Page 83 of Love on Deck

“It’s just up here on the right,” Lauren said, directing Tucker through the parking lot of her apartment complex.

The truck pulled to a stop.

Lauren faced Tucker. “Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem.”

I got out of the truck and held the door for her. She passed me, swinging her bag over her shoulder, and I caught my brother’s eye.

His eyebrows rose, speaking their own language. You done messed up, didn’t you?

Yes, Tucker’s eyebrows, I did. Royally. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

I shut the truck door and followed Lauren toward her building.

She glanced at me over her shoulder. “You don’t need to walk me in. This wasn’t a date.”

That was news to me. “Lauren, listen. Give me a chance to explain—”

“It’s not a good time.” She walked through the front doors to the building.

I followed her. If we didn’t talk about this now, I was afraid I’d lose the opportunity to talk about it at all. “This project has been mine since the beginning. My boss had to sign off on everything, but that was only a formality—”

Lauren stopped walking, her gaze drawn to the grouping of couches in the lobby.

This was progress. “My proposal was solid, I swear—”

“Not a good time,” she said again through her teeth, her eyes narrowing on the couch. “Is that...?”

A figure sat up on the small loveseat, where she’d been previously curled up in a dark ball swathed in a plain violet dress, the honey-brown hair matted to one side of her head proving she had been laying there for a significant amount of time.

“Amelia?” Lauren asked. It took half a second for her to cross the lobby and pull her unsteady sister into a hug. “What happened?”

Amelia clung to Lauren, black mascara smudged beneath her eyes. Watching them felt like an intrusion, but walking away would be abandonment. I swept the lobby quickly for Kevin, but he wasn’t here.

Lauren pulled back a little, searching Amelia’s face. “Where’s Kevin? Is he hurt? Are you okay?”

“He’s fine,” she said, her shaky voice watery. “Probably. I don’t know.”

“You aren’t making any sense, Ames.”

Amelia gave herself a little shake, pulling away from her sister. She wrapped her arms around herself, and I noticed her ring finger was empty. Well, this screamed crisis.

“It’s over,” she whispered. “And I didn’t know where to go.”

Lauren tensed. “How long have you been here?”

“Just since last night. But I couldn’t go home to get that spare key, so I just waited.”

“Oh my gosh.” Lauren put her arm around Amelia. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“My phone died.”

“Come on, let’s get upstairs.”

“Can I do anything?” I asked, desperate to help, or at least understand what the heck happened.

Lauren speared me with a glare. “Not the best time, Jack.”

---