Page 176 of The Silent Note

“Is—”

“Everything is fine.”

“And—”

“No, I didn’t open the door.”

“Tell me you’re okay.” Zane sounds desperate. “I want to hear you say it.”

“I’m okay.”

“Are the chairs still under your door?”

I look up. “Yup.”

“What about your guard?”

I get up and peer outside the peephole. “Still there.”

“Good,” Zane says.

“And also,” I twirl my pen around the way I’ve seen Zane do to his drumsticks, “who said I was taking your last name?”

“If you don’t like Grace Jamieson Cross, Grace Cross has a nice ring to it.”

Groans break out in the background.

I hear Dutch growl, “That sounds awful.”

Cadence’s voice sounds next. “It’s because Grace is a one-syllable name and Cross is a one-syllable name, so together it’s kind of…”

“Gross,” Finn says.

“Screw all of you,” Zane yells. “This is a conversation between me andmy wife.”

“Ugh.”

“Come on!”

“Here we go again.”

Their outbursts of disgust make me smile.

“She has a name, you know,” Dutch reminds his brother.

“I know her name. It’s ‘My Wife’.”

There’s a sound of a scuffle and then Cadence’s voice sounds on the line, “Grey, we’re bringing Zane back to the hotel now. We’ll be there in about thirty minutes.”

“Got it.”

She lowers her voice. “The boys are joking around for my sake, but I think the conversation with their father hit them hard. Dutch always gets really moody after a round with his dad. You might want to keep an eye on Zane.”

“Hey, gimme my phone back!” Zane protests.

There’s more grunts and sounds of a friendly fight.

“Bye, Grey!” Cadence chirps.

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