Bri comes back and jumps up to sit next to me. “Talking to your man meat?”
I twist my ponytail behind me and sigh. “I like him.”
Bri tolerates no bullshit, ever. “But?”
“Oh, you know, that part where I just ran from my own wedding and probably have some trash to take out there.”
She fakes like she’s shaking my shoulders harder than she is. “Just enjoy iiiiit.”
I laugh. “Me? Enjoying things and not worrying about them? Never.”
“You’re a mess.” She’s quiet for a second, picking at her nails. “So Becca’s probably going to come to the barbecue tomorrow.”
I lift a brow. “Oh yeah? How was your evening?”
“Good,” Bri says with a coy look away from me.
“Hey, I told you about being a cum dumpster. You have to tell me about Eiffel Towering or whatever you got into.”
Bri cackles, then lowers her voice. “I don’t think you can Eiffel Tower with two women involved.” She starts moving her fingers around, trying to diagram it out in the air. “Unless it’s a narrow surface the person lying down is on and then she sits?—”
“I get it. How was it? Was it your first?”
She cocks her head to the side. “I guess we did Eiffel Tower, then.” I scream her name and she laughs again. “It was kind of amazing. Everything you’d hope for. And yeah, it was my first. Can check that off.”
“Would you do it again?” I ask.
“I think so. It was so hot. Crazy how adding one more person makes the activity level go up so much. It’s almost hard to keep track of everyone unless somebody’s just watching.”
I nod. “So Becca’s coming to the barbecue, but not Stone?”
Bri shrugs. “I guess he has to work.”
“Well, alright then,” I say, swiping over to check my phone app.
Despite the heat, my blood freezes.
There’s a received call from Rob. A three minute conversation around 9 p.m. I didn’t talk to Rob last night. I go to his contact and find something even worse.
Unblock caller
Meaning Rob’s number was blocked.
Not by me.
My hands quiver as I flip between apps, trying to figure out how this is possible.
“Bri,” I ask, my voice feeble. “Did you use my phone last night?”
She cocks her head back. “No, why?”
My breathing becomes ragged, matching the tremor reverberating through my body. “This is bad.”
A customer walks up. Bri gives me a quick look, assessing that I’m not in a good place to sell peaches. “I’ve got this one,” she says, hopping off the truck’s tailgate. “Go take a break.”
My hands shake, and fear sinks in from all sides. That’s who Jake was on the phone with. It wasn’t his phone in his hand—it was mine. Rob could come after me. He’s probably plotting his revenge. But the thing that makes me the most upset is that Jake did exactly what Rob did: controlled me. I’m in public, representing the farm so I can’t have a full breakdown here. I suck in one breath, then two, but my lungs feel like they’re full of sand. I do what I do best: convert my fear into rage.
I jam my phone in my back pocket and walk toward the front of the truck so customers can’t see me. I want to cry. I want to punch him. I want to push him into the muddy part of the pond. I want to load him up into a wheelbarrow full of manure.
