Page 88 of Breathless

38

Logan

Zachand I are halfway between Austin and my place when I get Joey’s text.I’m leaving. I’ll talk to youtomorrow.

I’m not sure what that means. Why would she be leaving? Unless maybe she’s staying with Tori tonight. But she told me she was making us dinner, and she knew I needed to talk to her aboutsomething.

Am I so late that she’spissed?

A glance at the clock on the dash tells me it’s possible. I cringe. Yeah, I’m an asshole. I should’ve called her earlier to let her know I was running behindschedule.

I’ll have to make it up to her. I want to send her a text, but I’m driving. At this point, it would be faster for me to just head home and try to catch her than to pull to the side of the road to send a message. And I don’t really know how to explain the child in the passenger seat overtext.

Zach smiles at me while he stuffs his face with a burger, and I smile back, relieved to have him with me. When I got Carmen’s call earlier today and heard he’d basically been abandoned, I freaked out. It’s taking me a minute to calm down. I try to find something mellow to talkabout.

“I’m glad to see your appetite is back. Did your mama tell you I stopped by on Sunday night? Gotta be careful with those carnivalrides.”

His eyebrows knit together. “What carnivalrides?”

“Didn’t you get sick this weekend after you went to thecarnival?”

He shakes his head, looking at me like I’m a little touched. “I was home this weekend by myself. Mama had towork.”

I let that settle in, and when it does, my hands tighten on the steering wheel. “She left you at the apartment byyourself?”

What the fuck is going on? My brother would have my ass if I left his kids at home bythemselves.

If I’m calculating this right, Samantha left this kid alone all weekend except Sunday night when I stopped by, only to drop him off at a neighbor’s on Monday, never to return. Here we are on Wednesday. And I know she’s been around because my messages are showing up as read. Plus, Patrick saw her on Monday, and Carmen spotted her yesterday. I’m ready to punch my dash, I’m sofrustrated.

I’m hoping this whole thing is some major misunderstanding, but if it’s not and she’s leaving this boy wherever for days at a time, my lawyer is gonna chew her up and spit herout.

Doing my best to stay calm, I motion to Zach, who polishes off his burger. “Your mom said you were sick to your stomach Saturday night and puked, so I brought over some Gatorade on Sunday because you still weren’t feelingwell.”

That gets me another head shake. “I didn’t get sick thisweekend.”

Jesus. Is Samantha a diabolicalliar?

The bad feeling in my gut grows. As soon as I reach a light, I call Joey, but it goes straight tovoicemail.

But it’s the incoming text from Samantha that fills me withdread.

I’m at your place cooking dinner. See yousoon!

And now I get why Joey isleaving.

Fuck!

39

Joey

Ten minutes later,I’ve thrown on some jeans and tossed what I could into my rolling suitcase. There’s no way I can carry all the stuff we got from Gran’s, but that’s a problem for another day. I’m too upset to deal with that given the bombshell Samantha just dropped onme.

My hands are shaking when I text Logan to say I’m leaving. I consider telling him his baby mama is standing in the damn kitchen eyeballing me like I’m a homewrecker, but I don’t want to give him time to get his story straight. If he’s been lying to me, I want him to look me straight in the eye when he admits thetruth.

I don’t wait for a response before I shove the phone in mypurse.

Samantha is curled up on the couch with Rambo when I roll my suitcase out of Bev’s room. When Sam sees me, she grabs her purse. “Where can I drop youoff?”

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