“For my own reasons.” He says as the automatic doors that lead outside open.
“For your own reasons?” I raise my brow, even though he can’t see. “And wait,” stopping, I look around the hospitals parking lot. “Are Felix’s parents here?”
“Yes, to both.” He confirms, opening his truck door and getting inside.
Groaning at his blunt answers—something I’m used to—I open the passenger side door and get in myself. “Why areyouinterested in buying a bookstore?” I question.
“As I said, personal reasons.”
I’m about to respond, but he cranks up the volume, which is his way of sayingwe’re not talking about it anymore.
Great.
Chapter 26
Lilly
“Whose intervention is this?” Payton laughs as she takes a seat at the table beside me.
“God knows.” Nina shrugs.
Callie texted the group chat about an hour ago and told us she wanted us all in the kitchen by six. After bumping into Greyson and Chase at the hospital, she drove me home and told me she wanted to drive around alone to clear her mind.
After two years of being her best friend, I knew what Chase said to her had struck a nerve, and I’m surprised she didn’t punch him in the face. So, I totally understood why she wanted to be alone.
What she’s got to understand however is there’s people—her friends, family…we’re all here to be a shoulder to lean on. But the thing is, Callie’s the sort of person who prefers keeping her feelings and emotions hidden. She believes there’s no point burdening others with her problems when she can just deal with them herself.
“It kinda does feel like an intervention, doesn’t it.” I laugh.
“Because it is.” Callie walks into the kitchen with several bags in her hands.
“Whatever happened, I didn’t do it,” Payton holds her hands up in defense. “The vase was old and—”
“What the fuck are you—” cutting herself off, Callie walks over to the sink and opens the cupboard below it. Peering inside, she curses. “You broke my vase, didn’t you?”
“Pfft,no.” Payton scoffs.
Extending to her full height, she turns and raises a brow. “Payton…”
“Okay, it was an accident!” She says, sitting straighter. “I needed one of those scrubby things, and I accidently knocked it.”
“Grandma got me that,” Callie’s lip pouts out, and her eyes glisten with tears. “You know how much I loved that vase.”
Payton bursts out laughing, smacking her hand down on the table for further emphasis. “You got it at the thrift store because you said it looked like a deformed penis.”
“You’re telling me that I’ve been putting my flowers into a deformed penis vase?” Nina gasps.
It’s always been on our kitchen table, even without flowers in it. And if Payton didn’t mention that it looked like a deformed penis, I wouldn’t have even noticed. I thought it was a unique looking vase, one someone had fucked up and decided to sell cheap. And now the truth is out in the open, I can’t help but laugh at the number of times we’ve had guests over, who no doubt saw the vase, and silently judged us for it.
“Anyway, what’s in the bags?” Nina asks, peering down at them.
“Oh,” grinning, Callie grabs one of the bags and tips it upside down on the table. “Aprons.”
Looking at the aprons cascading down on the table, I furrow my brows. “Aprons?” I ask.
“Precisely,” picking up the aprons from the table, she hands them to us, one by one. “I’m gonna to teach you all how to cook.”
Snorting, Payton looks down at the apron, then to her. “You want the three of us to collectively burn the house down?”
