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Zack nodded. “I’d say so.”
He looked like he wanted to say something else, but something on my phone caught his attention. “Looks like you might have received a reply.”
My eyes dropped to the screen, and I saw Melanie’s reply.
Hey, girl. Totally fine. Hope you’re too. I’m going out on a date soon. I think it’s probably better if you take a few days off until everything gets sorted. Ian told me a little bit more about what’s going on.
“Well, so much for going into Granite Beans tomorrow.” I sighed, pushing my phone to Zack. “And it sounds like you’re right on about Melanie and your brother.”
Zack leaned over and glanced at my phone. He rested his hand on my shoulder, which sent a charge through me.
The gate buzzed, and I glanced at my phone to see the pizza delivery. I unlocked it, and he drove through.
“Umm, Sadie. Didn’t Melanie say to you that she had sent you messages, but you didn’t respond, so that’s why she came to the house to check on you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, and I never got them. I didn’t get them until the next morning, actually.”
“That’s because that’s when she sent them.”
The doorbell rang, and Jaxson glanced at me. “Pizza. I’ll go grab it.”
The air turned tight around us with the same apprehension that filled me when I first saw her messages suddenly appear. I knew deep down that these had been fresh texts, but then the message from Tim just pushed everything aside.
“You don’t think they just got caught up in the cell service abyss?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“I don’t.” He let out a deep breath as Elena glanced at me.
“And how long have you known her?” my sister asked.
“Since I’ve moved here, basically.”
Zack nodded. “She bought out the previous owners of the coffee shop right before Sadie moved here, if my memory serves me right.”
“She’s been nothing but sweet and supportive of me, so I don’t know what she’d have to gain by pretending she texted or stopped by,” I explained, ignoring the pit in my stomach. “It’s probably just some weird coincidence.”
Jaxson brought in two colossal pizza boxes. “Very rarely are there coincidences,” he said, setting the pizza on the counter.
I laughed and nodded. “I’ll try to get better at remembering that.”
The rest of the evening went by in a blur of near normalcy. It felt so good to be sharing pizza and beer with my sister and her husband and to have Zack by my side.
We didn’t talk about Carmella or Tim. We just focused on the present.
But the moment I sensed it winding down and Elena and Jaxson wandered off to bed, I felt like I was suddenly suffocating. A jittery nervousness ran through my shoulders as I glanced at Zack. The idea of being in bed alone tonight made me apprehensive.
I pushed the last few slices of pizza into a plastic baggie and noticed my hands trembling as I put the pizza in the fridge.
Everything was going to be okay.
I was fine.
Tim won’t get me here.
But the tension building between my shoulder blades roared to life when I turned around and didn’t see Zack.
The silence of the night stretched to deafening heights as I closed my eyes and focused on being okay. I was surrounded by family and a man who still loved me.
“Zack?” I said softly, trying to clear my throat.
