I let out a quiet laugh. “Fine.”
The highway stretched ahead — dark, long, unknown. Just like the story. Just like what came next.
It wasn’t until we were getting food at a diner that I looked at my phone.
Sexy AFWR:Just text me when you’re back.
I stared at it for too long. Huh. Maybe he did care. I saw a flash of Brent and Mary standing on their porch with their daughter, and I remembered why I was single. The evidence of what happened when you let the wrong person get too close.
I deleted Dustin’s message and put my phone back in my pocket.
I had enough trouble with this story; I didn’t need to invite more into my life.
And that man was the very definition of trouble.
Chapter 22
Dustin
I checked my phone again.
Still nothing.
I didn’t know how long it had been since I sent the text — ten minutes? an hour? five years? — but the silence clawed at my ribs like something caged that needed out, something I didn’t have a name for.
Just text me when you’re back.
It wasn’t a great message; I mean, it wasn’t even a good one. But it was honest, and the longer she stayed silent, the more it felt like I’d made a mistake by sending it at all.
Noah dropped onto a chair across the room with an exaggerated grunt. “You checking your phone again?”
“No.”
He stared at me. “You did it while saying no.”
I didn’t dignify that with a response. Smug bastard. I blamed him for my sending a shit message.
He stretched, hands behind his head. “Maybe her phone died.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe she’s driving.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe she saw your text, panicked, and threw her phone onto the freeway.”
I shot him a glare. “Not helpful.”
“Sorry,” he said, not sorry at all. “Just offering possibilities.”
I looked at my phone again. Nothing. Not even the hint of a bubble. No reply. No sign she even read it.
“Dust,” he said, softer this time. “Worrying won’t make her text faster.”
“Thanks, I’ll put that on a motivational poster.”
He snorted. “Do that. Put it next to yourLive, Laugh, Lose Your Mind Over a Girlpillow.”