Page 56 of He Loves Me Knot

“I doubt your sister had to change her phone number on account of being internationally famous,” Liddy shot back. “What about Quinn?”

“He’s in there somewhere.”

Liddy typed in her brother-in-law’s name and then dialed. He answered after the first ring. “Cal, where are you?”

“Actually, it’s Liddy. I lost my phone yesterday, so I’m borrowing his. Is Elle around?”

“No, but she’s been looking for you. Your mother has been, too. Kyle said you had some sort of trip planned today. A couple's horse-riding adventure?”

“Yeah . . .” Liddy darted a glance at Callum. She hated to lie to Quinn. He was one of the sweetest guys she’d met. But she couldn’t start tellingeveryonethe truth, no matter how much she trusted them. “It’s been great. But we’ve zipped on over to see Arenal Volcano, and hopefully, we’ll be back sometime tomorrow. I just wanted to let you guys know.”

“That sounds fun. Erhm—just . . . be careful, of course. And we’ll see you when you get back.”

Is Quinn upset?

He said nothing, and she didn’t want to ask.

Liddy had promised to run interference for Elle, after all.Help her find a caterer. Shit.But Taryn and Hunter should be there by now. They would help.

She didn’t want to dwell on it, but guilt pooled in her throat regardless.

She quickly googled the most reasonable search she could come up with: “Sergio guide Costa Rican tours Arenal.” As the search came up, Callum pulled the car over again.

“What is it now?”

“A pulperia. I’m going to grab some water bottles for the road, maybe some snacks, and some toothbrushes and toothpaste while I’m at it. Want anything else?”

She shook her head. “I’m good.”

He was gone a moment later, and she watched as he crossed the street and went up to the window on the side of a building. Unlike the other convenience store, this one didn’t have an obvious entrance, and he started talking to a lady at the window instead. The rain continued, and Callum ducked closer to the building to stay out of a stream of rainwater from the roof.

She glanced back at the search results.

Sergio is more common of a name than I realized.She even found a Costa Rican tour company titled after some guy named Sergio, but it wasn’t the one she was looking for.

She rubbed her eyes, a wave of tiredness hitting her. Was she being too demanding?

A notification popped in from the top of the screen.

Isla:All right, I’ve given you enough time to call me back. What the hell is going on?

Liddy pushed the notification away, trying not to snoop, and went back to the browser. Another one dinged almost immediately.

Isla:If you hate this woman, why are you pretending you’re dating?

This time, Liddy stared at the words, unable to tear her eyes away.

“Hate this woman?” she whispered, her heart giving a throb.

Clearly, Callum had had enough time to tellhersomething.

Including the fact that he hates me.

Tears stung her eyes, her throat tightening.

Why should this hurt? I would have said the same thing two days ago.

Exactly. Two days ago.

---