“Thanks.” I sighed. This was going to be a pain in the ass.
“Your stuff is on the coffee table in the living room,” he let me know as he dropped some cubed potatoes into a hot skillet. “From the hospital. Your wallet and phone and stuff. I put your keys over there, too.”
“Where’d you get the keys?” I was curious how the shift change went and what Mac had said to him. And if he was going to come right out and ask why Mac had been here in the first place. I wasn’t going to lie to him. If Buck Adams hadn’t run that stop sign last night, I’d have been done with all the secrets. I’d wanted Mac to come over so we could talk and figure out how to be together for real.
“They were under the mat.”
I frowned at that. “Under the mat?”
Abby placed a lid on the pan and adjusted the temperature before giving me his full attention. “Yeah. Outside your door. Mac texted me early this morning. She told me about the accident and said she couldn’t reach Candace. She didn’t have Joan’s number and didn’t want to call the house and scare your parents. So she asked me to come over and wake you up at six thirty for a wellness check or whatever. She left the key under your front mat, and I let myself in ten minutes after she texted me.”
Oh.
Thoughts crowded for positioning as my friend explained what went down this morning. I hadn’t realized that Mac had tried to reach my sister and had been unable to get through. Maybe she hadn’t actually meant to stay at the hospital?—
But then she could have called Abby last night.
Maybe she felt bad or something. I didn’t know. Something seemed off.
“I got in touch with your momma, by the way,” Abby said.
“Thank you. I should call her.”
“They’ll be over in a bit,” Abby said when I started to rise. “Are you going to tell me why Mac drove you home from the hospital?”
“She was behind me during the accident,” I replied simply. It was the easiest answer, especially when I was growing less sure of her motivations by the minute.
“And why was she following you, Brady?”
I swallowed.
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the island, staring at me expectantly. “Because a witness posted something very interesting in the Kirby Falls Facebook group this morning.”
My already-uneasy stomach turned over.
“The witness said Mac almost got arrested.”
“What?” I demanded.
Abby nodded sagely. “Yeah. Apparently, they had to pull her off of Buck Adamsin the middle of Main Street. He tried to take off after the wreck, and she went after him. Elbowed Deputy Matthews in the stomach for his trouble.”
I didn’t recall any of that. There were some pretty hazy memories of her talking to me through the glass, and then she’d been in the ER when I’d woken up.
The thought of her losing it on Buck was ... I didn’t know what. Typical hellcat Mac, for sure. But the fact that she’d done that in defense of me was something else entirely. It was violent and irrational. So I didn’t know what it said about me that it also made my chest feel warm.
“Why would she . . .”
“Why do you think?” Abby managed to catch my eye as I processed too much all at once. “You ready to tell me what’s been going on?”
So, I did. I told my friend the truth. That Mac and I had been seeing each other in secret for months. That her failed experiment to get it out of our systems turned into a relationship—a secret relationship.
He was plating the burritos by the time I finished speaking. Then he just stared at me for a long moment, face impassive.
“You don’t seem surprised,” I said.
“Of course I’m not surprised, Brady. Jesus. I’m not an idiot. I’ve seen you three or four times a week my entire life. But the last few months, you’ve been a ghost. Obviously, I assumed a woman was occupying your time. Did I think it was Mac? Of fucking course I did. She is literally the only person you’d implode your life for.”
I rolled my eyes. “My life is just fine.”
