Page 70 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

Later lasted a week and two days. Bailey missed classes. She didn’t answer any of Tess’s phone messages or texts. She didn’t even respond to Paige’s attempts to reach her. Tess finally called her farm, braced to face the wrath of Mr. Prescott for letting the cat out of the bag about her mom. But, thank goodness, one of Bailey’s brothers instead of her dad answered.

“I’ve never seen her like this,” Brock—or maybe it was Bennett—confessed. “What the hell happened?”

Shocked he didn’t know, Tess told him what information she’d leaked, and he cursed under his breath. “Shit, Tess. This could completely change Bailey as we know her.”

Gulping down a rise of tears, Tess sniffed. “I hope not.” And she meant it from the bottom of her heart. She missed her best friend, the filterless loudmouth best friend she’d known since birth.

Now it felt as if she had two gaping holes in her.

Eight days after Bailey had left, Tess was about to go crazy. Everything just…dragged. When a knock came on her bathroom door, rattling her from a test she was studying for but couldn’t really concentrate on, she was beyond ready for a distraction.

“Yes?”

“Hey,” Paige said a bit too timidly as she poked her head into the room. When Tess saw Logan hovering behind her, she sat up on the bed and smoothed down her shirt to look more presentable.

After clearing the cobwebs from her throat, she asked, “What’s up?”

Paige glanced around, looking toward the other bed. “Is Bailey back yet?”

Tess sighed, sinking further into her doldrums. “No.”

No Bailey.

No Jonah.

She felt completely abandoned.

“Good.” Appearing relieved, Paige stepped fully through the doorway. When Tess’s mouth fell open in outrage, Paige immediately winced and covered her mouth. “I mean, not good that she hasn’t come back yet, but good that I caught you by yourself, because…” With a huffed sigh, she crossed her arms over her chest and sent her boyfriend an arched look. “Logan has something he needs to confess.”

“Oh?” Tess glanced over to find his cheeks had darkened as he smoothed his hand over his hair in a nervous manner. In the past month and a half since the shooting, he’d filled out more, looked healthier, and had stopped wearing his arm sling. It was hard to tell he’d ever been shot.

When he lifted his gaze from the floor and sent her a tense smile, her stomach dropped.

“Is this about Jonah?”

When Logan winced, dread filled Tess’s veins. “Oh, God. Not you guys too.” Had every friend she knew interfered in her life? “What did you do?”

“Nothing bad,” Paige assured her quickly, waving her hands in a placating manner. But then she, too, was wincing. “I mean, not too bad.”

“Why don’t I just explain?” Logan took Paige’s hand as he blew out a long breath. “After you and I had that little talk a month or so ago…” He paused and sent Tess a look as if to make sure she remembered which talk he was referring to.

Since they’d only ever had one, she nodded. “Yeah?”

“Right.” He nodded as well. “Well, after that, I wanted to help somehow. I knew you were worried about him, so I went to the counselor for my grief group. Samantha. She’s helped both Paige and me in the most incredible ways.”

When he glanced at Paige, his girlfriend shifted to his side and looped a supportive arm around his waist. He continued. “So, I thought she might be able to help Jonah as well.”

“And I guess she did,” Paige added. “After our meeting today, Logan and I were helping put the room back in order, and this terribly snoopy guy here came across a stack of files that belonged to Sam. One of them had Jonah’s name on it.”

“Really?” Tess popped to her feet, staring wide-eyed at her friends. “Did you open it?”

Logan and Paige exchanged

glances. Finally, Logan spoke. “I know I shouldn’t have, but you’ve been so sad lately. I just thought…if there was some kind of address inside, you could visit him and, I don’t know, get some closure…or something.”

Closure was the last thing she wanted. But an address that led her to Jonah…that would do nicely. “Oh, my God!” she rushed to Logan and grabbed his hands, unable to stop smiling. “Did you find one?” When he didn’t answer soon enough, she started to tug on her grip. “Please, please, please say you did.”

His face fell. Tess immediately dropped her hands from his and stepped back. “Oh.”

---