Page 12 of Safe With Me
“I didn’t do anything. My dog did. In his defense, she left the closet open.”
Tick’s voice halted on that last word with some kind of quiet sound, almost like ahuh. Was that fucker judging me? Because Elizabeth still had her arms around me?
I’m sure Holly Callahan had hugged up on him once or twice.
Hannah didn’t bother to look at us, sailing by to the register, chatting away to Tick like he didn’t take her out once and dump her.
And she wouldn’t let me say sorry for last night? After years of friendship?
What the actual fuck?
The hell with giving her space. We’d talk before Saturday if I could get her damn sister off me.
Tick thumbed through his wallet and extracted a card. “So what’s your daddy got you doing the rest of the day?”
“Oh, I am done.” The word for that tone right there? Ominous. Yep, I’d paid attention in Ms. O’s English class, no matter what Jase thought. “I have other things to do.”
“Yeah?” Tick held the shopping bag open as Hannah settled his items inside.
“Hmm.” Hannah ripped off the receipt with a flourish.
He grinned at her. “Enjoy your afternoon.”
“Oh, I plan to.” She grabbed her tote from under the counter and swanned to the door. Shaking his head, Tick lifted his bag and followed. He held the door with one hand, and Hannah disappeared outside. The door swung closed.
Leaving me with Elizabeth clutching my arms while I stared after her.
Done?
Other things to do?
What the actual fuck?
Chapter Three
Tate
By the time I pulled my truck to a hard stop at the farm office, the heaviness in my gut had transformed to panic, seizing my chest and squeezing my lungs. Or hell, maybe I was having a heart attack.
An early heart attack made more sense than panic because that emotion made no more sense than Hannah saying she was done and had other things to pursue. That sounded like she was looking for a new job, which wasn’t going to happen. She loved that store.
I wrapped my hands tight around the steering wheel and squeezed as hard as I could. What was up with me? Maybe I was freaking out and on the verge of suffocating because I’d hidden how I felt about Elizabeth for years then Hannah and Tick had seen her in my arms.
Not that it meant anything because it didn’t, right?
I’d just wanted to get away from her, to make sure Hannah was all right. Not like Hannah would care. We were friends, that was all.
And maybe we weren’t that any longer.
My chest hurt so bad I wanted to throw up.
I needed Hannah to know I was sorry. She didn’t want to talk to me, but I could text her. A text wasn’t the same as talking, wasn’t too intrusive.
Slumped in the truck seat, I tugged my phone out of my shirt pocket and stared at the screen, at Hannah on my lock screen. She’d found my phone on the table at Nick’s one night and photobombed me, shot after shot of her making faces.They made me smile, so I made her my lock screen. And my wallpaper.
She really couldn’t mean she was done with me. She meant done for theday.
I exhaled, long and hard. Daddy always said “sorry” wasn’t enough, that when I screwed up, I had to own what I did, then make it right.
