Page 77 of Make Your Save

“Ford.”

My brain is still hung up on the food situation and I don’t even register what he said. “Can I justget a pasta salad from the deli counter or something?”

“Carson Ford.”

“What?” I respond, holding my phone against my ear as I pause in the aisle, standing in front of the mac and cheese section.

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you bring to Lincoln and Nova’s tonight. I don’t plan on going.”

My eyebrows pull together. “What? The girls are insistent on making this a thing.” I let out a deep sigh, rolling my eyes in frustration. “You don’t get to get out of this. You have to go tonight and if Hadley isn’t sick, she should probably come too.”

“Hadley can’t come because she fucking left.” He mutters a curse under his breath. “I just dropped her off at the airport and she’ll be on a flight to California in an hour.”

My entire body falls rigid. “You let her leave?”

“What the fuck was I supposed to do, Ford? Beg her to stay?”

“Umm, yes, you idiot.” This time when I roll my eyes, it’s because I can’t reach through my phone and smack him. “If you love her, you can’t let her go.”

“I can’t ask her to stay, Carson. She has plans, she has a life to live. I can’t ask her to stay here when I can’t give her the relationship she deserves.”

I’m silent for a second as I chew on his words. “I’m confused why you think you can’t give her what she deserves...”

He lets out a harsh breath. “My schedule is far too demanding and we’re gone so often. I don’t want her tobe with me and feel like I just want her around to take care of Lucy.”

Man, he really is dumber than I thought.

“Rowan, she already knows and understands your schedule.” I pause, trying to figure out how to go over this without telling him he’s stupid. “If you don’t want her to feel that way, then don’t make her feel that way. Tell her how you feel, tell her you want her here because you wanther.”

“It’s too late,” he mumbles after a beat or two of silence. “She’s already in the airport and probably heading to her gate.”

“Where are you?” I ask him, shifting my weight on my feet as I absentmindedly survey the boxes of mac and cheese again.

“Sitting in a drop-off area outside of the airport.”

I thought he had more than two brain cells, but now I feel like I’m talking to a replica of my own brain.

“Rowan . . . bro. Seriously, what the fuck are you doing?”

“I was getting ready to come home but Lucy started crying, so I pulled over and then you called—” He rambles, his explanation a string of words, but I abruptly cut him off.

“Turn the hell around and go get her. You cannot let her get on that plane,” I tell him, my voice urgent. “You need to find her and tell her how you feel, and then it’s up to her whether she decides to go or not.”

“I don’t want to sway her decision.”

Good Lord. How the hell can he not see what’s right in front of his face? It’s as clear as day thatHadley is in love with him. I sigh again. “Do you love her?”

“Yes.”

“Have you told her that?” I question him again.

“No.”

“Well, then, she’s not making a well-informed decision, is she?” I say, shaking my head at how ridiculous this is. If he would have just communicated with her, this could all have potentially been avoided.

I also know how important Hadley has become to my best friend, and the last thing I’m going to do is let him fuck this up.

“Here is what you’re going to do—you’re going to go into the airport, buy a fucking bullshit ticket to wherever the hell the next plane is going, get through security, and find her. You’re going to find her and you’re not going to let her be the one who got away, do you understand me?”

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