Page 80 of Lucky in Love
“Let yourself out.” He grabbed his phone, keys, and laptop bag and hurried out, ignoring her protests and questions.
Once on the highway, he picked up his phone to call Alex. She might still be mad, but he wanted to let her know what was going on.
At his touch, the screen came to life and flashed a picture of Chloe. That wasn’t his screensaver.
“Crap,” he muttered. In his haste to rush out, he’d grabbed her phone instead of his. Too far down the freeway and desperate to get to his mother as soon as possible, he threw the phone onto the passenger seat. No time to deal with that now.
Barely five minutes later, Donna Summer’sHot Stuffrang out from the seat beside him. He looked at the screen to see that the incoming call was from him.
“You have my phone,” he said in greeting.
“Yeah. I know. I need mine back. Where are you?” Chloe said, a bite to her words. Hopefully, that meant she’d accepted his rejection.
“I’m halfway to Hartford,” he lied. “You can stop by on your way back to New York and we’ll swap, or I’ll mail it to you later.”
“Iflewhere, Brody.”
“Oh, well, I can’t help you then.”
“I can’t go without a phone,” she said in a panic. “When are you coming back here?”
“I don’t know.” He couldn’t really go without a phone either, but didn’t have time to backtrack.
“Forget it,” she snapped. “I’ll stop in Portsmouth and get a new one. I can’t believe I was going to give you a second chance.”
Shewas going to givehima second chance? On what planet did that make sense? Rather than question her, he just thanked his lucky stars he’d dodged that bullet.
“Can you look up a phone number for me?” he said, realizing he hadn’t memorized Alex’s number. “Alex Gray. It’s in my contacts.”
“Who’s Alex?”
“A friend.”
There was a pause while he assumed she was searching.
“It’s a woman,” Chloe said, making him regret adding Alex’s picture to her contact info.
“Yes. What’s the number?”
“Are you dating her?”
“Yes. What’s the number?”
There was another long pause before she responded. “Screw you, Brody.”
The line went dead.
“Damn it,” he grumbled.
At least she hadn’t changed the passcode. It wasn’t his phone, but it wasaphone. He searched Whispering Pines and called the office number listed on the website. It was Sunday afternoon, so he wasn’t surprised to get the voicemail.
“Alex. It’s Brody. My mom was in an accident, and I’m on my way Hartford now. Long story, short, I don’t have my phone.Please call me at this number.” He rattled off Chloe’s phone number and hung up.
He’d try again from the hospital, but knew it was possible no one would hear the message until the next morning. Would Alex miss him for dinner? Or just assume he was staying away because she was mad?
Having been busy with his mom, he and Alex hadn’t had a chance to talk about his Thanksgiving night love declaration. Or the fact that it had gone unanswered.
It had been too soon. He realized that now. Who says they love someone after only six weeks? It was a miracle she hadn’t already cut bait and run for the hills over that overly-eager faux pas.
