Page 77 of The Fate of Us

I lean against the counter drawing imaginary circles on the floor with my shoe. I wish it was Noah calling me and not his brother. Carson and Noah have similar voices and the sound of his voice sends a bolt of need through my body. “Why are you calling then?”

He clears his throat before he starts to speak. “Look, I have some not-so-pleasant news. No—”

“He chose her, didn’t he? He gave up on us?” I cut Carson off, dropping the empty mug in my hand and let it shatter on the ground.

Carson hesitates before answering. “No. That’s not it at all. But I need you to—”

“What is going on, Carson?” I yell into the phone.

“If you quit interrupting me, I’ll tell you.” He waits for me to say something but I stay quiet. “Thank you. Now listen. I want you to hear this from me before you hear it from someone else. Noah needs some more time away from you.”

“What?” I shriek. “He’s the one that fucked up. Why does he need space from me?”

Carson sighs into the phone. “He doesn’t need any distractions right now.”

“And I’m a distraction?” My voice growing louder with every word Carson says.

“More or less.”

“Fuck you, Carson Taylor.”

“Anna, listen please. This has nothing to do with you.”

I scoff into the phone. “This has everything to do with me.”

“No, it doesn’t. He needs to figure some things out with Claire. Let some dust settle and I am afraid if you are around, it won’t.”

“He is choosing her?”

Carson sighs again and I know I don’t want to hear any more of what he has to say. “This isn’t a matter of choice, Anna. This all has to do with some legal things that need to be cleared up.”

“You mean like the fact Claire says they are still married?”

I hear him muttering to someone in the background. “Yes. It has everything to do with that.”

“It’s true then? The divorce isn’t real?”

Carson takes a few seconds to respond and I already have my answer. “It’s compli—”

“I’ve heard enough.”

I don’t even say goodbye as I hang up the phone. I am sick of hearing things are complicated.

My phone starts ringing again but I ignore it. I scoop up the broken ceramic from the ground and grab a new mug and pour myself some coffee.

As I walk down the hall to the practice room, my phone keeps ringing so I turn it off. I do not want to deal with any of the Taylor brothers right now. My heart is cracking.

How could Noah do this to me? How could he just take that woman that shattered his heart years ago back into his life? Did he never stop loving her? Was our love a joke? And he doesn’t even have the balls to call me, to tell me to my face this is over.

I slam the door behind me and collapse on to the couch. I press my palms to my eyes to keep the tears from falling. But it doesn’t work. I fold over into the crease of the couch blocking out the world.

I don’t know how long I cry or when I fell asleep, the exhaustion from the past week and what happened with Noah taking over.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and roll over. Cole Farmer, the twenty-year-old up-and-comer, is sitting next to me. “You okay, Anna May?”

I wipe away any tears around my eyes as I sit up. “Um yeah, I just fell asleep. Tired is all.”

His brow drops forward as he squints at me with whiskey-colored eyes that look almost gold. This kid is going to be a heartthrob. “I was sittin’ in the corner when you walked in. You were cryin’,” he says with his strong southern twang.

---