AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My ph…Shit.” I dive for my bag, hoping that’s indeed where I dropped it when I stepped out of the bathroom and into my wildest fantasy.Bingo. The screen comes to life when I pick it up, telling me I’ve missed fourteen calls since yesterday evening. No need to question who those are from.
Highlighting one of the notifications, I press the call button.
“Tiff, thank God.” My mother’s obvious relief makes me feel like a total asshat. “Where are you? My app can’t find your phone.”
“That’s strange,” I fib.“But I’m fine,” I rush to assure her. “They closed the roads and I grabbed a room at the nearest hotel so I didn’t have to drive in bad weather,” I fib again, knowing that as much as she’ll hate the idea of me alone in a hotel, she’d probably prefer it to the truth.
“Why didn’t you just go back to Sara’s?”
Shit. Shit. That would’ve been the safer excuse. What… Ooh got it.“I was already on the other side of town, and I wasn’t sure how fast the storm was rolling in. It seemed safer to get off the road as quick as possible.”
“And you didn’t think to call and tell me that. I’ve been up all night worried sick.”
“I’m sorry. The hotel was chaos with people trying to get rooms and they were even asking if any of us would be willing to double up, which I know you wouldn’t want me to do, and by the time I got to my room I was so drained I just passed out.”
The lies are falling out of my mouth so fast I’m not even sure I could repeat them with any accuracy, and I say a silent prayer that she doesn’t ask me to or my ruse will be up.
“That’s really no excuse.” I hear her voice catch on the other end of the line, and I have to swallow back the lump in my own throat. I may hate how overbearing she can be, but that doesn’t mean I want to give her a heart attack.
“I know it isn’t, and I’m really sorry I made you worry.”
“When will the roads be back open?” She sniffs.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t heard an update on the weather yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.”
“And the find you app? Why isn’t that working?”
“Maybe I’m out of range?” She has no idea I took that off my phone shortly after she watched me set it up, and I’m honestly surprised it took her this long to realize it wasn’t working. I guess there isn’t much need to track my location in Katah Vista.
“Well see if you can’t figure it out. I don’t like not being able to locate you. What if you’d been in an accident? I wouldn’t know where to send the first responders.”
“I’ll see if anyone at the hotel might have an idea.”
“Don’t let a stranger use your phone. Contact support.”
“That’s a good idea,” I placate her. “I’ll check that out now, and call you later about the roads, okay?”
“Okay,” she sighs heavily. “Be safe. I love you.”
“Love you, too.” I disconnect the phone and flop back on the bed, mentally drained.Is this what it would be like if I lived in another town? At least in Katah Vista she doesn’t monitor my location. Who would’ve thought living closer might actually belessinvasive.
“Staying at a hotel, huh?” Deacon’s dry voice pulls me back to the room.
Sitting up, I find him looking at me with what I’d almost call disdain.What the hell?
“Should I have said I was shacking up with you?”
“We aren’t shacking up.” He shakes his head back and forth with a scowl.
“News flash. We’re stillin Vegas,” I punctuate that with little air quotes, “so you don’t have to pretend nothing happened. Not yet, anyway.”
“Nothing did happen.” His insistence is like a needle pricking my heart. Not enough to break it, but it fucking stings. It makes me want to return the favor.
“Nothing worth remembering, on that we can agree.” I stomp into the bathroom before he can retort, bracing my hands on the sink as I take a shaky breath.
Please let the road open up today. I can’t take sitting in the same room as someone who wants to purge his memory of the very event I want to brand onto mine.
Teeth brushed—my form of armor—I emerge to find Deacon putting his boots on. “Are the roads open?”
