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As he wiped my tears, I sighed deeply.
He grinned. “Let me make it up to you.”
“Oh no!” I put my finger out in front of me. “You can’t use sex to get out of the conversation about my job at the bar. I’m not backing down from that. I’m going back to work this weekend.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he breathed out. “Why is it so hard for you to listen to me?”
I threw his words back at him. “It’s who I am. It’s how I’m made.”
“Fine. As much as I don’t want you traveling alone, I want you working at the bar even less. If you have to do this, I’ll give you the money to travel.”
“Hayes, you can’t be serious.”
“Like the bullet to the head.”
“I can’t take your money.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No, I can’t. Who knows when I’ll be able to pay you back.”
“You don’t have to. Consider it a graduation present.”
“You’re out of your mind, I can’t accept it.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but his phone rang.
Pulling it out of his gym shorts, he answered, “Yeah?”
“Hey, Hayes.” I instantly heard Cove’s voice on the other end. “It’s Cove. Ummm… I’m so sorry to be calling you, but I got your phone number from Mark. Is Haven with you?”
I snatched the phone out of his hand. “Cove,” I exclaimed, immediately spiraling into a panic.
If she was calling Hayes, this was bad.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh my God!” she shouted. “What’s up with your phone?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s going straight to voicemail.”
“Oh shit.” My stomach dropped. “I forgot to take it off airplane mode last night.”
“You need to go home.”
“Oh God…”
“Yeah! Your family is flipping the fuck out, Haven! They’ve been looking for you all night. Jace stopped by my house, but I didn’t want to rat you out, so I didn’t answer the door. Thank God my parents are out of town. He looked like he was ready to kill.”
I was screwed.
“Your brother really needs to work on that temper and those anger issues of his. He left this nasty ass note on my car. Not to mention, the number of times he’s blown up my cellphone. Did you give him my number?”
“No,” I replied, shaking my head even though she couldn’t see me.
“Ugh! He must have grabbed it when I made him stop at a gas station on the drive back to my house.”
“Cove, focus!”
“Oh! Sorry! Your brother just pisses me off like no one else can. I know you’ve been going through your own drama but remind me to tell you what he put me through on the ride home.”
“Still off topic, Cove.”
“I would’ve called Hayes last night, but I couldn’t get a hold of Mark, and he finally called me back few minutes ago. I called you as soon as we hung up. I haven’t spoken to anyone from your family, but you need to go home now. They probably already have the FBI there looking for you.”
The crazy part was, she wasn’t exaggerating.
“Thanks for not answering Jace. I owe you one.”
“Of course.”
“I love you. I’ll call you later if I’m still alive.”
“I love you too and I’m manifesting that for you.”
“Bye.” I hung up, hauling ass toward Hayes bedroom to throw on my clothes.
Since he overheard our conversation, I didn’t have to fill him in.
“Why didn’t you take your phone off airplane mode?”
I sarcastically remarked, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you were keeping me a little busy all night?” I glanced around the room. “Where are my panties?”
He reached into the pocket of his gym shorts, tossing them to me.
“Are you a panty sniffer now?”
With a serious expression, he questioned, “What are you going to tell your family?”
“I don’t know. Maybe that Cove and I were at concert? Isn’t Life of Debauchery in Rock Springs this week?”
“You’re asking me?”
“Right… I’m pretty sure they’re in Rock Springs and that’s like three hours away. I’ll say it was a last-minute trip and I texted them when we got there, but the WIFI must have been shitty, and my message didn’t go through. It’s a rock concert, we jumped in the mosh pit and we lost our phones.”
“I don’t what’s scarier—the fact you came up with a lie that quickly or that it’s a pretty solid one. You think they’ll believe you?”
“I think so.”
“I hate that you’re lying to your family for me.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I should have taken my phone off airplane. I just…we were…you know…and I completely forgot.”
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have forgotten at all.”
“Hayes, please don’t start. We can’t keep having this argument over and over. It’s exhausting and it’s cutting into our relationship. We’re supposed to be in the honeymoon stage. Not in this back-and-forth bullshit. I’m a big girl and I’m sick of everyone treating me like a child or worse, like I’m this porcelain doll that’s ready to break at any second.”
