Page 102 of To Love or to Lose
“Yes, but please don’t bring Logan.” I’m sure that was a suggestion from Mae, Logan’s little sister.
“Okay, I won't. Stay where you are, I’ll be there soon.”
“Please hurry, Evie.” My baby sister’s voice is filled with desperation.
“I will, I will.” The line goes dead, and without even saying goodbye to Jameson, I take off toward the crowd, finding Eloise and Winnie quickly.
“What happened?” Eloise asks, noticing my frazzled expression.
My phone quickly goes back into my wristlet, and I turn toward Winnie and Eloise. “We need to leave now.”
I’m already rushing toward the front door, no plan in mind with how I’m going to get to the diner. I don’t feel like myself; I feel like a hysteric version of someone taking root in my body.
“Gen, wait!” Winnie calls, following me down the steps of the porch. Eloise is also trailing. “You can’t drive, you’ve been drinking.”
I stop dead in my tracks, realizing she’s right. I was playing beer pong less than twenty minutes ago.
“Have you been drinking?” I ask her.
She was making a drink in the kitchen before I pulled her away, but I’m still hopeful.
“No, my drink was virgin,” she replies.
“I need you to take me to the diner right now.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pulling into the parking lot of the diner, I automatically scan the booths through the windows that wrap around the building, looking for my sister.
“Did she even tell you what happened?” Eloise questions as I get out of the car.
“No, but it didn’t sound good.”
Normally, the girls ending up at Taylors’ diner and not some other barbaric place would ease my mind, but I’ve never been put in this situation with my younger sister, so my fears are all the same.
Walking through the doors of the diner, I watch as three heads pop up to look at the entrance when the bell above my head chimes.
My sister, Logan’s sister, and Gracie.
They’re sitting in a booth in the back corner; none of them look injured, but they do appear relieved.
“Gwen,” I call out as I approach my sister—mybabysister, the one who I get told looks like a carbon copy of myself, except, tonight she’s disheveled.
Her long brown hair is frizzy and braided down her back, while the mini-skirt and black long sleeve she’s wearing look like they came frommycloset.
She stands, meeting me halfway in the diner's aisle.“I’m so glad you’re here.” Her arms wrap around my middle.
I’ve never been one who’s good at giving or receiving hugs, but my instincts have me pulling my little sister into my embrace while my entire body is burning with the phraseprotect heron repeat.
“I’ll always be here when you need me.” The sentiment runs deep, and I feel it all the way to my bones. “Always.”
Winnie goes straight to Mae, who is still sitting in the booth alongside Gracie. Mae immediately turns to her, just like my sister had done to me, burry her head into Winnie’s chest.
Winnie has always been close with the Callaghan’s because of her friendship with Logan, but I can see now that her relationship with his little sister goes further than that.
For Mae, Winnie is the closest thing she has to a sister.
Mae asks, “Logan doesn’t know, does he?” Her brown doe eyes are staring right at me.
