Page 83 of A Summer Mismatch
He shook his head. “Absolutely nothing, except following your lead.”
“I like the sound of that. I’ve got a team of willing helpers, and with you not working against us this time, we may have a chance.” She paused. “But what about Smitty?”
“I’ll text him.” He pulled his phone from his front pocket. “I’m a pro at it now.”
“Oh, are you?” She laughed and pulled out her own phone. “Look at us, hip with the times,” she murmured, and he saw her pull up a group text with her friends.
“So hip,” he agreed as he pulled up his text thread with Smitty.
Horace:We messed up.
Smitty:Yes, we did.
Smitty:What are we going to do to fix this?
Horace:I don’t know, but I have a team of experts willing to help.
Smitty:Good, because Lydia is not happy with me right now.
Horace:These guys can help you with that too.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Julia
“Wecandothis.”Julia took a deep breath and got out of her car at the wildlife center. She still hadn’t heard from Logan, and it made her nervous that she’d have to see him face to face now. But perhaps it was for the best. She could finally explain herself and everything that had happened.
So far, she’d done a lot of things today that had taken courage.
She’d gone into work, where she worried Mr. Meyers would be angry at her. Instead, when school was over, he asked her if she was okay taking the van home and filling it up with gas, rather than just assuming she’d do it. And when she told him she couldn’t do it today, but would have to wait until Thursday, he’d agreed that would work as well.
Then after work, she’d looked up the name of a counselor her insurance covered and made an appointment to meet with her. Those self-help books might have highlighted all the areas that she lacked, but one thing most of them agreed on was that talking to a professional could do a world of good. Excitement sizzled through her at the thought of taking charge of her life and who she wanted to be.
Then she’d emailed her agent and admitted that her book wasn’t ready for submission yet, despite the due date looming Friday, but that she was working hard on it, and would finish it soon.
Weights she’d been carrying around fell off her shoulders and she relished the lightness.
Now to talk to Logan. She could do this. And with Cameron pulling her arm eagerly to get her to move faster, she really had no choice at this point.
When they got to the elephant enclosure, she frowned when she only saw Lulu and June there. Was Adia still in quarantine? Lulu seemed down, and June even more offish than usual.
“Vet,” Cameron asked. The button for vet was a man with a stethoscope, holding a dog. “Vet.”
“I’m not sure where Logan is,” she said as she sat beside him on the bench. She hadn’t considered that he might not even come out to see them. Was he so angry at her, he’d avoid Cameron too?
Her own irritation rose. Perhaps she didn’t want to see him either. The ball wasn’t just in his court. If he was going to shut her out like this, then he wasn’t the kind of man she wanted to be with anyway.
Except, she really, really wanted to be with him.
She groaned and held her head in her hands. More fodder for her new therapist, she supposed.
A hand touched her shoulder. Her heart leapt when she looked up, and then stumbled and fell when she saw Kai standing there. She hadn’t realized there was something worse than Logan not coming out to see her, but there was. And it was sending his friend to do his dirty work.
“Hey, Julia. Hey, Cameron. Pound it.” He held his fist out, and Cameron gave him knuckles.
“Vet,” Cameron pressed again.
“Logan’s not here today, but I know he’ll be bummed he missed you.” He looked at Julia. “You both, I mean.”
