Page 54 of Truck Up

I open the message thread and type out another response.

Amelia

Will you please let me know if you’re okay? Not hearing from you is killing me.

I hesitate over the send button. This message says almost the same thing as the one I sent last night before bed.

God, I’m pathetic.

I quickly hit the backspace button until every letter is gone and type out a new response.

Amelia

Please …

That one word is more than he deserves right now, but I can’t help it. He means everything to me. I need to know he’s okay.

I hit send before I can change my mind again. Then I put my phone face down on the nightstand next to my bed. Or should I say the spare bed in Nova’s apartment?

Unfortunately, staying with Nova has provided little to no peace. My family has made sure my life has been hell this past week. I’m forced to see Mom every day at work. Some days, all she does is lecture me about how irresponsible I am and tell me I’ve destroyed our family with mylittle stunt. She says it like I deliberately set out to embarrass the family or am acting selfish.

Other days, she pretends I don’t exist. On those days, she still talks to customers about what I did and how it makes her feel as if I’m not even there. Because of her constant talking and Beaver’s need for gossip, business has picked up. My in-store sales have exceeded my online sales for the first time in months. At least we’re making money off this scandal.

Jason and Aaron have mostly left me alone, but Linden and Tanner take turns blowing up my phone with calls or text messages. I’ve done my best to ignore them, but they make it hard. Thankfully, they’re not coming to the shop. I guess they assume Mom has that covered.

Dad hasn’t spoken to me. I knew he’d be disappointed, but I didn’t expect him to stop talking to me. I’ve messaged him a few times and called, but he hasn’t answered.

My phone buzzes with an incoming message. My heart rate picks up and my chest feels tight. There’s a fluttering sensation in my belly that always washes over me when Christian messages me. But that sensation fades quickly when I look at my phone.

Linden

Will you please come home? We need to deal with this as a family.

I groan and fall back on the bed.

“Tanner or Linden?” Nova asks. I glance up to see her standing in the doorway with a grin on her face.

“Why are you smiling?”

She shrugs. “Why not? I see no reason to frown.”

I snort. “My life is in shambles, and you want to smile?”

“Again, why not?” She steps into the room and sits cross-legged on the bed next to me. “I’ve got one of my best friends crashing in my spare bedroom. She’s great company, and she’s going to have a baby. I love babies.”

I shake my head and stare at the ceiling. “You might be the only person in my life who’s excited about this little one.”

“That’s not true. Hadley and Grams are excited.”

That makes me smile. “True. Grams came into the shop yesterday. Did I tell you that?”

She shakes her head. “Did she raise all kinds of hell?”

I shake my head, and my smile grows. “The exact opposite, actually. She was sweet and cheerful and made sure to go on and on about how excited she was about this baby. She was so sickly sweet to my mom, it made me laugh.”

“Oh God.” Nova chuckles. “I bet Johanna loved that.”

“Hardly.” I rub my belly in a protective manner and squeeze my eyes closed as the memory of Mom’s actions flood to thesurface. “Grams knitted the baby the cutest little booties. Mom threatened to cut them up with a pair of scissors.”