Page 116 of Insincerely Yours
He doesn’t say it in a mean way. It sounds like a genuine question…and it stings.
I stand up, brushing out the nonexistent wrinkles in my dress. I look every bit of the sophisticated young lady that Blythe swore I’d never be. Unfortunately, I still feel every bit out of my skin as well, and it appears Jase can tell.
“It’s the dressyougot me, for my date tonight,” I clarify, though I don’t know why. “I take it you don’t like it?”
He smirks. “If you wanted my approval, you wouldn’t have had to put on anything.”
Damn him and his dimples, because I have to wrestle down a smile.
“Well, you can think about that when you and your bottle of Aveeno get better acquainted tonight,” I say, heading for the main hallway despite the ten minutes I still have left.
“Hey.”
There’s an unexpected somberness to Jase’s voice that has me pausing to look over my shoulder at him.
“If anything happens, don’t hesitate to call me. Okay?”
That only gives me further pause. “And what exactly are you expecting to happen?”
A small smile. “Like, maybe, the date goes off the rails and you need backup, or maybe you have car troubles again.”
“Yeah, I doubt that’ll be happening—at least for the second part,” I chuckle. He’s picking me up.”
Any trace of Jase’s smile collapses, replaced with what I can assume is concern.“Seriously?”
Yeah, I wouldn’t usually be comfortable with the arrangement either. I appreciate a quick exit strategy, but “Half the town knows about the date. I highly doubt Wes is going to risk kidnapping or murdering me, since it would pretty much be an open-and-shut case.” I try to laugh it off, but Jase’s expression doesn’t change.
“Either way, I would feel much more comfortable if you unblocked me.”
Come again?
Reading my obvious confusion, Jase pulls out his phone, taps some buttons, and then turns it around to show me the screen. He’s calling me.
Only…
The phone in my clutch isn’t ringing or vibrating. Did I accidentally put it on airplane mode?
I pull it out and look at the settings.
No.
Everything’s perfectly normal.
Yet, my phone still isn’t ringing. Instead, I can hear Jase’s end of the call go to my voicemail.
“Call me when you get this,” he says, his tone entirely teasing, before he hangs up.
Even then, I’m not notified of a new voicemail.What the hell?
“I noticed it back at the dress shop,” Jase admits, almost sheepishly. “When I, uh…dropped my phone, it accidentally called you.”
When he was too busy ogling at me in that gown.
He clears his throat. “I had your phone on me, and it was kinda hard to miss the fact that it never rang, despite it going off plenty from the other notifications coming in.”
I replay the scene in my head, and, yes, he’s right. I’d gotten at least five messages from Maggie and one call from Reed while I had been shopping. But…
The doorbell rings, and I nearly jump out of my skin, the last vestiges of my composure crumbling away.
