Hayleigh chuckles. “Or the best, depending on how you look at it. Thank you for a magical trip, Nate.” She steps out of myembrace and closes the door behind her before walking towards Archie, and I can’t help feeling that this is her way of pulling away from me.
Shame she has no idea how stubborn I can be.
Chapter 9
Nate
Three weeks later…
I pace the length of the living room, and with each pass of the TV, Archie huffs and leans his head side to side, until eventually he loses his shit. “Nate, I swear to god if you block that TV one more time, I am going to throw the remote at your head! What iswrongwith you?”
I skid to a halt because Archie will, in fact, throw the remote at my head, and that shit hurts. I shake my arms out. “It’s been three fucking weeks of radio silence, Arch.”
He crosses his arms. “Oh, don’t I know? You’ve only been banging on about it every day since we got home.”
I nod. “Yeah, oh. Three weeks of being left on read and being ghosted.”
“Have you asked Emmy or Lacey?”
I sigh. “No, I didn’t want to betray her confidence.”
He shrugs. “So go over there and case the joint.” He laughs, but then his smile quickly disappears as the idea takes root in my head. He hops to his feet. “I didn’t mean that!”
I’m already out of the door, shouting, “You’re a genius, Arch!”
I dive into my car and make the twenty minute drive over to Hayleigh’s house. When I arrive, the place is in darkness, and her car isn’t here. The clock in my car reads almost six. She should be home by now.
There’s no point checking my phone because the ringtone I assigned specifically for Hayleigh’s messages hasn’t gone off, and I don’t want to ask Emmy and Lacey, in case Hayleigh hasn’t told them about…whatever we were in Vegas.
I call Archie, and he answers pretty much straight away. “Archie, she isn’t here.”
“Have you tried phoning her?”
I roll my eyes. “She’ll only ignore my calls. I’m going to wait here for a bit.”
“Ah, yes, because nothing says I want to be with you more than a strange man creeping in his car staring at an empty house.”
“Thanks for the advice.” I hang up, frustrated that she's not here, but downright pissed off that Archie is right. But there's no way I'm leaving without answers
And so I wait.
And wait.
After three hours pass, Hayleigh’s beat-up old car chugs down the road, emitting enough smoke to warrant it a hazard. She pulls into her drive, and once she gets out, it's clear somethingis ... off. Her head hangs, and she shakes her arms out and rolls her shoulders before opening the door and going inside.
I'm starting to doubt myself. She's clearly had a rough day, and maybe my showing up won't make that day any better. So, like a chicken, I go back and forth over whether I should do what I came here to do or just give up and go home. The decision is made for me when, a few minutes after arriving, she's back at her car, this time with a bag, which she throws in the back seat. She gets in her car and reverses out.
Huh, where the hell is she going at this time of night?
I put the car in gear and set off after her, keeping back so she doesn’t spot it’s me. I press the call button on my steering wheel. “Call Archie.” The phone rings through the car, and he answers, but I don’t give him a moment. “I’m following her.”
“Oh fucking hell, this is a terrible idea, Nate! Usually I’m all for a bit of reconnaissance, but this is taking the biscuit!”
I scoff. “I only want to see where she’s going and why she isn’t staying at her house, that’s all…to make sure she’s okay.”
Now Archie scoffs. “Yeah, okay, you only want to make sure she doesn’t have someone else. Come home, Nate, before-”
“Sorry, A-Arch-shhh-I can-shhh-hear yo-shh-eeeek.” Then I press the end call button on my steering wheel. I know she isn’t seeing anyone else, and that’s not why I’m following. Something isn’t right with her lately, and ghosting me proves that, because I have spoken to Emmy, and even she’s worried about Hayleigh.
