Page 73 of Sunset Tides
“Does putting down roots scare you?” Lillian dropped her voice. “Or does loving someone make you scared, because you only think about losing them?”
Lucy’s mouth popped open. “I can’t believe you think that of me! That’s not what it is. I’m just – I don’t know. This is how I am.”
Lillian put her hands up in surrender. “Okay. I’m sorry.”
Lucy wasn’t done with the conversation. “And what does that have to do with Mom and Dad dying in a plane crash? That was thirty years ago. I’m not living like, scared, because of that.”
“I’m not saying you are!” She leaned forward and took a deep breath. “I just think when you lose something so important, there are lingering effects. It’s not like Rose and I are unaffected by it. We’re all affected in different ways. I just – I don’t want it to hold you back from living.”
“I’m living just fine, thank you.” Lucy leaned back and looked around. The party was starting to die off. “Should we get a glass of champagne before they close the bar?”
Lillian smiled. “Sure.”
The reveling didn’t last much longer and the restaurant staff started closing up. Marty gave them a ride home, and, thankfully, Lillian didn’t try to analyze Lucy again.
Lucy’s paranoia got the best of her, though, and that night before she went to bed, she sent a text to Rob. “Not that I really care, but I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. You never showed today.”
She sent the text and waited a few minutes. Ten. Fifteen. Forty-five.
How was she supposed to fall asleep if he wouldn’t answer?
A cold feeling washed over her. Just because she was mad at him didn’t mean she wanted something bad to happen to him.
She fell asleep eventually, but in the morning there was still no message from him. Lucy waited until she was in her car driving to work to give him a call.
The phone rang endlessly, and she was just about to hang up when his voice broke through.
“Lucy?”
Shoot.
He was alive!
Chapter Thirty-one
He strained to listen. “Hello? Are you there?”
There was only rustling from her side of the call. Maybe she’d butt dialed him.
No. He didn’t believe that. Something had to be very wrong for her to call. Maybe OSS had found a loophole? Was there going to be another hearing?
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“What?” More rustling. “Yeah, I’m fine. I wanted to see if – I mean, are you okay?”
“Yes. Why?”
Silence hung between them for a moment before Lucy spoke again. “I thought it was weird when I didn’t see you at the hearing yesterday. I thought something might’ve happened to you.”
His heart fluttered. Was Lucy...concerned about him? “No, nothing like that. I, uh, took a page out of your playbook, actually.”
“I don’t have a playbook.”
Rob grinned. He didn’t mind her hostility if she was talking to him again. He was desperate to keep her on the line. “I told all of OSS’s lawyers and experts that I’d get them to the hearing on time and booked a private ship.”
“And then left them out at sea?”
“Basically.” He laughed, then picked up his pace. “I paid the captain to pretend the ship was broken down. We drifted around the Strait of Juan de Fuca until the hearing was over.”
