Page 58 of Call It Home

"I'm sorry, Chase," I said softly. "I know how hard this must be for you."

“It’s fine. It is what it is, you know?”

I could tell he was trying to remain nonchalant, and now wasn’t the time to push him, not when I couldn’t be there to really try to talk to him about keeping her in the past. But that was hard when you lived in a small town and the person kept showing up.

“As long as you know that.”

“Yeah.”

He was quiet for a moment, and I knew he was working to push Anna back out of his head, where she belonged. My twin was strong. He’d be fine. I just wish Anna and her husband stayed in Nashville where he worked instead of continuously popping back into town as if rubbing it in everyone’s faces that he was important.

Sure enough, he changed the subject and caught me up on a few happenings, including that baby Olivia had started to roll over on her own.

“I hate I’m missing that.” We’d been so busy and so focused that it didn’t seem like that much time had passed for things to keep moving outside of our workspace.

“She’ll still be doing it when you get home. And Bri and Reid have sent out the wedding invitations.”

“Hard to believe our baby sister is getting married. I wish I had been able to be there more for her.” Bristol had sent me pictures of the three dresses she had narrowed her choices down to, and I’d had a long talk about them with her. But it wasn’t the same.

Part of me couldn’t wait to get home and see my family. At the same time, I hated that things with Mac would change. I wasn’t ready for our little cocoon that we’d built for ourselves here to end.

“Hey, she gets it. And no matter what happens with this competition, you know I’m proud of you, right?” he answered, his voice full of love and support. “We all are. Just don’t forget us little people once you’re a big-shot celebrity,” he joked, sounding more like himself.

“Thanks, Chase. I love you. And don’t dwell on Anna. She doesn’t deserve that much of your thoughts anymore.”

“If only it were that easy,” he muttered. “Good luck today,” he said louder.

“Thanks,” I said and hung up, just in time for the trailer door to open.

Mac stepped in, his eyes bright with excitement.

“You ready to tell me what you’ve been up to?” I asked.

“I figured out what we’re doing today.”

“Um, don’t you mean you have a suggestion? I wanted to go into town and see the stores. Maybe pick up some gifts to take home.”

He shook his head. “We can do that this afternoon. Right now, you need to get your shoes on and grab your jacket.”

“Why?”

“We’re going zip-lining,” he said with a grin.

My jaw nearly hit the ground. “What? You just decided that without asking me first?”

He crossed his arms and stared at me. “You do see the irony in that statement, don’t you?”

I glared back. “That was completely different. I knew you’d be good at this contest, and I was right. But you’re asking me to fling myself off the side of a mountain with only a string keeping me from plummeting to my death. Yeah, I can see how that’s the same.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s more than a string. Nor am I taking you halfway across the country for over a month, so I think I still win my point.”

My mouth snapped closed, unable to think of a better argument.

He picked my shoes up from where I’d haphazardly kicked them off and handed them to me. “Come on, Cam. It’s going to be fun. You said you wanted to do something adventurous while we’re here.”

“I changedmy mind,” I groaned. “Maybe we could just stay here and take a nap.” I moved closer to him. “Or maybe we could tire ourselves out in a much more fun way and then take that nap.”

“We can do that, too.Afterwe do this. Come on. Shake a leg, short stuff.”

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