Page 131 of Pinch of Love

“Nope. Just home.”

“Where’s home?”

“North Carolina,” I said softly.

“Never been, but I’ve heard it’s beautiful.”

I nodded my head. “It is, but it’s different from here.”

She climbed into the driver’s seat as I climbed into the backseat. She looked at me in the rearview mirror.

“You don’t seem too excited to leave.”

“My family is here,” I explained. “I’ll miss them.”

“Family is everything,” she said, nodding.

She pulled out of the drive and onto the main road. I’d managed to book a ticket last-minute from one of the smaller regional airports with a connection in Chicago, but it was worth it. I just wanted to get on the plane and be on my way.

I had a lot waiting for me back home, and I had a lot of explaining I needed to do.

As we made our way down the road, I froze.

Cash’s Jeep had pulled into a driveway, and Daisy came bounding out of the house.

My throat tightened and my chest clenched.

It was fine.

That made sense.

This didn’t.

We kept driving by, and I slid down the seat, praying he didn’t see me.

I’d left it exactly how it needed to be left. I couldn’t bear to have him see my pain, and I knew the coldness that he directed at me was deserved.

And he didn’t fight it.

Almost expected it.

There was a moment in the end when I wondered if he was going to say something he’d regret.

To say the four-letter word that I’d wanted to say for days.

But he didn’t.

I slid out my phone and answered some emails resting in my inbox and noticed there was a voicemail from my attorney.

I held it up to my ear and listened.

A prickle went over my skin as the good news soaked in.

I was no longer being sued by Rob. His attorneys dropped him as his latest shenanigans came to light, and Rob withdrew the petition through them before they parted ways.

I chuckled to myself, wondering if that was Rob’s first phone call.

Rob.