Page 54 of The Situation
“Don’t worry, Aurora. We’re going to dazzle them with our abilities,” she says, a nod punctuating her statement. “By the sound of it, it’ll be the second time you’ve dazzled someone this week.”
“Tally …”
She heads for the door. “I’m kidding. I won’t bring it up again, but I couldn’t let that opportunity pass.”
“Meet me in the conference room at nine fifty.”
“I’ll be there.”
She closes the door behind her.
I sit back in my chair and grab my coffee, letting the heat of the mug warm my hands. For the first time since the start of the weekend, I’m able to catch my breath. I can think clearly, too.
Tate’s smile pops up in my brain.
Well, kind of clearly …
ChapterTwelve
Tate
“That’s a no.”
I deny Gannon’s call and pull out of my neighborhood.
The Monday morning sun is bright and warm. It should be enough to lift my spirits. Even if I wake up in a bad mood, the sun has a way of straightening me out before I get to the office.
Usually.
I have a feeling that won’t work today.
Gannon calls again. I deny him for a second time.
I kept my eyes open for Kelly all day on Saturday. That night, I sat at the bar in Ruma for far too long in hopes that she’d come down for dinner. I watched for her at the airport on Sunday and spent my time sitting in the traveler’s lounge searching for her online.
Social media platforms. Search engines. I looked everywhere I could think of … and came up empty-handed.
The only Kelly Kapowski who came up for me was a fictional character.
Another call from my eldest brother. I send him to voicemail just as fast as I did the first two times.
This thing with Kelly is bizarre. I don’t understand it. She wrotecall meon the note she left behind. But how do I call her with no number?
It must be an unfortunate omission or misunderstanding. That’s all. Or maybe her name is Kellyanne or Keely, and everyone calls her Kelly.
Yeah. It has to be something like that. What else could it be?
If I were a lesser man, I might entertain the idea that the name was made up so that I couldn’t find her. If I were anyone else—Gannon, for example—I’d expect that she probably played me or used me for my dick. Guys like that get taken advantage of all the time.
But I’m me. That’s not the case. I’m a catch.
I downshift and slide into the middle lane to pass a car piddling around in the fast lane.
My phone rings yet again, and I start to decline it. But just before I do, I notice the number is Carys’s and not Gannon’s.
My stomach tenses.What if something’s wrong? What if something happened to Ivy?
Shit.
