Page 21 of All I Feel

Ace

Hey. Just checking in to see how your day was today.

Seeing his name on the display made me smile. And the words he’d texted filled me with warmth. He was being such a good friend.

It was… okay. I told Lark what happened. And she lost her mind a little this afternoon. I’d love to tell you all about it, but can it wait until tomorrow? I’m so exhausted.

Ace

Sure. Looking forward to it. Get some sleep, and we’ll talk tomorrow.

Goodnight, Ace.

Ace

Goodnight, Tessa.

I set the phone back down on the nightstand, turned off my light, and curled up beneath the blanket.

Luckily, I managed to keep my mind from drifting to any negative thoughts as I closed my eyes. And within minutes, I was asleep.

SIX

ACE

“That doesn’t soundas bad as I thought it was going to be. I was prepared for you to tell me that my sister did something truly crazy.”

Tessa’s laughter came through the line, and I wondered why every time I heard it now it sounded like music to my ears. Why hadn’t I taken such notice of it before?

“That’s because I didn’t share the part where she actually went a little crazy yet.”

Well, there it was. I hadn’t gotten the full story.

Not long after I’d woken up this morning, I’d received a text from Tessa. She’d apologized for not having the energy to talk to me last night and promised to call me when she took her lunch break today. I’d told her not to worry about it and that I’d look forward to talking to her this afternoon.

Then I spent my morning doing everything I could to keep myself busy until her call came in. The moment it did, I decided it was time for my own lunch break.

And now, Tessa had just filled me in on how her conversation had gone with my sister yesterday. For the most part, things appeared to have gone precisely as I would’ve expected from Lark. Evidently, that wasn’t all that happened, though.

“What did Lark do?” I asked.

There was a moment of hesitation, which was long enough for me to grow concerned that something awful had happened between Tessa and Lark. And I wasn’t quite sure if that would’ve been worse than what actually did happen.

“Ryan showed up at the salon yesterday.”

“Please tell me you’re joking,” I said through gritted teeth.

“I wish I were.”

Without even hearing the details, everything was falling into place. After learning about Tessa being cheated on, it was no surprise that Lark would’ve lost her mind when that man showed up at their salon.

“This is beginning to make more sense. What happened?”

“By some miracle, I had a pedicure appointment, which meant I was in the back. I only knew that anything had happened because I heard shouting coming from the front of the salon. I didn’t even make it to the end of the hall when I realized who was there.”

“Did he see you?”

“No. And I think you know how much I love Lark, but I’ve never been so grateful to have her in my life. She didn’t back down when Ryan insisted on seeing me, telling him if he took another step in any direction other than the exit, she’d call the police.”