Page 120 of Mended Hearts

I just need to be home right now.

I’m sorry, I swear I’ll explain later.

Paxton

Leighton, wtf?

Leighton

We’re pulling off the freeway, Pax.

I’ll pay you when I get there. Promise.

Paxton

Jesus Christ. Please hold.

I don’t need your fucking money.

Who the fuck am I putting out a hit on?

Leighton

Oh, please. *Middle finger emoji, kissing emoji* Just Venmo’d you.

I would not cry in front of a stranger.

That was the only sentence I let run on a loop in my head the entire drive to the airport. In all my time in Emerald Bay, I hadneverbeen more grateful to live in a major city—because never, in a million years, would I have been able to get a same-day flight out of Mistyvale. Much less one within two hours.

But the thought of Kaia’s inevitable interrogation… of climbing into that too-big, too-cold bed alone after the longest fucking day in recorded history… made my stomach pitch.

This was so fucked.

And all I wanted—all Ineeded—was to be home. To curl up in the thick arms of my teddy bear brothers. To bury my face in my mama’s neck. To snuggle my beautiful nieces and let the world be quiet for five damn minutes.

Fuck this city.

Fuck adulting.

Fuck whatever demon spawn crawled up Oliver Hart’s ass and laid crazy eggs in his gorgeous, stress-wrinkled brain because—what the actual fuck was that?!

We should get married?!

We’d boned twice. Been on one legendary date. Yes, I loved the lunatic. Yes, he was my best fucking friend—even if he was,apparently, certifiable. But marriage?

I wasn’t ready for that.

Hell, after the way my hands shook putting on socks this morning, I wasn’t even sure I was ready to be a mother. This was a cataclysm-level math problem I wasn’t equipped to solve. I needed someone with the patience of a saint and the calm of a Buddhist monk.

I needed Juniper Rhodes. Because if anyone could talk me off this ledge before my brain melted down into nuclear sludge, it was my mother.

My phone buzzed.

Paxton

First class, locked in. Boarding pass in your email. Where are you?

Leighton

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