Page 146 of I Choose You

She beamed. “And they lived happily ever after.”

I raised my brows. “I hope!” I think.

“I am so damn happy for you, girl.” She clapped. “Over-the-moon happy. But we’ll catch up when I’m back, okay?”

I agreed and wished her a safe flight home. By the time I hung up, I was at my building. I didn’t put my phone away, though. As I closed out the FaceTime screen, I saw my missed call log.

I frowned. Three missed calls from Kaden?

I dialed him back right away, and he answered after one ring.

“Hey! How’s the weekend going?”

“Terrible.”

I slowed my step on the stairs. I’d kind of been miserable missing him, but it was thrilling too. To know my feelings remained as strong or stronger. And when he came back, it would be a hot, torrid reunion.

Will we still have this excitement when it’s not so new? I hoped so.

With the way he said that, it sounded like he was really unhappy.

“What happened? Did the whiskey distillery tour not pan out?” He’d been looking forward to it. “Shouldn’t you be there by now?”

“No.” Wind rushed in the background, like he was driving. “Yes. Uh, things kind of got out of hand.”

I winced. “Kody brought strippers, didn’t he?” I suspected he might pull a stunt like that when Kaden told me that his dad didn’t want that traditional element of his bachelor party.

“No.” He grunted something that sounded like a dark laugh. “I left.”

I arched my brows, reaching my door. “Whoa.”

“I’m almost home now.”

I cleared my throat, worried something had really gone wrong. “Do you want me to come over?”

“Yes.”

No hesitation. No pause. Straight to the affirmative. He said it so certainly and quickly that I wondered if I’d beaten him to the punch. If he’d called to ask me just that.

“Do you need anything?”

“Just you.”

Awww. I mentally swooned. “I meant do you need me to bring anything?”

“No. How quickly can you come over? You just left yoga, right?”

I swallowed and dropped my bag to my floor as I turned to close my door. “Yeah. I did.”

Let’s see. Uh, change, pack a little bag just in case, and get a ride. “Twenty minutes.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you there.”

After we hung up, I got ready, worried about what could have happened. I knew he was upset about not being able to spend time with me, but he had sounded a little excited about going to that lake house. Lots of manly, outdoorsy crap to do. Honestly, he almost sounded like an excited little boy being granted permission to go play in the woods with his friends.

I stashed my things in a bag. It was presumptive of me to assume I’d stay. The man might be mad, not sad or hurt. In that case, maybe he wouldn’t want my company for that long.

“Who knows?” I muttered to myself as I locked my door again.