Page 59 of Love in Tandem
“I’m too far gone to stop now, baby.”
Her hair hung in damp ringlets around her face and all he could do was stare. Man, she was beautiful. He motioned his head to the stairs. “Go on up. I’ll see to the clothes. I still need to load the sleeping bags into the dryer anyway.”
She chewed on the corner of her lip. “You know, you don’t have to sleep on the floor. We could—”
“Nope.” The word fired fast from his mouth. He smiled to soften it. “Go on to bed, Charlotte.” He didn’t know what that kiss had meant. But anything more would mean mistake. She wasn’t the only one too far gone, baby. Only Zach was making sure he put a stop to it now.
Because as much as he hated to admit it, her stupid brother was right. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to hurt her.
He needed to remember why they were doing this challenge in the first place. So Charlotte could help out her mom. So Charlotte could start a music program in the town she loved. Not so Zach could break her heart when he moved to California, ending a relationship they never should have started.
Man, canoodling really did complicate things, didn’t it?
Sophia stared at her phone, willing it to buzz with a text message. An emoji. A GIF. A poorly constructed sentence. Anything.
For two days she’d stared at her phone, waiting. For two days, nothing. Not since nearly running Joshua over with her car. At least this time he’d given her his number before she drove away. And he did say she could call him if she needed anything.
Well, technically Sophia did need something. She needed an answer.
Charlotte and Zach should’ve reached the halfway point by now. The further they biked, the more painful it was going to be if there wasn’t any money. What was taking Joshua so long to give her a stinking answer? If he was still feeling overwhelmed, all he had to do was ask for help. Sophia would be there in a flash. Especially since Trusty Rusty had already gotten her car patched up again.
She tapped the screen, intending to send Joshua a friendly but strongly worded message, and bumped the call button instead. “Whoops.” Before she could cancel the call, he answered. Oh wow. Maybe he’d been about to call her. Maybe he was ready to ask for help. “Hey, it’s me.”
She waited for his audible sigh of relief or heartfelt exclamation along the lines of “Praise be to God! I’ve been fasting and praying these past two days in hopes you would call.”
What she got was a stretch of silence and, “I’m sorry, who?”
She cleared her throat. “Me. Sophia. Remember?” He had entered her contact information into his phone. She watched him. Had he forgotten to add her name? Or listed her as Strange Woman with Car Troubles?
“Oh. Sophia. Hi. Sorry. Yeah. Haven’t slept. Mind’s not firing on all cymbals.”
Or cylinders, apparently. “How long have you not slept? Surely not since Hopkins died.”
“No, I . . .” She thought they’d lost their connection until she heard a tiny snort. “Sorry, what?” he mumbled.
“Joshua, I’m coming over. Have you eaten supper yet?”
He said something she couldn’t decipher since it was delivered in the midst of a jaw-cracking yawn. She’d bring some food with her. “I’m on my way.”
Thirty minutes later, she found the small entrance to the driveway leading to the side of the property and made it to the house without needing a tow or breaking any headlights. Things were looking up already.
The setting sun painted the property in golden light with a backdrop of pinks and oranges. Juggling a paper grocery sack in one arm and a carton of drinks and takeout in the other, she kicked her car door shut, then took a moment to admire the stone fence. It really did add an extra layer of charm to the property.
D’Artagnan’s collar jingled as he danced around her, barking out a throaty greeting. “Hey, boy. How you doing? Did you miss me? Oh, you’re so handsome. Did you know you were handsome? I’ll bet you did. Sorry, I can’t pet you right now. But don’t worry. I brought you a treat. Do you like hamburgers? Of course you do.”
They carried on their conversation all the way to the front screen door, where she kicked the bottom of it a few times. “Hey, Joshua, you mind opening the door for me?” she shouted, looking inside for any signs of life in the dark entryway. “Joshua?”
She waited a minute, then used her chin to secure one of the grocery sacks against her body as she twisted the door handle. On her way to the kitchen, she glanced around. Notebooks and papers were spread all over the dining room table. Boxes of books and manila files flooded the floor. A narrow path snaked between cardboard boxes from room to room.
The house smelled like a used bookstore. If the disarray of belongings and boxes held any resemblance to Hopkins’s financial situation, it wasn’t any wonder Joshua had been losing sleep trying to sort it all out.
After finding some space on the kitchen table, she set down the food, then followed a narrow path back down the hallway, peeking into each room. Maybe Joshua was outside in that garagey-workshop building.
Nope, she found him. He was sitting in an upright chair next to a large wooden desk in what might be an office or library. His chin rested against his chest and a pile of papers blanketed his lap.
“Joshua?” Sophia whispered, not wanting to startle him. But she might as well have shouted, the way he jumped from the chair, scattering papers into a tornado as he darted glances around the room like he’d never seen it before. When his gaze landed on Sophia, he stared as if he’d never seen her before.
“I brought food,” she said, lifting her hands in surrender.
