Page 51 of Falling for You
I shrug in response, it is weird that they aren’t here.
Rome pulls out his phone and dials Diane. Straight to voicemail. He tries Wayne. Same thing.
He looks at me and I know the same look is on my face. Something doesn’t feel right. Something in my gut is screaming.
“Try again,” I urge.
Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. You have reached—.
Rome hangs up and tries Wayne again.
Ring. Ring. You have reached Wayne, please—.
“Two rings means he ignored my call.” His eyebrows furrowed together in worry. Something is definitely not right.
I know we’re late but they still haven’t answered our text from earlier about traffic.
“Let me try.” I pull out my phone and type in Wayne’s number, since he ignored the call we know he at least has his phone on him.
You have reached Wayne Ryan, please leave your message after the tone.
With shaky hands, I hang up and try Diane.
You have reached, Diane, please—
“Both of their phones are off now.” I want to vomit. What does this mean? Where are they and why are they ignoring our calls?
“Should we just go to their house? Wait here? What do we do?” I ask, panic rising in my throat.
“Let’s wait fifteen more minutes and try to call them again.” He is saying the words, but he doesn’t want to wait, I can tell by his fidgeting in his seat. He keeps wiping his palms on his shorts.
I reach out and lace my fingers with his as we both sit in the cab of his truck, listening to the music as the minutes tick by. Our worry increases with each change on the clock.
The clock changes once more and it’s been fifteen minutes with no one showing up, and no one returning our calls or texts.
Rome tries to call each of them one more time and it goes right to voicemail again, for both.
He doesn’t say anything to me, he just throws the truck in reverse and burns rubber out of the park and ride.
We’re on the back roads this time, flying through small towns to get to the Ryans’ house.
I’ve never been so thankful that I insisted on getting their address and looking like the crazy one when I made sure that I had every single piece of information I needed, including the hospital closest to their house.
“Rome what is going on? Why aren’t they answering our calls? They should have been here almost an hour ago.” My voice cracks as I speak.
“I don’t know, Sunshine. But we’ll figure it out.”
The truck is going faster than it should on the curvy backroads, but we’re shaving minute after minute from the GPS.
Finally the GPS is telling us to turn onto the road we need. Most of the last hour has been filled with silence, neither of us wanting to talk.
Rome puts the truck in park and looks at me, “Do you want to come with me?”
“Yes!” I throw my door open, not waiting for Rome to come open the door this time.
We walk hand in hand up to the front door and knock. I notice the curtains swaying in the window and nod to it for Rome to see what I’m looking at.
He knocks hard on the door. No answer. He knocks harder. Still no answer. He hits harder again, on the verge of trying to break the door down, but knowing he can’t do that.
