“Right, right.”
“I tried calling Chrissea back a hundred times at least, but every time she hangs up.” He scuffed the toe of his boot against the asphalt and grumbled, “And now my cell’s as dead as Dotty, and I had no change for the pay phone.”
I winced sympathetically.
“She’s not an easy woman, my Chrissea,” he said proudly. “That’s why I love her.” Then he sighed. “But she’s gonna cost me a fortune in quarters.”
“That’s tough,” I agreed. “But maybe—” My phone rang in my pocket, and I took it out, half expecting it to be Rafe saying he’d come down with a rare disease somewhere between the restroom and the soda fountain and he’d need to cancel the second half of our road trip…
But it wasnot.
“Oh my God! Sorry, Chet, I’ve gotta take this,” I said excitedly. “It’s my sister.”
He grinned and lifted a hand in goodbye, and I hit Accept as he started to walk away. “Aimee! Aim, are you there?”
After a second’s pause, my sister’s voice came over the line. “Yeah. Hey. It’s me.”
Her voice was scratchy-rough like she had a cold, but so familiar that I felt my throat go tight. I hadn’t fully realized how worried I’d been until that moment.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine. I—”
“Aimee, you’re not fine. You’re in the hospital—”
“Jay, stop interrupting! Iamin the hospital, you’re right. I had a surgical procedure, and I’m recovering, and it’s… slow. But I’m telling you I’m fine because I am. Okay? Better than I’ve been in a while.”
I swallowed. “Yeah. Yes. Okay. Surgery for what?”
Aimee hesitated. “I owe yousomany explanations, Jay. But this is a long freakin’ story, and I’m so, so tired. I’m not up to it right now. I just called because I got your five billion messages, and I didn’t want you to worry any more. Okay? I’m here, I’m good. I love you.”
“Okay.” I clutched the phone more tightly. “Yeah. We’ll talk about it when we get there.”
“When you… get here?”
“Yeah, we should be there tomorrow or the next day. I wanted to be with you. To make sure you knew you weren’t alone in dealing with… whatever’s going on.”
“Wait, who’swe?”
“Rafe? I uh… contacted him—” Punched him. Same diff. “—when I heard you were sick, so we’re driving up there from Florida right now.”
“Rafe.” She paused uncertainly. “Do you mean… Young Rafe?”
I frowned. That was a really odd way to refer to her ex-husband and the guy she’d put down as her emergency contact, wasn’t it? But then again, she was in the hospital and probably out of it. No wonder she was confused.
I clutched the phone tighter. “Yes. Yeah. Young Rafe.”
“You’retogether?” She gave a raspy gasp. “Sweet baby Jesus, it’s a miracle! You worked things out and you’re friends again! You stopped avoiding him!”
“What? No! We haven’t worked anything out. There’s nothing to work out.” I scowled. Sure, he’d called my name when he was fucking another guy, and I’d been hard all night after fantasizing about him taking a perfectly innocent shower, and I supposed he’d bought me pancakes to make sure I didn’t die of malnutrition, but none of that meant we were friends. “We’re just two guys who grew apart after hehitme andinsultedme, and even though hekeepsinsulting me, he somehow believeshe’sthe injured party, so we’re engaged in a cold war standoff while hurtling down the highway in a rented van, and we’re only together because we both love you. Also,” I added, “I haven’tavoidedhim. Don’t be insane.”
“Oh, Jay,” she croaked. “You avoided him for years because you hated knowing you weren’t as important to him as I was, after he and I got married. You admitted it to me, back in Tampa. Under the influence of tequila.”
“I… I…” I stammered helplessly, feeling my anger and righteousness deflate like a balloon. Damn fucking tequila.
There was a commotion in the background, and a female voice said, “Dr. Clemmons said five minutes on the phone, Ms. Rollins.”
“Just five more seconds, April. Pinky promise,” Aimee vowed. To me, she said quickly, “Look, I’ve done alotof thinking about you and Rafe over the last year since our breakup. Alot. Especially the last couple weeks after the tabloid thing, and… Well, like I said, I have a lot of explaining to do. And apologizing. And I know it’s not my place to interfere, but…” She broke off with a slight cough. “Ugh.Anyway, I’m pretty sure Rafe thinks you stopped calling him years ago because you were too busy living like a rock star. So. Use that information as you see fit.”
