Page 130 of The Rebound
“Ahem.” Louise coughs beside us but she doesn’t sound mad.
“I’m just off the phone with Mam and Dad,” Luke says to her when he lifts his head. “They want you to come around for an early lunch. Said you’ll be too tired to cook.”
“Well, they’re not wrong about that.”
“You think you’ll be ready in an hour? Or do you need to stay here longer?”
“I can go. Some of the students said they’re going to camp out tonight. Let me just check in with them.”
“Grand. I’ll meet you back at the house?” he asks me, and I nod, smiling as he kisses me again. “I’m going to say goodbye to the team.”
I watch him jog off toward the water, where the girls are taking selfies, and feel a longing so great it almost hurts.
“Be careful.”
Louise’s expression is grim as she gazes after him.
“He knows what this is,” I say.
“Do you?”
She only looks at me when I don’t respond, touching my arm briefly before she gets back to work.
It’s a while before we’re able to leave. Louise does a couple more interviews and then coordinates the plan for tomorrow before we’re finally in the car. With nothing to bring to Pat and Susan’s, Tomasz drops me a few minutes from the house so I can jump in the shower while they take a detour to pick up dessert from Beth’s.
I’ve just turned onto our street when I remember I don’t have any keys and I take out my phone to ask where they keep the spare set when I see a list of notifications peering up at me.
Three missed calls from Jess. One voicemail.
I pause in the driveway confused as I listen to it. It’s nothing unusual. I used to get drunken voicemails from her all the time. But this one, a quick “Call me when you get the chance” one, is different. She sounds nervous and, even more worryingly, sober.
When I call back she answers immediately.
“Abby?” Her voice is quiet and I wonder what time it is in New York.
“What’s wrong?”
“Have you heard from Tyler recently?”
I frown, shifting my phone to the other ear. “No.”
“He texted me a few hours ago. I don’t think he has your Irish number. He was trying to call you.”
“I don’t use that phone anymore. Is he okay?” Visions of him lying in a hospital bed fill my mind.
“He’s fine. But he said he was—”
“Abby.”
I spin around at my name, staring wide-eyed at the man on my sister’s porch.
Tyler.
28
Oh my God.
“—and it was the first I heard about it, so I wanted to make sure you knew because I figured you would have told me and I—”
