“Oh, I just wanted to surprise you. I hate that I’ve been gone so much lately.”
I rush to him and pull him in for a hug.
“This is amazing.”
“It’s also my apology.”
“For what?”
“My flight got rescheduled to first thing in the morning.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just wanted to come home and have one night with you. I’m so ready to crash. Should we get?—”
He’s cut off by my cell phone. I pull it out of my purse to see Tobias calling.
“Before you answer that, I have to tell you something.”
The concern in his tone makes me pause.
“What?”
“I met with Tobias tonight. You know, that beer he asked me to get.”
“How did it go?”
He grabs my hand and sits on the couch, pulling me with him.
“Look, Natalie, I know he’s your friend, but he went into our meetup with an agenda.”
“I know.” I sigh. “I asked him to make more of an effort to be your friend. Is that weird?”
He shakes his head. “What’s weird is, he did the total opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“Yeah, he came at me, telling me I wasn’t good enough for you and that I needed to end this. He doesn’t like me, Natalie. I tried. I swear I tried. I told him that we needed to try for you, but he wanted none of it. He just told me to get bent.”
“What? That doesn’t sound like Tobias.”
“Trust me, I was shocked too. Maybe he’s going through something, and he wanted to take it out on me.” He sighs. “You care for him, so I’ll give him another chance. I just hope whatever he’s going through, he doesn’t start to take it out on you.”
My phone rings again.
“I love you,” he says and kisses my forehead. “I’m headed to bed to give you two some privacy to talk.”
He heads down the hall, closing our bedroom door when he gets there.
My phone keeps vibrating, so I glance down at the screen and stare at Tobias’s face.
My mind is blown right now. I know Tobias hasn’t always cared for Griffin, but to just attack him like that … I can’t understand it.
“Hello,” I say softly.
“Natalie, are you at your house?”
“Yes.”
