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I shake my head, briefly telling her how we woke up late and I was still in the shower when he left. “How will we know if anything happens to him?”
“We’ll know. Now, don’t worry about him, alright? At least, not too much,” she instructs me as she rocks her daughter.
Rolling my eyes at that gets a short laugh from her.
“Besides, let’s look at it from a different perspective,” Charlie says, her voice taking on a teasing note. “Royce left his phone and wallet, withyou. If that’s not a big, flashing sign of his intentions, I don’t know what is!”
“Oh, please,” I say, turning to clean up after myself before she notices the blush on my cheeks.
“So, who’s been calling him?”
“What?”
“You said his phone has been ringing…”
“Sorry, his mom and sister, but it’s locked, and I don’t have their numbers, so I can’t call them to let them know. Besides, that would be weird, if I did, right?”
“His code is 2192,” she rattles the number off without thinking. At least until she sees the look on my face. “What? I work with him and have literally heard him saying it out loud as he punched it in.”
“Stop!” I exclaim, slapping my hands over my ears in embarrassment for him. “He didn’t?”
She rolls her eyes, and I can’t help but notice that they land on the basket of leftovers from today, so I tell her to help herself. Charlie carefully chooses one before her phone rings and she takes a call from Jake.
Having to hurry on her way, I find myself thinking about how Charlie didn’t want to relay the information about what Royce left here over the phone. If we continue on, I’ll have to be more careful in the future.
Letting out a sigh, I dread going back upstairs. Do I pick it up if his family calls him again? Do I unlock it and call them back? While we’re officially dating now, I still believe that’s a violation of his privacy.
Crap. I pick up my phone to text Jessa for her opinion, but quickly stop myself. The unspoken lesson that Charlie just taught me, being: don’t relay this information over the phone.
A knock on the front door pulls me from my musings and I smile when I see Mack standing outside, holding up a bag of what looks like take-out food and giving me a hopeful smile.
I cross to open the door for him and happily invite him to bring the food upstairs.
“I’m sorry to come by without checking first,” he stammers as he stands in the doorway to my studio apartment. “I was hungry myself and, well, I guess, I’m getting nervous about the test results if I’m being honest.”
“I heard Tabby headed to Salt Lake, so we should probably know by tomorrow,” I offer, pulling out some plates and the last beer in my fridge for him. “And perfect timing with the burger, I didn’t have a chance to eat lunch today!”
We’re just a couple of bites in when I jump at the sound of a muffled beep coming from my nightstand.
“Is everything alright?” Mack asks me.
“I don’t know,” I answer, putting the burger down. “I could use some advice though.”
“I’ll do my best,” he eagerly promises before taking a large bite of his own meal.
“Royce left for some job and without warning me, he left his phone and wallet here. Charlie came over to explain that the guys do that sometimes,” I add with a shrug, not missing the glint in Mack’s eyes as he nods his head. “Well, it’s been going off constantly. His mom and sister are trying to reach him, and I don’t know if I should answer it.”
“Ahh,” he says, looking thoughtful. “Do they know about you?”
“Yes, Royce took me home to meet his mom, and Shannon came over with her family.”
“He did, did he?” Mack must play poker, his face has suddenly gone blank, but I swear I can hear the wheels turning in his head.
I pick up my burger to take another bite, more to give Mack time to consider his response than from hunger.
“If they’ve called a number of times, there must be an emergency. Royce not picking up would upset them even more, because they’ll think something happened to him. My opinion is that you pick up the phone next time one of them call,” Mack says after a moment.
As if on cue, I hear the vibration of the phone in the drawer. Bracing myself, I lean back and pull it out. “It’s his mom.”
