Page 8 of The Heart of the King

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Like Jazz expected, as soon as it had enough power, her phone buzzed nonstop with text messages and voicemails from her friends.

She sent a quick one to Tessa, her roommate for the weekend, telling her that she was okay and would be in contact soon.

A quick scroll back to the last text Jazz sent told her she’d already assured Tessa that she was fine several times.

Her phone buzzed with another call. “Hey, Tess,” she answered.

For a full minute and a half, Jazz held her phone away from her ear and listened to her friend alternately rant and gush. David-or-whatever-his-name-was tried to hide the amused look on his face, but failed.

What was she thinking? Staying married to a man she’d literally met twelve hours earlier.

While drunk.

The medication seemed to be kicking in, but was she really in a state of mind to make this kind of decision?

“Well?” Tessa asked. “We’re at the airport, but Wendy is refusing to leave until we know for sure you’re all right.”

At least Wendy’s fiancé had his own plane, and they wouldn’t be tied to a flight schedule.

“I’m fine,” she told her friend. “I ran into someone. I’ve got another way home. I’ll probably be home later today or tomorrow.” No sense in telling anyone she’d be leaving again almost immediately.

“Why didn’t you call your sister?” Jazz’s sister had been on the trip, too.

“She has enough on her plate.” With three kids, anyone would. “I’ll talk to you later. But I promise, I’m fine.”

“All right.” Tessa still didn’t sound convinced. “I’ll see you later this week.”

“Love you, Tess.” Jazz refused to commit to seeing her friend when it was highly unlikely she would.

“Love you, Jazzy.”

“Everything all right?” WhateverHisNameWas asked.

“Yeah,” she replied with a sigh. “One of my best friends was my roommate on this trip. They’re all at the airport, but Wendy’s fiancé is some kind of techno wizard billionaire or something and has his own plane. They were waiting to hear from me again before they left. They should be heading out soon.”

“We need to as well. We can be taken directly to the plane so there’s no need to worry that we’ll run into them if they’re still around when we get there.”

“Hopefully, they’ll be long gone by then. I wouldn’t want to run into them at the Springfield airport either.” She flopped back onto the bed with her eyes closed. “I really don’t want to see anyone while I’m there, but I should probably try to get in touch with my parents. They may be out of town.”

Holding her phone over her head, she opened the group texting app and sent a message to the group set up for the trip.

I’m fine. I promise. I ran into a friend. I’ve got a flight home in a couple of hours. I’ll tell y’all about it later.

She wouldn’t tell them everything, most likely, but she would tell them enough.

Messages came back fast and furious, including a text from her worried sister. Jazz texted her back and told her to go ahead and leave. Everything was fine. She’d talk to her sister soon.

“My sister is going to drop my luggage at my apartment,” she told him. She sent another text to Tessa letting her know that she wouldn’t be at work at Beach Reads for the foreseeable future. It was the best job. They let her work as much as she wanted, when she wanted, without worrying about taking off when she wanted to travel.

He looked up from his phone. “Good. If they’re taking off now, they should be fine, but there’s a storm coming through shortly. It’s not a big one and may not even be near the airport, but my security team won’t let us go until it’s passed or lessened. We won’t be able to leave until after that blows through. They should land a couple of hours before us.”

“That’s probably best. My sister has little kids. Hopefully, she won’t try to wait around at my place for me.”

“What about your other friends?”

“Tessa is probably the only one who would wait, but I doubt she will either.”

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