need a distraction desperately, so I decide to work on my query letter. I’ll probably need to revise this one anyway after the rejections start coming in, but I need to do something right this second. I finish a decent draft and email it off to a few literary agents I find online.
Sunrise is still a little ways off as Ginny and I sit at my kitchen table, the plate of buttermilk biscuits between us.
“I seriously think I gained a few pounds just waiting for you to get here,” I say as I finish my third biscuit.
“I gained three pounds this week,” she offers.
“You’re eating for two. You should be gaining weight.”
She grabs a biscuit and chews. Then, she says, “Their private Florida wedding is scheduled for five o’clock tomorrow evening. Typical Logan to call and not say one word about that part of his trip.”
True.
I make a face. “The fact that I’m going to be here while reporters are stationed in front of The Cowherd jail cell to check whether or not Logan and Gigi are the