Page 159 of Mr. Wicked

“You’re right,” Holden added. “What she did instead was show you that she loves you.”

If she had told me she loved me, I would have pushed her away.

I would have used that as a reason to end things.

To terminate the contract.

To never see or talk to her again.

That was what I was looking for—reasons.

Because I didn’t know how to do this.

Because I was so fucking scared of this.

Because I didn’t want my future to turn out the way my father’s did.

But the truth was, I wanted her.

I loved her.

“What do I do?” I looked at Easton, and then at Holden. “Do I repackage the plaque and pretend I never saw it? Do I bring this up to her and attempt to have a normal conversation about it?”

“Can you talk to her without losing your shit?” Holden asked.

Just as I was about to answer, there was a vibration in my pocket. A series of pulses that told me it was a phone call coming through, not a social media notification.

I took out my phone, my eyes widening from the caller ID that showed the largest hospital in Boston was phoning me.

“Why the hell would Mass General be calling me right now?”

“Answer it,” Holden said. “What if—God forbid—something happened to your dad?”

Fuck me.

I swiped the screen and held the phone up to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Grayson Tanner?”

“It is.” I looked at my best friends, my heart racing even harder than it already was.

“This is Denise. I’m a nurse in the emergency department at Mass General. I’m calling because Jovana Winters was in an accident, and she just arrived by ambulance to our hospital. I was able to unlock her phone and she has you listed as her emergency contact.”

The words weren’t sinking in.

They were just hitting my ears.

And everything was ringing.

Followed by a numbness.

“She was ... in an accident?” I flattened my hand against the glass behind me.

“Yes.”

“Is she going to be all right?”

“She’s headed into surgery now.”

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