Page 110 of The Wild Card
My heart races for no good reason at all as I tap out a simple message:Hey, it’s Molly.
A message pops up immediately.
Collin:It’s Pat on Collin’s phone. Collin is yelling at me to let him talk to you, but he’s driving. Safety first!
Collin:But he says to tell you Liza is a liar and that he’ll buy you a phone as soon as he can and he can’t wait to kiss you.
Collin:He said I have to tell you that I added the last part about kissing but it’s true.
Collin:Fine. I added that too. But it IS TRUE. And he says he’ll talk to you as soon as he can but the wedding stuff might mean it takes a little while. He also said he loves you.
Lindy, who’s been unabashedly reading every text, gasps. I drop the phone.
Even though I know it’s Pat texting and, because it’s Pat, he’s probably just messing with me, seeing those words sends a whole wave of emotion cascading through my chest. Probably because I’d love to hear those words.
Not that I expected or even hoped for them so soon. But maybe soon-ish?
Lindy snatches the phone from the floor and immediately calls Pat. It’s not on speaker, but I can hear Collin yelling as soon as Pat picks up.
“Collin is going to kill you,” Lindy says. “And you deserve it. Too far, Patrick Graham. Too far.”
“Too far for what?” Val asks as she and Jo walk into the room. They’re both wearing different styles of the same deep-blue fabric as ours; Jo in a cute dress with short sleeves, and Val in a longer maxi dress style. Val’s dark hair hangs long and loose down her back while Jo’s lighter brown hair is in two French braids.
Lindy holds the phone away from her ear because Collin is still yelling. “Pat’s taking things too far with Molly and Collin.”
Val looks from Lindy to me. “Too far with what? Sounds like someone needs to fill me in on a lot of things.”
“It’s just the whole thing where they’re pretending they’re fake dating but are actually really dating.” The look Lindy gives me is sly. “Yeah, we all know.”
I laugh nervously and decide to play dumb. “Know what?”
As I see Jo’s guilty face, I understand. “I told,” Jo says, sounding miserable. “I’m sorry.”
The secret is out; the fake dating ruse is over.
Honestly, all I feel is relief.
I wrap an arm around Jo’s shoulders and give her a hug. “Oh, sweetie. It’s fine. It was all meant to just be fun.”
“You’re not mad?” she asks, looking up at me hopefully.
“Of course not. Collin won’t be mad either.”
“Collinsoundsmad. I could hear him yelling.”
“Not at you,” Lindy says, tugging on one of Jo’s braids. “Daddy just opened his big mouth and put his foot in it.”
“That’s a gross expression.” Jo hops up and heads to the door, apparently done with the adult conversation. “I’m getting a snack.”
“How close are you?” Lindy asks, putting the phone back to her ear. She listens for a moment, though I’m not sure how she can hear since Collin’s voice is still carrying loudly through the phone. “Fine. We’ll see you then.” She turns to me with a smile. “Sorry about that. Pat doesn’t see lines, so he doesn’t know when he’s crossing them. The good news is that now you know thatweknow y’all are really dating, you can stop pretending, and we can stop messing with you.”
I remember the photo shoot and wonder if they already knew then. Thinking of all the poses and the demands for touching … probably.
“What’s the bad news?” Val asks.
“The bad news is they got pulled over—not by Chevy—and Collin got a ticket. Guess he was in a hurry, racing here to try and see Molly. But now they’re running late, so you might have to wait until after the ceremony to actually talk to Collin. Think you can manage waiting a little more?”
Yes. But it’s the very last thing I want to do.
