Page 18 of Tickled Pink

“Where’s Phoebe?” I ask. “Is she okay?”

“That’s the burning question,” he says. “She wouldn’t talk to me about it. Just took the dog for a walk. I waited an hour for her to come back, but she didn’t show, so I came here.”

I bite down. Hard. Thad and I aren’t strangers to the world of parental disappointment, obviously. Between our fathers, we have enough material to write a very long self-help book or maybe some sort of self-deprecating stand-up comedy routine, but Phoebe? She grew up differently than we did. Her parents supported her through thick and thin. They worshiped the ground she walked on, but now?

They can’t support her lifestyle?

They can’t support her because she loves us.

“I’m mad, Max,” Thad says, his jaw fixed in a straight line.

I nod. “Me, too.”

“The world can chew me up and spit me out all it wants, but not her,” he says. “Not her.”

“I agree,” I say. “We need to find her. Knowing Phoebe, she’s…”

“She’s over-thinking it. Exactly,” he says. “She’s following every last dangling thread of a thought to its most dramatic conclusion. Maybe talking herself into actually agreeing with them and I won’t have it. So, what do we do?”

“The same thing we always do when people side-eye us,” I say. “We prove them wrong and convince her we love her.”

“How?” he asks, panic building in his blue eyes. “The last time Pheebs took off, we had the luxury of cornering her in an airplane bathroom. Might not be so easy this time.”

I smile at the memory. Me and Thad deadheading in the cockpit, sneaking peeks at Phoebe sitting all the way back in coach, just waiting for the right moment to prove how much we both loved her. I remember replaying everything in my head before that moment; from that first fateful night the three of us spent together, to the adorable morning after, to the moment Thad and I looked at each other and agreed that neither of us was willing to compromise when it came to Phoebe fucking Pink.

And that’s never changed.

If she’s out there right now doubting every word, every kiss, every moment… then we need to do something about it.

We won her back before.

We’ll do it again.

I reach into my pocket for my phone. “Only a few places she’d go,” I say as I swipe open my contact book.

“Yes!” Thad says, nodding. “Good. Man of action. I like it.”

I tap Jackie’s number. Phoebe’s assistant and best friend. “Might be a long shot, but…” I listen to the dull ringing as Thad eagerly watches.

There’s a quick answer, followed instantly by an annoyed groan. “She’s at the office,” Jackie says.

“Hey, Jackie.” I raise a brow. “It’s Max.”

“Yeah, I can read.”

“She’s at the office? Are you sure?”

“She was when I left her there a half hour ago,” she says. “You two hatch a plan to cheer her up yet because I’m gonna be a little tied up for most of the foreseeable future.”

“We’re working on it.”

“I mean that literally, by the way,” she says. “So, y’all do what you need to do and leave me—”

I tilt the phone away to talk to Thad. “I have an idea, but it may require some setup.”

“I’m in.” Thad gives a thumbs up. “Let’s do it.”

“Jackie—” I say, interrupting her. “We need you to stall her. Keep her away from the house. Can you do that?”

---