Page 20 of Forbidden Hearts
“Then why are you asking?”
Talk about evasion. “You can just say you’d rather not tell me what happened.”
Phoebe lets out a long breath. “Fine. I’d rather not talk about it.”
I shake my head. “Nope. Now I want to know.”
“Well, I have no intention of telling you anything. Besides, if I hadn’t left, you wouldn’t have childcare. So, think about that, Mr. Grumpy Cop.”
While that may be true, my gut is saying something is off. “First, I’m not grumpy. Second, I didn’t say I was ungrateful. I just wondered why you’d leave.”
“It’s none of your business.”
She’s right. It’s not, but I’m intrigued, which is never a good thing. “Well, something clearly brought you home.”
“Yes, something did.” She glances at the clock. “Oh, look at the time! You’re going to be late to work. I hear your boss is a real stickler about time.”
If she were my sister, I would push relentlessly until I got a satisfactory answer. Brynn is notorious for running when things get rough and pretending nothing is wrong. Then the issue usually comes and smacks her in the face so Rowan and I have to pick up the pieces.
But Phoebe is not my sister.
She’s my daughter’s nanny.
“I’ll be home late, and then I’m off tomorrow. If you could stay the night just in case . . .”
She sighs. “I would rather not.”
“Okay, let me rephrase. I’ll need you to stay the night with Olivia because I have a huge caseload I need to catch up on. Thank you.”
“Anything you need,boss.”
Phoebe leaves the kitchen, and I grin, imagining bossing her around in other ways.
five
PHOEBE
“Hey, Phoebs!” Brynlee says when she spots me sitting in Sugarlips Diner.
“Brynn, hey!”
“Mind if I sit?” she asks while already pulling the chair out.
I smile. “Of course not.”
I’ve been here the last two hours, filling out applications and pulling copies of my transcripts from Penn as well as my grades and test scores from Iowa. I haven’t gotten all that far because every five minutes someone comes over to tell me how good it is to see me.
“What are you up to?”
“Just waiting for Liv to be done with school and working on some college stuff.”
“Oh? College stuff?”
“I’m transferring this year, so I have to fill out a ton of application stuff by the end of tomorrow.”
There are really only three options to consider for schools. One in Nashville, which was my first choice the last time I went through this. The second best would be in Illinois, which I got into last time, but is way too close to Jonathan. Then the last is in Texas, which I might take just because it’s the farthest from Iowa.
“Oh. Good luck. How is it going with the runtlet?”
