Page 50 of Worth the Vow

“How so?”

“Dominic always leaves money for me to take the kids to different things. For the most part, it’s always enough. But sometimes, I know it won’t cover everything needed. Take last night, for example. Eternity Springs has a weekly concert event in the main park every Friday night in the summer. He left money so I could take the kids to get dinner at the food trucks.”

“Food trucks are amazing, but they’re almost always more expensive than you’d think,” Victoria comments.

“Exactly. I saw how much he left and knew it would cover their meals and a stop for ice cream on the way home, but nothing else. So I packed myself a dinner. I knew I didn’t have any extra money to justify that expense.”

“And he was upset,” she states.

“Yeah. I think he realized I’ve been packing myself meals for longer than just last night, and it sort of spiraled from there.”

“There’s more, isn’t there?” she asks. “Because I can’t believe that one argument would bring you all the way down here to avoid him.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “I track everyone on an app. I didn’t intend to track Dominic, but one of the kids told me I had to, and I just never took him off once they added him on there. So when Dominic stomped off, I collected the kids and followed him.”

Victoria winces. “Shit. I don’t like where this is headed.”

“It’s not as bad as you’re thinking. I found him with his brother Alex, and he was complaining about all the things he doesn’t like about me. It was stupid stuff. Things I could easily correct if I had known how much it irritated him. But he never talks to me. Instead, he announces to his brother how he can’t stand my hair being everywhere, and the fact that I leave water glasses all around the house.”

“Men are such assholes sometimes,” she mutters.

“It made me feel two inches tall,” I confess. “I’ve always felt inferior to the entire Santo family, and Dominic just leaned into it. I needed to get out of there and clear my head.”

“Has he called you at all?”

“Right when I got here, but then I turned off my phone. I only texted Sienna not to tell him where I was, because she tracked me down here. She said to tell you all hello, by the way,” I grin. Victoria chuckles.

“God I love that little girl. She and Blaire together are amazing. I never know what will come out of their mouths.”

“I can imagine,” I comment.

“Let’s do a little experiment. Turn on your phone. Let’s see if he’s called or texted.”

“Alright. I’ll take the bait. I bet he hasn’t texted. Dominic hates texting. He’s probably left me at least one nasty voicemail, though.” Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I power it on. As soon as it turns on, notifications erupt. “Woah!”

“Did he call?”

“Fifteen voicemails, and twenty seven text messages? That can’t be all him. It’s probably Sienna and Carter,” I mumble. As soon as I open up the phone app, I see all fifteen voicemails are from Dominic. I open up the text messages, and see twenty are from him. Wide-eyed, I turn to Victoria. “Did someone steal his phone? These can’t all be from him.”

“And you’re still going to sit here and tell me he’s not interested in you?” she says with a grin. “What are you going to look at first, the texts or voicemails?”

I don’t have time to answer before the phone in my hand vibrates with an incoming call. I shriek when I see Dominic’s name on the screen, and chuck the phone at her.

“What was that for?” she shouts.

“Did he know I turned it on? How the hell did he do that?” I exclaim. “Decline the call! I can’t talk to him.”

Victoria gives me a look of disbelief as she bends to retrieve the phone from the ground. Her eyes widen as she looks at the screen. “Uh, it’s already connected.”

I gasp, then hear Dominic shout, “Katharine!”

“Answer him!” I whisper.

“No!” she hisses. “He doesn’t know where you are, and if he hears my voice he might know.”

I stare at her in shock before reaching over and hitting the end button. When the phone immediately rings again, I power it back off again. “I can’t — I can’t deal with him right now. He didn’t recognize Matt’s voice when he answered my phone last night, so maybe he won’t recognize yours today.”

Victoria hands me my phone, then bursts into laughter.

---