Page 46 of Charm Me

Epilogue

Eight months later

Zoe

My phone buzzed inmy hand as I sprinted down the sidewalk. I’d received a 911 text from Kate about an hour ago asking Stephanie and I to meet her at The Rock Room at six. I was already twenty minutes late, and I still had two blocks to go before I’d be there.

Glancing at my phone, I grimaced.

Where the hell are you? Kate is upset.

This one came from Stephanie.

Shit. Something bad must’ve happened.

Usually the only thing that ever resulted in a 911 text from one of us was guy trouble. We’d all gone out to dinner together the last time Wyatt was in town and Kate and Gavin seemed fine. They had been their usual lovey-dovey cutes selves. That was only two weeks ago.

I paused long enough to text Stephanie back.

Sorry, work delay. Almost there. Give me 5 min.

If Kate and Gavin broke up, I’d be genuinely upset. I really liked Gavin. He shared my sense of humor and laughed at all my stupid jokes. He made his fair share of jokes too. It was nice to have someone else in our group to help me make our otherwise too serious friends laugh.

If he hurt her, I just might cry. I didn’t want to think about him leaving our group of friends. He was one of us now and if he betrayed Kate, I might be just as devastated as her.

My feet were starting to ache from running in high heeled shoes. Not to mention, I could feel the blisters forming around the heel of my foot where my shoes rubbed. Forget if Gavin hurt Kate, I might just kick his ass for giving me a reason to run in heels and get blisters.

I rounded the corner and sighed when the sign for The Rock Room came into view. Almost there.

I slowed down to catch my breath. I’d sprinted the four blocks from my office and I was hot and flustered. Once my breathing evened out, I opened the door to the bar and bumped into none other than Gavin.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I was taken aback, and he looked confused by the surprise in my voice. I was surprised. More than a little surprised, considering I thought he was the reason I received the 911 text from Kate.

He gave me a sideways glace. “Having drinks. Why else would I be here?”

“Oh. Um. I ... I thought Kate ... well...” Shit. I sucked at this. I really had no clue what to say to him. I didn’t want to betray Kate if she was upset with him, and I didn’t want to upset him by making accusations in case he hadn’t actually done anything wrong. “Kate said she had an emergency. Do you know what’s wrong?”

“You’ll have to ask her. She’s inside with everyone else.” He patted my arm and gave me a huge grin. I watched him step outside and pull out his phone to text someone.

So, that was weird. Gavin didn’t seem the least bit upset. If Kate had an emergency that required a 911 call to her girls, his behavior made no sense. Shouldn’t he be upset too?

I stepped into the main room of the bar and froze. The bar was packed, which was typical for Friday night happy hour, but it was the change in decor that stopped me in my tracks. The entire ceiling and all the walls were covered in twinkle lights and four new large screen televisions hung around the room.

I looked toward the bar and caught Luke’s attention. “Hey, what happened here?”

“Just some new decor. Your friends are at one of the center tables. I’ll send your drink over.” He nodded in their direction.

“Thanks.” I waved bye and weaved my way through the crowd. I typically never minded being so short, but times like this, my height created a severe disadvantage. Everyone was taller than me and I couldn’t see around them to find my friends.

I heard my name before I finally caught a glimpse of Jake waving at me over the crowd. When I finally reached the table, I sighed. “Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on tonight?”

I scanned the faces of my friends. They were all smiling, even Kate.

“It took you long enough,” Kate snorted. “Good thing this wasn’t a real emergency.”

“Then why the hell did you send us a 911 text?” I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes. She had to have known I’d be worried sick about her.

No one answered me. They just shrugged their shoulders and smiled. I was about to lay into them again when silence fell over the bar. Every sound, every rumble, every creak stopped. I slowly turned around, confused by the sudden change and the crowd I’d just fought my way through had parted, creating clear path to the bar. At the end of the path stood my parents.