Page 112 of Suddenly Dating
“Casey, please. Is she up there?”
Casey looked at Lola and lifted her shoulders.
“Yes,”Lola said.
Casey frowned. She pressed the intercom button. “It depends,” she said, looking at Lola. “It depends on what she is going to say to you.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Lola cried, and raced for the intercom. But Casey blocked it, pushing her sister back. “You have to do it, Lola. You have to say what you feel for this guy or I am going to kill you. I’ve read your book, so I know how to do it.”
“Will you butt out?” Lola said angrily, trying to push past her.
“No! I’m not going to sit back and watch you ruin your life with all these damn phobias!”
Lola pushed Casey, who banged into the coatrack she had at the door. Casey looked as if she was going to haul off and hit her, but they were both startled by a knock at the door. Casey whirled around and looked out the peephole.“It’s him!”she hissed.
“I know you’re in there, Lola,” Harry said through the door.
Lola pushed Casey aside and threw open the door.
“How did you get in?” Casey asked angrily from behind Lola.
“Some guy coming out held the door open for me,” he said, and braced his arm against the door frame and glared at Lola. “For God’s sake, woman, where have you been? Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
“Because she forgot it at your friend’s house,” Casey said.
“What?” Harry said, looking annoyed.
“Okay, all right, I can take it from here,” Lola said, gesturing for Casey to back off. “It’s true. In the mad rush of being kicked out of the lake house, I left my phone behind. I haven’t had a chance to replace it because my mother was in the hospital. How did you find me?” Lola demanded.
“Your mother,” he said. “I left her my number.”
“She didn’t tell me that!” Lola said irritably. “My mothercalledyou?”
“May I come in?” Harry asked as two women passed by behind him. “I’ll tell you everything.”
Lola stepped back to let him in.
“Our mothercalledyou?” Casey echoed incredulously when he’d shut the door.
“Yep. She cussed me out and then told me where to find you. Lola, I am so sorry Zach kicked you out. I wish I’d been there—I would have sorted it out with him.”
“I don’t think so,” Lola snorted. “He’s threatening to sue me, just so you know. And of course I haven’t told Sara yet because I left my phone behind. She’s going to be furious. Oh, and I don’t have a place to live. My mothercalledyou?”
“She called me. Because I was pretty adamant that I needed to talk to you,” he said, stepping closer to her. “Look, I need to get something off my chest—”
“Lola!” Casey said frantically. “Don’t let him—”
“All right, everyone wait a minute!” Lola shouted, throwing up her hands. “Casey, go in your bedroom, give us a minute here. Harry, sit down.”
Harry didn’t sit. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ll hear what you have to say standing up.”
“Okay, fine,” she said. “First, I want to say I wish I wasn’t such a chickenshit. I know that about myself, and no matter how hard I try not to be, it keeps happening. I just have this irrational fear of disappointment. But from here on out, I am only speaking my truths, okay?”
“Your what?”
“It’s from her counseling,” Casey said.
Lola jerked around. “Casey! Bedroom!”
