Page 32 of Whenever You Call

To the open talks we’d had.

The lack of judgment he’d passed.

Instead of saying his name, though, my smile grew, and I pointed to the tree behind Chase. “See that microphone hanging down over there? Bella came up with an amazing idea. One I think Cole would have loved.”

Chapter13

LOGAN

Jerry and Buck were on my ass constantly after seeing me on the news with a stumbling Jasper Fucking Jacobson the other night. Not only had I had several calls from them, but there’d also been a couple of official emails from the people who actually hired me, questioning whether I was ready to return to work after just two weeks. Apparently, my recent shift in behavior had become a concern for all parties involved.

Brilliant.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that I thought I’d become a total loser, every fucker out there now thought I’d become obsessed with Cole Newman’s former life and was trying to integrate myself into it to make up for feelings of guilt that ate me alive at night.

Part of me wondered if they were right.

Everything was getting real weird, real fast.

On top of all that, Hannah hadn’t called.

She had to have seen the news. She had to have seen me standing there next to Jasper, even though I tried to shield my face from the cameras. She had to have heard about it from someone…

And she still hadn’t called, making me think that it was the end of everything.

The gym hadn’t done a damn thing for me over the past two days. Long hikes, trips to the diner, and even an early preview of the latest blockbuster movie had done nothing to take my mind off of Hannah, and that right there had become the fucking problem.

More guilt. More shame. More fucking issues than GQ.

Wasthis some fucked up, misplaced sense of attachment I felt to the widow of a man who died at my hands? Or was it because of her sweet voice, her damaged heart, her sad yet gorgeous smile, or the fact that when her eyes stared back at mine, breathing felt easy for the first time in forever?

I shook my head to try and remove those ridiculous thoughts once and for all, but her face was a picture my mind didn’t want to erase, and all I could do at four o’clock in the afternoon on a regular weekday was throw myself back onto my bed, stare up at the ceiling, and wait for a sign that now was the right time to let it all go and move on.

Ten minutes passed by.

Then another twenty.

By the time an hour had been wasted, I began to drift to sleep. A sleep I welcomed.

I was about thirty seconds away from diving headfirst into that black hole when my phone buzzed on the comforter beside me, making my tired eyes blink open. I turned my head on the pillow to look at my cell, seeing ‘No Caller ID’ staring back at me on the screen.

Hannah.

I sat upright and pulled the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

Nothing but silence lingered down the line, yet despite everything my mind told menotto do, my heart had other ideas.

“Hannah?”

“I thought about not calling,” she said softly.

The sound of her voice made me close my eyes and fall back onto the pillow, my free hand coming up to worry my forehead. “I know,” I said carefully.

“A big part of me wanted to ignore you and make you go away for good.”

“I’m that bad, huh?”

“Apparently not. I’m here, aren’t I?” She sounded confused as fuck about why she’d called me at all.

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