I patted her with one arm. “Me too.”
Birdie and Bailey both pulled their sister into a hug that lasted quite a bit longer than normal before releasing her.
“I have to get my laptop,” Billie told me, making it clear she did not want me to follow her back into the shop.
I stayed in the back parking lot and pulled out my phone to see that Gen had left me a message. I pressed play and held it to my ear. “I’ve tried you twice now. I did not want to do this over voicemail, but this is not what signed up for. I thought I was going to come back to my flat and you’d be here. I didn’t expect to come back to this news. You know how I feel about kids. I don’t see how this is going to work. Good luck with…everything.”
The line went dead, and I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at it. I always knew that Gen wasn’t the most sentimental person, but to end our three-year relationship with a fifteen-second voicemail seemed cold, even for her. I replayed it, just to make sure that’s what was happening.
“I don’t see how this is going to work. Good luck with everything.”
Yeah, I wasn’t sure how else to interpret that. Still, I found myself wanting more clarity, or maybe just closure, so despite this being a very inopportune time, I called her back. The call wasn’t going through. I tried again. It took me three times to realize that she’d blocked me.
In fairness to her, she made it very clear to me that when she broke up with people, she blocked them. I just hadn’t realized I’d be one of those people and it would happen so fast, that we wouldn’t even have a conversation.
“Is everything okay?” Billie’s voice cut the inner dialog in my head.
I looked up at her and blinked as I put my phone back in my back pocket. “Yeah.”
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I started walking towards the street where I’d parked and realized she wasn’t following.
When I turned around, I saw the stubborn set of her expression. She wasn’t going to go anywhere until I told her what was going on with me.
I sighed. “I’ll tell you in the car.”
Her eyes narrowed for a beat, as if maybe she thought I would lie to her or something. I stared back so she could see that I was going to tell her. She searched my eyes and then began to walk towards me.
As she fell in step beside me, I had the strongest urge to place my hand around her waist and pull her into me. I positioned myself close enough to her that I could quickly pull her to my side if anyone unexpectedly approached. I scanned the street, the windows, and the other cars, looking for any sign of trouble—anything out of place.
Once we got to my SUV, I opened the passenger door and held out my hand to help her in. We’d held hands all day, but as she rose up to get into the car and our faces were mere inches apart in the cocoon of my vehicle, it felt much more private…and intimate.
I wasn’t the only one who felt it because when she settled into the seat, I noticed a flush on her cheeks as she cleared her throat and took in a shaky breath. After closing and locking the door, Imade my way around to the driver’s side and unlocked the fob once again.
When I climbed in, her head was tilted to the side giving me a“seriously?”expression. “I think locking the doors while you walked around the car was overkill.”
“Okay.”
I wasn’t going to argue with her. She could have that opinion all she wanted. It absolutely was not overkill. Some sicko had broken into her apartment and her car, and now slashed her tires. I had no clue what was going to happen next. And until I did, I was going to do everything in my power to protect her.
I started the engine. “Where am I going?”
“I live at the Windsor Arms.”
A grin pulled at my lips. We used to play at the park across the street from those apartments, and Billie used to say she wanted to live there. It made me happy that she did. It also pissed me off that some asshole was breaking in and making her unsafe while she was living her dream life.
As I pulled away from the curb she turned towards me. “So?”
My eyes shot to her, then back to the road. “What?”
“What was so upsetting on the phone?”
Damn, I had forgotten about it that quickly. Apparently, a three year relationship didn’t need more than a fifteen second voice recording.
“Genesis broke up with me.”
Billie was quiet. I looked over and found her staring at me in shock. She looked more shocked than I was, of course she didn’t know Gen. At least not like I did. She might be familiar with the brand Genesis Milan, but she didn’t know the person named Gen. It wasslightlysurprising that she’d ended things the way she had but not really.
