“Maybe.” She studied him critically. “Tell me one thing. What was that work phone call about?”
He glanced back at the restaurant. Sighed. “If I tell you, you have to be cool with not telling Sammy.”
She wrinkled her nose. “It was about her mom?”
“Sort of. Nothing bad. Nothing, really. Just…”
“You trying to find her even though Sammy doesn’t want you to?”
Yeah, that was pretty much it. “I love Sammy, and I’d do anything for her, but Dani is my sister. I’m trying really hard to put Sammy first, because it’s what she deserves,andwhat Dani would want, but… I wasn’t there when Dani was first starting to struggle. I was off at college enjoying all the perks of being Gardner Elliot Fairhurstthe Fourth. I can’t fail her like that again. I can’t just let it go she’s out there ruining her own life again. I have to try to…do something.”
“You don’t have to justify it to me, Gard,” Lia said softly.
But at the same time Lia was saying that, loosening something tied tight inside of him, he heard Sammy’s voice. He turned toward her hurrying out of the restaurant.
She looked pale. Gard’s heart dropped. He moved toward her immediately.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you get sick?”
She just held out her phone. He looked at the screen in confusion. It was open to her text messages. And at the top of the list was one fromMom.
Gard’s heart pounded in his ears. Dani had finally reached out. She wasokay. He wanted to feel relief. And he did, but there was a twinge of anger with it. Because all Dani had texted was:sorry.
“It’s just my mom.Finallytexting me,” Sammy explained to Lia. Her voice was a little overloud as she rolled her eyes, but they were shiny and the way she shrugged was jerky. A lotmore than her usual teenage disgust. This was hurt. “Whatever.” She grabbed her phone from Gard then marched away, toward Gard’s car.
Gard raked a hand through his hair, blew a shaky breath out. Dani was okay. Okay enough to text. To communicate. God, his knees felt weak.
Lia reached out, gave his arm a squeeze. “I’ll see you tomorrow when you drop her off.”
Gard managed to nod. Wished he could hold on to this moment, but he couldn’t. He had to hold on to Sammy while she worked her way through this. “Yeah. Tomorrow.”
Lia hadn’t slept well. She’d tossed and turned, worrying about Sammy and Gard. She’d written—and then deleted, unsent—multiple text messages to both of them.
She’d also spent an obscene amount of time talking herself out of googlingGardner Elliot Fairhurst the Fourth. Law school. Plans. She’d maybe assumed his life had been a little hardscrabble, but with a name like that and a past like that?
No, she knew the type a little too well. It should be yet another turnoff in a long list of them.
Somehow it wasn’t.
Lia got up when her alarm went off, groaned even though she’d been awake anyway. The mornings were getting close to frigid, so she drove over to the bakery rather than walking. The lights were on, Albennie already working in the kitchen, headphones on.
No breaking the no-talking rule this morning, which was good because Lia was grumpier than usual, wrung out with anxiety. She was worried about SammyandGard, and until she saw them this band of anxiety was going to be wrapped around her.
Instead, it got tighter and tighter, because Gard wasalwayson time, but the clock kept inching past six. Later and later and later.
Maybe she should call. Or maybe they’d overslept. Maybe they needed the time. Maybe—
“Uh-oh,” Albennie said softly. Lia looked to where she was gesturing.
Outside the storefront window, illuminated only by the streetlight and the light above the bakery exterior door, Gard and Sammy stood. Clearly arguing.
Lia’s heart ached.
“You don’t look surprised,” Albennie said. “WhenI’venever seen them fight.”
“They had a rough night,” Lia managed to say. “Stuff with Sammy’s mom.”
“You’re awfully involved.”
