Jade
I can open the shop late. Wanna meet at your house?
I looked around, wondering if I should have them here. The living room was a mess of half-finished projects, and his hat alone brought fresh tears to my eyes.
Why the hell had he left without his hat?
No, not here. But not at the square either. I don’t want anyone to overhear us.
Mollie
My house is open. We can meet there.
The second she said it, I knew it was perfect. I thanked herfor being able to host and then half-heartedly threw on a sweatshirt before running out the door.
Even as I drove, it was a struggle to keep myself contained. I still wanted to pick apart everything I did and figure this out myself, but just the thought of him leaving sent me right back to the second I saw the note.
Wren’s truck and Jade’s Prius were waiting for me when I got to Mollie’s house. I wiped at the tears that had escaped and knocked on the front door.
The second it opened, I was met with three women watching me with wide eyes.
“What’s going on?” Mollie asked.
“Are you okay?” Wren added.
“You know I have a knife I can use.” That could only be Jade.
“I’m ... I need to vent. Can we sit down somewhere?”
Mollie pulled away first and led us to her living room. “Cain is working outside and took Jasmine with him. No one should bother us.”
“Good,” I replied.
“You were in such a good mood yesterday with Dean.” Jade sat next to me. “Please don’t tell me it was him.”
“He was gone this morning,” I told them. “He said he needed space.”
“I’m sorry,what?” Jade shook her head. “What kind of space could he need?”
Wren’s brow was pinched. “He said this the day after you guys went on a date? Why?”
“He has a whole life in Nashville,” I said. “One that I don’t know anything about. God, I barely know anything about him atall.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Wren said. “But he does keep things close to the chest.”
“The note looked off. Like he wasn’t in his right mind when he wrote it.”
“I’ve been there,” she muttered with a sigh. “I pulled something like that with Henry. He followed me.”
“Henry could figure out where togo. I know ... nothing.” Tears clouded my vision again and I gritted my teeth.
A hand gripped mine, and I looked up to see Mollie. “I’m sorry. You did the right thing by calling us.”
“I shouldn’t have set him up. I fucked up there, and I don’t know if he took my apology.”
“Hang on, why are you blaming yourself?” Wren asked. “You have no idea what happened, which is the whole problem.”
She was right, but I still shook my head. “I didn’t treat him like other people. Not at first, when I thought it was a one-time thing, and not now after I thought ... I should have been better.”