Page 74 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

“You were right,” Bailey repeated, more sternly this time. Tess opened her mouth to keep talking, but she looked into her friend’s eyes and paused. Bailey looked tired and defeated, almost blank. Now wasn’t the time. Bailey was here, and that was good enough for her. They could get to the in-depth opening up of their souls when they were ready.

Bailey pulled out of the hug and offered her a distant smile. “I’m glad you let me know I went too far.” Then she shrugged and rolled her eyes. “And I’m kind of impressed you stood up for yourself. So, I will stand up too and admit I messed up as well. To make it up to you, I tried to find him. Jonah, I mean. But—” she shook her head “—that boy totally went off the grid. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I even drove into Bristol and met his scary parents.”

She let out a disgusted breath. “Thanks for warning me about them, by the way. That was one encounter I could’ve lived without for the rest of my life.”

“You—” Pressure filled Tess’s chest. Leaping at Bailey again, she gave her another hard, enveloping hug. “You’re the best friend ever. I swear. You went through all that for me? You didn’t have to do that.”

Bailey tentatively hugged her back. “Um…not to get out of your good graces or anything, but are you forgetting the part where I pushed him out of your life in the first place?”

Tess pulled away to send her a watery grin. “You didn’t. Not really. But, hey, you know me. Even if you had, it’s fine. I can’t stay mad for long.”

“Obviously,” Bailey muttered. “Your guy is a nationally recognized bully, and you got over that one before you even seemed to be…under it.” Then she paused. “Not that I’m judging or butting in where—”

“You’re not butting in.” Blowing out a breath, Tess smiled. “He wrote me a letter.”

Bailey glanced up. “A letter?”

Growing excited, Tess reached for it on the bed where she’d dropped it. After she explained Logan’s thievery, Bailey scanned through it. The more she read, the deeper her eyebrows furrowed. “What other guy?” she finally said.

“I know, right?” Tess shook her head. “I have no clue what he’s talking about. Paige and Logan are going to try to get me an address of where to find him so I can set him straight.”

“Men.” Bailey slung her arm around Tess’s shoulder and walked them to Tess’s bed so they could sit together. “What else did I miss around here?”

“Not much.” After licking her lips, she leaned over to rest her head on Bailey’s shoulder and took her friend’s hand, squeezing warmly. “What about the other thing I said to you, though? Are you mad at me for telling you?”

Bailey cleared her throat the slid her hand out from under Tess’s. “What other thing?” She shrugged away and stood up to return to her side of the room. When she began to clean, making her bed and picking up clothes off the floor, Tess knew something was definitely up. Bailey never cleaned.

“About your mom,” Tess said anyway.

Without looking at her, Bailey merely shook her head. “Not sure what you’re talking about.” She tossed an armful of shirts and jeans into a nearby basket. “So, I’m like obscenely behind on my laundry. I’m surprised some of these dirty clothes haven’t gotten up and run off on their own they’re so rank. I’ll be down in the laundry room.”

Tess bit her lip and kept quiet as she watched her friend march toward the door. She hated to see Bailey in this much denial, but she wasn’t going to push and butt in. She’d just be here when her friend finally faced it.

When Bailey opened the door, though, she almost collided with Paige lifting her hand to knock. Tess gasped and nearly shoved her roommate aside to talk to Paige.

“Did you give her the letter?”

Paige sighed and held out the letter Tess had written. “I’m so sorry. She lost contact with him. She has no idea where he’s been staying, either. They used to meet every day at a pizza parlor across town, but a few days ago, he said he was doing okay and didn’t need to meet with her again. She hasn’t heard from him since.”

“A few days?” Tess echoed hollowly, her hopes sinking. She told herself this was good news. He could be accounted for as okay and healthy up until mere days ago. But now…now she had no idea where he was or what he was doing or even if he was okay.

She glanced at Bailey. “Do you think I’ll ever see him again?”

But Bailey didn’t have an answer, so the question lingered in the air with a hollow, unsolved echo.

Where was he?

March passed into April, and before Tess knew it, May arrived. The new buds that had popped out on the trees around campus were now flowering in full bloom. Classes began to wind down for the semester, and students worked diligently to finish term projects and turn in papers for their final grades. Dead week was coming up in days.

Tess was beyond ready for the summer break to start. She needed time away from Granton and all the memories it had given her since January. She needed time to heal.

“Come on,” Bailey said one day after their professor had let them out early from one of the classes they shared. “Let’s go out to eat somewhere off campus for lunch. I want to get out for a little bit.”

Since Tess felt the same restlessness, she agreed. Things between them had finally returned to normal again. It had been awkward at first. Bailey had been a lot more hesitant to be herself. And Tess kept having to bite her tongue not to bring up Bailey’s mother issue, but after a few weeks, and one more cowboy spotting—where the slippery devil once more unknowingly evaded them—the old open, honest Bailey eventually returned.

As they left Grammar Hall and started for their car, they were intercepted by Paige and Logan.

“Hey, where’re you guys going?”

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