“Becks? Are you there?”
Max was frantically trying to buckle his seat belt and Patsy’s, images of what might have happened at home swirling like a sickening kaleidoscope through his mind. Maybe Holden had suffered a heart attack, or fallen off one of his horses. Or maybe something had happened to Becca’s baby? “Hello?! Rebecca!”
But the reception was terrible, and his sister’s voice kept cutting out.
“What’s happening? Are you okay?”
“I don’t know... Dad...hurry...”
Max’s heart leapt out of his chest.
“What happened to Dad? Becks!” Max put his phone on speaker as he backed the truck up. “Hello? I can’t hear—”
But Becca had hung up.
Just then his phone rang again, and he answered without looking—assuming it was Becca calling him back.
“Becca, I’m on my way.”
“Max? It’s Tasha. Everything okay?”
Max sighed, pressing his foot harder on the gas. The truck sped up. “I have no idea how to answer that question right now.”
“What’s going on?”
He paused, pressed his lips together.How to even explain?
“Look, take some ibuprofen. I’m sure that headache of yours isn’t helping things.”
“How do you know I have a headache?” Max changed lanes carefully. The last thing he needed was to get in an accident.
“Well, you were drunk as a skunk yesterday,” Tasha said.
“Huh? How did you know that?” he asked.
Tasha paused. “I know, because you called me.”
Max tried to catch up. “Come again?”
“Well, it wasn’tmeyou were trying to call, but I got the voicemail.”
“Tasha, I have a headache that would make most people curl up on the ground, and something is going on with Becca, and everything in my life feels ass backward, so could you just come out with it?”
“You left a voicemail for Sadie, but you had actually called me instead.” When Max said nothing, Tasha continued, hervoice softening. “You declared your love for her, Max. You were slurring something awful, but that part I heard loud and clear.”
“Oh...no...” A vague, distant memory of calling Sadie landed in his brain. He had told her he loved her, for the first time.Over voicemail.Or more accurately, he told Tasha he loved Sadie. Now his conversation with Landon made more sense. Apparently, he had been declaring his love for Sadie to everyonebut Sadie.
“So, were you telling the truth?” Tasha asked.
Max was quiet for a moment, taking stock of the state of his heart. Then thinking about her kissing Cruz only minutes earlier, which made his stomach clench painfully. “It’s the damn truth. Unfortunately.”
“Look, it’s none of my business, but Sadie paid me a visit,” Tasha said.
“Sadie came to see you?”
“She did. And I’m not breaking any confidences here, so I can tell you this. She was pretty upset, Max. About a lot of things, including that photo, which, by the way, is total bullshit.”
Max clenched his hands on the steering wheel. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Tasha.”
