Page 111 of Catch and Release

He was handsome—in the bland, conventionally attractive way so many rich businessmen often were.

“No,” she said. “This is going to be quick.”

“Listen babe?—”

“Don’t. Call. Me. Babe.”

“Willa,” Leo said, and for the first time, he looked flustered. “I’m sorry. I never should’ve lied to you or led you on the way I did. But you have to know, I really did love you.”

“Bullshit. How did you even find me?”

“I.. well, I remembered you had a place on the Gulf, but couldn’t remember where. Tried to find you on social media or ask some of the instructors at your old yoga studio. Nobody would tell me.”

Willa grinned at that. Her friends were awesome.

“So I took matters into my own hands,” Leo said, standing up straighter, looking down his nose at Willa like someone would look at a petulant child.

Willa crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly.

Then, she put it together.

“You hired a fucking PI to find me?” she asked.

“You left me no choice.”

Shawn laid down in his bed and ran a hand over his face.

He grabbed his phone and set it on the bed next to him, willing it to ring.

He wanted to talk to someone, anyone—but it was almost 11 p.m. Tucker and Hanna were most likely asleep, and they were the only ones who knew about Willa. He took a deep breath, and tried to tell himself Willa was probably punching Leo in the face right now. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want Shawn to do it. So she could do it herself.

He groaned and rolled over, then heard a small sound down the stairs.

“Grams?” he shouted.

He heard the sound again. It sounded like a whimper.

Heart hammering, he stood up suddenly.

“GRAMS?”

He ran downstairs, barely registering his surroundings until he was standing in the living room over Grams’s limp body.

It was different than the last time he’d found her like this.

Worse. So much worse.

“Grams,” he said, his voice cracking. “What happened?”

“Fell,” she croaked, her face pale.

When had she fallen? Right after he left? He’d been gone all night—would’ve been gone longer if he’d stayed at Willa’s, and then what? He wasn’t paying attention when he walked into the house, so caught up in his own feelings he didn’t even notice his grandmother had collapsed on the floor.

His eyes blurred, and he realized he was beginning to cry.

He grabbed his phone and called Willa.

It was an instinct.

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