Page 79 of Wedding or Not

“I do. Just text him again.”

“I don’t want to be pushy or clingy.”

“I don’t think one more text would be that. What did he say when he texted you after dinner yesterday?”

“He just asked how my day went.”

“See, that’s perfect. Ask him something similar. He should be done with work by now or at least close to wrapping up. If he doesn’t respond to that, we’ll know. Maybe he thought the exclamation point was a good reply.”

I snort at that, but I know she’s right, so I tap out a quick text to Wes before I talk myself out of it. How’s your day been going?

I wait. And keep waiting. And wait some more.

Nothing.

“Shit,” I say.

“Don’t overreact.”

“I know. But isn’t your advice always not to make up stories about a guy’s secret feelings? If they’re really interested, they don’t ignore you.”

Audrey leans back against the chair and sips her tea. “Yeah. I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Why doesn’t it make sense?”

“Because there’s no way in the world that Wes is going to ignore you.”

Her words give me a flutter of excitement and then a wash of cold fear.

Because she’s right. Wes has never ignored me when I make any sort of advance—not since we were in school and he was evidently recovering from that embarrassing debacle on the hayride.

Maybe it’s not about me.

Maybe something’s wrong.

I get up and slip on the rubber slides I put on when I changed out of my dress and into comfortable lounge clothes. I don’t look great in the stretchy pants and oversized T-shirt, but I don’t care. I grab my phone.

“What are you doing?” Audrey asks.

“I’m going to see what’s going on.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be too pushy.”

“I don’t. But I’m never going to be able to sleep if I don’t find out what’s up. I’d rather embarrass myself than go on like this.”

CHAPTER 26

Five minutes later, I’m knocking on the front door to Jake’s cottage.

It’s when I hear motion from inside that I realize I didn’t even check my hair. I pulled it into two loose braids earlier, so whatever it looks like, it’s not what I would choose for encountering Wes.

Too late now. The door is swinging open, and Jake is blinking at me gruffly.

“What’s wrong, girl?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I mean, I wanted to see Wes.”

Jake makes a grimace. “He’s…”