Page 15 of Right Where You Left Me
He laughs loudly. “You leave her alone. I can’t wait for her to tell me their names.”
“Do not encourage her.” I say and smile to myself. “Thank you, for being my best friend. Even after everything. I’m really lucky to have you.”
“Always, Em.” He says softly. “Call me next week, okay? Let me know how everything goes with this mystery woman. You didn’t even tell me her name.”
“Oh. Um, it’s Sage.”
“Sage.” He says softly. “Well, I can’t wait for you to tell me all about how things are working out. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Yeah, talk to you soon. Bye, Liam.”
The call clicks off and I duck my head under the warm bath water. Liam’s right. I am tenacious. And if there’s one thing I’m not going to give up on it’s making Sage forgive me. One way or another I’m going to get my apology out and I’m going to get her to talk to me. Now, I just need to figure out how to do that without her trying to bite my head off again.
Even if her attitude makes her even hotter.
CHAPTER 6
Sage
My fingers tap against my chin as I ponder between the two different sweets in front of me. Chocolate peanut butter cups or gummy sharks. I chuckle to myself before grabbing both. My phone buzzes in my back pocket and I shift my loot around so I can grab it.
“I promise I won’t be late.” I say before my sister can get a word out.
“Where are you? Why is your voice so muffled?” Piper asks through the phone currently propped between my shoulder and ear.
I shift the phone back to my hand, cradling the goodies I’ve grabbed from a variety of shelves into my other arm. “I’m at the candy store downtown.”
The silence on the other end of the line is louder than if she yelled at me. “Sage?—”
“You cannot possibly think I was going to show up to lunch, where my three favorite people on this planet will be, and not bring them treats?”
She lets out a heavy sigh. “Brody isn’t eating anything orange right now.” She says, resigned to her fate of sugar fueled children. “Don’t ask me why, but he’ll throw a fit if you give him anything even close to the color.”
“Noted. Thank you.” I say with a laugh, putting back a few items before walking toward the checkout counter. “Hey, Logan.” I say to the teenager manning the register. It’s crazy seeing him working here now. His family has owned this place for as long as I can remember. It seems like just yesterday his dad was here at the counter with a six-year-old Logan running around “helping.” He smiles as he enters everything I grabbed into their ancient register.
“Anything else?” He asks and I shake my head handing him my card. “Nah, my nephews are going to be happy with all that I think.”
“Oh, totally.” He says with a grin. “Hank brought them in the other day and you’d think he brought them into a gold mine.”
I chuckle. I doubt Piper knows that, but I won’t rat my brother-in-law out. “Thanks, Logan.” I say grabbing the plastic bag full of goodies and waving a hand in goodbye. I reach up to push the door open, but it swings out before I get the chance. Wide amber eyes meet mine as the person opening the door moves to enter.
“I—” Emma starts, but I push passed her before she can say anything else to me. I knew I’d run into her around town, it’s notthat big. But every time I see her I get angry all over again and I wish I could make it so we’d never have to interact outside of the cafe. I hate that it’s still affecting me, that I can’t move on. I don’t want to be reminded of how much she hurt me every time I see her stupid, smiley face. It makes the pain feel fresh…
I hear her calling after me, but I don’t turn around. I don’t acknowledge the sound of footsteps following behind me, until a soft hand grabs at my hoodie sleeve.
“Let go.” I say softly. “Please, Emma.”Please. Please, leave me alone. I can’t do this.
“Right.” She says, and the wobble of her voice has me turning to look at her. Her eyes are shimmering slightly and I suck in a breath at the feeling the sight of her upset gives me. A wave of protectiveness I shouldn’t feel hits me and I shove it down just as quickly as it came. “I’m sorry.” She says, fisting her hands at her sides. “I don’t know why I grabbed you, I just—” She lets out a wet laugh. “Today really sucks and I don’t know what I was thinking.” She turns and walks back toward the candy shop.
I stare at her back in shock. What the fuck is her deal? And why do I care so much? Ugh, Idon’t. It’s none of my business what has her acting so weird and so… sad.
I stare at the closed door of the candy shop longer than I mean to. My phone buzzes in my pocket and I answer without looking at it. “I’m on my way now.” I say.
“To where?” River asks.
“Oh. Thought you were Pipes. I’m meeting her and the fam for lunch, and I’m now late.”
“Ah.” He hums. “I was just calling to let you know I got you booked for a back piece tomorrow because you didn’t have anything on your books and the guy asked for you.”
