Page 96 of A Little Luck
Looking down at my phone, I want to shake it. I want to yell at it to vibrate. I want to yell at him to talk to me.
“Have you heard anything?” Her voice is quiet, and I shake my head.
“Not a word.”
“So text him.” She’s quietly urging. “It doesn’t have to be weird. Ask him when he’ll be back.”
“No.” I stare at the black screen as the crack in my heart slowly grows deeper. “I have to let him do this.”
“Do what? Run away?”
“I don’t know.” I don’t know, but it hurts like hell.
I don’t know how I expected him to react, and I guess I got part of what I wanted when I told him. He pulled me into his arms. He held me and hugged me and wanted to know if I was okay…
Then he left.
What if I had said I wasn’t okay? Would he still have left?
“Hey, aren’t you tired?” Aiden enters the room. “I can make breakfast.”
He’s dressed in low-slung, gray sweats and a tee, and he’s scratching his stomach looking for all it’s worth like his brother.
The crack in my heart pierces deeper.
“Hey, handsome. I’m visiting with my girl.” Britt leans her head back for a kiss, and I need space.
“Mom wasn’t at the wedding.” It’s like I just realized it.
I was so distracted by all the things, I forgot that I noticed at some point in the evening. Probably when Gwen joined us, which was right before Alex punched Drake in the face.
“That’s right!” Britt frowns at me. “Gosh, so much happened last night, it was hard to keep up with everything.”
“Tell me about it.” Aiden exhales a laugh, grabbing a mug from the cabinet. “Good thing I was off duty.”
“You wouldn’t have arrested your brother.” She elbows her husband in the side.
“No, but I’d have had to do something.”
Britt pours the egg mixture into a hot skillet and looks up at me. “When’s the last time you heard from her?”
My throat tightens, and I try to think. “She was at the newspaper office fussing with Jemima… Last week?”
Am I that shitty of a daughter?
“To be fair, you were running a paper, dealing with a contractor, planning a wedding, and sneaking around with Adam all week.”
Aiden laughs through his nose as he sips his coffee, and I glare at her. “Thanks.”
“Do you really think you’re that sneaky? It was clear after years of pent-up sexual need, you both were getting lucky.”
Her words pull me up short.Getting lucky… but I don’t have time to dwell on them.
“I’d better check on her.” Grabbing my hoodie off the rack, I head for the door. “I won’t be gone long.”
“I’ll have breakfast ready when you get back.”
Aiden’s big house is the first one on the street. It’s near his mother’s and all the other original founders of Eureka’s grand homes. Gwen and her late husband bought an older one at the end of the road when we were kids, and she’s been fixing it up ever since.