AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She is pretty cool,” I agreed, relaxing a little. “I’m glad you like her.”
“I like Erin too.”
“Really?” I glanced at Maddy, but she had her face turned to the window.
“It is pretty weird to find out you had a kid before you had me.”
“I’ll bet. But I didn’t have Erin the same way I had you. You’ll always be my first daughter.”
“Whatever. I don’t mind having an older sister. And it’s kind of cool that I’m going to be an aunt.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I know Erin’s pretty happy to have a younger sister—and a little brother.”
Maddy snorted. “She’s welcome to him.”
A smile curved my lips as I shook my head at the familiar sibling rivalry.
Five minutes later, I pulled up in front of the house where Maddy had lived most of her life. Wendy had been five months pregnant with Jack when we bought it. We’d been so happy back then. I remember thinking on the day we moved in that we finally had everything we could ever want. Foolishly, I’d thought it would always be that way.
“Are you coming in?” Maddy asked as she unfastened her seat belt.
“For a minute, yeah.” I dredged up a smile for her. “Just to make sure your mom’s not too freaked out.”
We got out of the car, and Maddy fell into step beside me as we headed up the front walk.
“You deserve to be with someone who makes you happy too,” she said out of nowhere. “I hope I didn’t mess things up with Tess.”
My smile felt like it was going to burst through my chest, but I tried to play it cool so I didn’t embarrass her by getting all emotional. “I appreciate it, kiddo, but you don’t need to worry about that. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Unfortunately, everything was not fine.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
DONAL
After I left Maddy at the house with her mom, I tried calling Tess again. Still no luck. She hadn’t replied to any of my texts either. Total radio silence. I was starting to get scared.
Maybe it was just some snafu with her phone. Like she’d lost it or dropped it in a toilet or something. Sometimes that happened, right? It would explain why I hadn’t heard from her.
I went to her place hoping we could straighten things out face-to-face, but she wasn’t there. Or at least she didn’t respond to my knocking and shouting her name through the door. I persisted until one of her neighbors stuck her head out into the hallway to give me the stink-eye.
Now I was back at my place, and I didn’t know what to do. I’d gone from a little scared to seriously freaked out.
Where the fuck was Tess? It had been hours. Surely she’d gotten my messages by now.
Was she really that pissed off at me that she was giving me the silent treatment? Didn’t she understand why I’d had to do it? I knew she had to be upset—it made me physically ill to imagine how much it must have hurt her when I didn’t show up today—but she couldn’t possibly expect me to pick her over my daughter?
Could she?
Fuck.
By six o’clock I was an utter nervous wreck. I’d been pacing around my apartment working myself into a panic for the last two hours. I must have tried calling her a dozen times and sent almost as many texts begging her to let me know she was okay.
It didn’t help that this was my second scare of the day. The tearful call from Maddy earlier had already left my nerves a raw mess and my reserves of calm were running on fumes.
I was at a complete loss for what to do with myself until I heard back from her. The last thing I wanted to think about was work. I was too distracted to focus on TV or reading. I couldn’t even have a drink to calm my nerves in case Tess was in trouble and needed me to come get her or something.
When my phone finally rang and I saw Tess’s name on the screen, I just about fainted with relief.
