Page 49 of Love Letter Lost
“What?” His head jerked up, and he gave me a grin. “I wasn’t paying attention. I was texting Amber.”
“Just curious where we’re starting.”
“Probably picking up the supplies to finish all the centerpieces.” His voice trailed off as his phone dinged and he looked at the screen.
I groaned as I slumped onto the couch next to him. “I hate the craft store.”
Ridge looked at me with sympathy in his eyes. “We’re almost done. You can do it!”
“Fine, but after this wedding is over, I’m boycotting craft stores for the rest of the summer.” I sat a moment longer, trying to find the willpower to move. “Effort sounds hard right now.”
Ridge laughed. “Come on, it’s not that bad. You got a day off yesterday.”
I grabbed a pillow and hid my face behind it. I didn’t even bother commenting. Instead, I let my eyes close for a moment and listened to the AC kick on, the cool air making me shiver.
Ridge snatched the pillow from my hands. “No, you don’t.”
“I’m just resting my eyes.” I made a half-hearted attempt to get the pillow back. “Besides, the craft store isn’t open yet.”
“But the grocery store is, and I have to pick up snacks for the bachelor party tonight.”
“I didn’t realize you and David were that close.”
“We’re not, but Kyle invited me to tag along and asked for my help getting ready.”
“And that makes it my problem how?”
“Because you still don’t have a car, which means I’m your ride. If you want to make it for wedding setup later, then you’d better get your behind in my car. Otherwise, I’m leaving you here, and you’ll send Livvy into a panic attack with your absence.”
“Fine, but I’m going to complain the entire ride to the store.”
“It’s two minutes away.”
“Your point?” I pushed up from the couch and headed for the door, grabbing my phone from the table. A text from my mother filled the screen, reminding me that I had ignored her almost all day yesterday.
MOTHER: Call me when you get a chance. I have great news!
ME: I’m going to be busy all day. Can it wait?
MOTHER: Fine. But call as soon as you can.
The rest of the morning was spent running errands. Ridge had failed to mention that in addition to buying snacks, he also needed to pick up his suit from the dry cleaner and silly string and window chalk for decorating the car after the reception. I bit my tongue as he stopped at Milton Corp’s site to pick up some flyers for Amber, their yellow color familiar from the number of times I’d had to pull them off my tenants’ cars. Once we had all his supplies, we stopped at the craft store and grabbed our last few items. With everything loaded into the car, we headed to Orem for wedding setup.
We had just merged onto the freeway when Ridge’s phone began ringing. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced down, and grimaced before answering.
“Hello?”
“Rigdon!” Amber’s voice carried in the small space, making me flinch.
“Hi, Amber.” Ridge kept his eyes trained on the road, though I could see his shoulders hunch towards his ears. “What’s up? We just talked a few minutes ago.”
I strained my ears to hear what she said, but apparently she’d learned to use a quieter tone of voice within the last thirty seconds.
“I’m busy helping with Livvy’s wedding.” He paused. “No, I do not have time.” Another pause. “Amber, I told you a week ago that I wouldn’t be able to pick you up.” This time the pause was longer. “That may be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have—” He cut off, and I could hear indistinguishable sounds coming from her end of the line. “Can we not talk about this now?”
After another pause, Ridge said goodbye and hung up. There were no terms of endearment, and the sigh that escaped as he set down his phone made me frown. What was going on? When we’d talked yesterday, he had been ready to propose despite his doubts, but there appeared to be trouble in paradise after all.
“So, Rigdon?” I finally asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence that filled the car.
