Page 48 of The Ex Effect
My neck hair leaped straight up. “Did you sayRose? As in Morgan Rose?”Please, please, say it was someone else.
Dave looked at me, surprised. I didn’t have time for introductions, but he probably didn’t even know I was here, lurking in the corner.
“Yeah, that might be her name,” Dave said. “Mike and Linda’s daughter, you know the ones that own the remodeling company? I only recognized her because she has that decal thingy in her window advertising her place and she helped with my son’s wedding a few years ago.”
My chest flamed.Oh my God, oh my God.Think, think.Was she hurt? If something happened to Morgan, and our last interaction was heated words and a fake goodbye, I would never forgive myself. “Did you say thatMorganwas in the accident?”
“I didn’t look too close.” Dave tapped his ring finger against the table. “That was her car in the pileup, but I didn’t want to be too much of a lookie-loo. But gosh, lots of broken glass, smashed-up cars…I really hope no one was hurt.”
My heart leaped into my chest and I bolted to the door. “Where exactly did you say this was?”
Dave barely finished giving me the approximate specs when I burst through the door, yelled an apology at Delilah, and revved my bike. In an instant, my heartbeat pounded in my throat and I became the motorcycle driver that I despised—speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, gunning at the intersection right before the light turned red.
She had to be okay. Shewouldbe okay, right? Morgan was so stubborn that even if something happened, it probably bounced off her like nothing. She was fine, she was fine. Shehadto be fine.
Oh my God, shehadto be fine.
I’d been holding back telling her so many things, scared, unsure of her reaction. And now I may have missed the opportunity of a lifetime. My knuckles turned white, cramping, as I seized the handlebar. For the first time since I was a kid, I prayed. I wasn’t even sure who to, but to any entity that would listen.
I got there in less than ten minutes. My mouth depleted of all moisture as the scene came into focus.
A tipped-over truck. Hay everywhere. An ambulance, two sheriffs’ cars, and a crunched-up truck. My stomach coiled so hard I thought I might pass out. I skidded to a stop and leaped off the bike, tossing my helmet to the ground. Morgan was okay, right? She had to be okay. I scoured the small crowd of onlookers until my breath stopped at what I saw.
Morgan, on the side of the road, in a state I could’ve never imagined.
TWENTY-TWO
MORGAN
Fucking chickens.
I handed the last clucking one back to the grateful farmer and swiped my grimy palms down my capris.Filthy. My outfit was probably ruined unless I got home within the next five minutes and dumped a gallon of OxiClean on it. This event might be one of the top ten, maybe even top five, craziest things that have happened to me.
Two arms caught me from the back, whipped me around, and engulfed me in a hug.
“Oh my God, are you okay?”
Whoa. The frantic tone in Frankie’s voice caught me off guard. Frankie held my shoulders, her eyes trailing every inch of me as if she was inspecting to confirm that I was, in fact, okay.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I looked down at my clothes. I plucked a few feathers off, then gave up completely. “Filthy, though. Gross.”
Frankie’s eyes folded in concern, her firm grip still holding me. “Your face…your hair. It’s so bad… You look so bad…” She nibbled on her lip, her forehead creasing.
“What every woman in the word wants to hear: You looklike shit. Thanks for that.” I smiled, even though my body was on active alert.
The tiniest crack of smile teased at Frankie’s mouth. “I was at Delilah’s shop, and this man Dave came in and said there was an accident on Superior Road and you live here and I was freaking out…andshit. Are you sure you’re okay? What the hell happened?”
When I left my house an hour ago, which now felt like five days ago, I trailed a trailer-truck as it jerked down the road at the speed of a sloth.Road-ragerwas never a word I would use to describe myself while driving. I was more…road-irritated. But this guy was over the top and I knew I had to get to Delilah’s.
On the single-lane road, I would’ve passed the guy, but it was a no passing zone, and I wasn’t going to risk get smooshed in my little sedan. But that didn’t stop the guy behind me from doing it. The truck swerved sharply, the trailer tipped over, a car rear-ended the truck, and, well, the chickens broke free.
The panicked farmer and his wife ran around screaming, trying to scoop the chickens back into their cages. After I checked everyone was okay, I grabbed a blanket and chased after the chickens alongside the farmers.
Frankie’s hand dropped from my shoulders. Put them back. The adrenaline coursing through me had my hands trembling something fierce, and Frankie was just so…sturdy. Not that I couldn’t handle it, of course…
“You’re shaking.” Frankie grabbed my hand and escorted me to a patch of grass away from the chaos. “Let’s take a seat.”
I normally would have thought twice about sitting on the side of the dirty road, but at this point, I had so much muck on me that it didn’t matter. I lowered myself to the ground and rubbed my temples. Having Frankie here with me this summer allowed me to do twice as much wedding prep as normal. But that was also cut in half with the unforeseen barn renovations.We still had so much to do, and moments like this—wasting hours on stuff that had nothing to do with the wedding—cut into the precious moments we had left to execute this day to perfection.
