Page 65 of Edge of Unbroken

I shake my head. “No!” I say more loudly than I had intended.

He chuckles. “Okay, I guess I won’t.”

I laugh hoarsely. “Talking to you makes me feel better, Ran.” I pull my blanket up, feeling cold. “I wish you were here.”

“Me, too.”

“Or maybe not right now, because I don’t want you to get sick.”

“I don’t care. I’d climb into your bed with you.”

I don’t know how he manages to always say just the thing that makes me want to melt into a puddle.

I sigh deeply again. “God, I’d love that. You have no idea how badly I want to feel you, Ran. I miss you so much.”

“I miss you, too, baby. So fucking much.”

“That reminds me.” I adjust my pillow with my left hand while I hold my phone to my ear with my right. “Thank you for your message on Thursday. It was the best surprise.” I hesitate for a second. “Vada was actually in the car with me when I listened to your message and being the terrible influence she is, she made me call you back.”

“And you talked to Randi,” he says knowingly. I can tell he’s trying to keep his voice neutral.

“Yeah, I did.”

“I hope she was nice to you,” Ronan says, his voice low. “Randi can be a little rough around the edges.”

“She was very nice, actually,” I say. “When I talked to her, she said that you were with her that night, but not that morning, and then… Vada told me that Randi was your ex—and I remember you had told me about her last year—and then Vada said she has a reputation. So, I asked her what she meant by that and Vada said it means exactly what I think it means…”

“God, fuck,” Ronan groans. “Look, baby, Randi and I just hung out for a little while. She’s an old friend. There’s nothing—"

“No, I know!” I say quickly, wanting to put his mind at ease. It’s not my intention to upset or worry him. “I asked Stevie about her.”

“You talked to Steve about Randi?”

“Yeah, yesterday when we were hanging out at Shane’s. He made me feel a lot better. He was actually kind of angry at Vada for saying what she did. He said it wasn’t any of Vada’s business and that Vada had no idea what she was talking about.”

“Yeah, she really doesn’t,” he says, a slight edge to his voice. “I’ve known Randi since we were kids. She lived on the ranch with us for about six months when I was ten. When I ran into her last week, she just showed up in the middle of the night and we hung out for a little bit to catch up. I told her about you and when I told her I’m not really allowed to talk to you, she handed me her phone to call you. I obviously couldn’t resist the opportunity. I wanted to hear your voice so badly,” Ronan says, his baritone voice causing my heart to beat furiously in my chest.

“I’m sorry, Ran, I shouldn’t have brought it up.” I thought about not mentioning Miranda to him at all; it feels like it’s just an extra thing to add to his already-heavy shoulders. I don’t want him to stress about my feelings or worry about having to make me feel secure in our relationship, but I also don’t want to withhold stuff from him.

“No, please don’t say that. I want you to talk to me about anything and everything on your mind, baby. This distance between us is already making it so fucking hard,” he says. “I just need you to know that… that I miss you so much. I love you, and you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I know,” I say and cough again, my head pounding. I groan and sniffle. “Miranda said she was planning on making you skirt the rule about not calling me a lot whenever she saw you,” I say with a quiet giggle. My throat hurts so badly.

“That definitely sounds like Randi. She’s never been someone to follow the rules,” Ronan says with a chuckle. “Baby, you sound like you feel terrible.”

“I do. I think I might be running a fever.” I feel my own forehead and cheeks with my left hand.

“I don’t want to at all, but I should let you go. I want you to try to get some sleep.”

My heart squeezes in my chest. “I don’t want to hang up with you,” I whine, but I know he’s right. I feel like total crap and should probably try to sleep. “Oh, hang on a second,” I say as my mom steps into my bedroom.

“Kitty, a young man just stopped by for you. He said his name is Drew and he dropped off some egg drop soup for you. He heard you weren’t feeling well,” my mom says, her eyebrows raised, studying my face.

“Oh.” I don’t really know how to feel about Drew randomly dropping by my house. “Did he leave?”

My mom nods. “He said he just wanted to drop this off for you and that he hopes you feel better soon. I have it downstairs, if you want to eat a little bit,” she says, then leaves me to continue talking to Ronan.

“Drew just stopped by and dropped off soup for me because he heard I was sick.”

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