Page 103 of When Love Is Unexpected

When I came home, she wasn't here, so I kept calling and leaving messages. I was losing my mind. When eleven o'clock came and went, I debated whether I should call Loren or Adam to see if they'd heard from her. I chose Adam because I thought Aaron would kill me if I woke up his pregnant wife at two o'clock in the morning.

"I was waiting for your call," Adam said as soon as he picked up, sounding wide awake.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"She's coming home," he said.

"All her stuff is still here."

"It's the middle of the night, Sam. She's safe. She'll call you when she's ready."

"Adam, I give you my word that this is all a misunderstanding."

"Did you lie to her?"

"I did," I admitted, "but I had every intention of sitting her down and fessing up."

"Yeah, that never works," he said. "Good night, Sam."

"Okay," I said. "And Adam, I'm so sorry for waking you guys up."

"No worries," he said. "We'll talk soon."

***

I spent the entire night sitting on the couch, hoping she'd call me.

At eight o'clock, my phone rang. I picked it up as soon as I saw it was Loren.

"Go ahead," I said, "tell me I'm an idiot."

"She's hurt and angry," Loren said.

"I want to get on the first plane to New York and try to explain myself in person."

"Give her some time, Sam. I know my sister. She needs time to process everything."

"How can she process any of it if she doesn't have all the facts?"

"You lied to her, Sam."

"Yeah," I said, "that's a fact I can't dispute."

"And a tough hurdle to overcome," she said.

"Does Jon know?" I asked.

"No," she said. "Laila wants to talk to Mom and Dad in person."

"I am so sorry," I said. "You know I've loved your sister since the moment I met her."

"I know," she says, "but what you did was stupid."

"How am I going to get her to trust me again?

"I don't know."

I may be a freelancer, but I still have to work for a living, so I grab my laptop, sit on the bench on the front porch, and try to move some projects forward. I keep getting email notifications throughout the day, but they're all from Patricia. After the tenth one, I delete them from my inbox and trash folder. I also block her, which will send all her emails to my spam folder. Better there than where I can see them. Patricia's constant barrage of emails gives me an idea.

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