I was unsure why Searcy was there sans kids, but I imagined it had a lot to do with her sister living next door to me.
The shower I took was quick and efficient, mostly because if I had to stand for any longer, I might very well die.
I’d just gotten out and started to dry myself off when I heard my phone buzzing on the counter.
I ignored it, instead focusing on getting dry and putting some clean clothes on.
Once I was fully dressed, I started to walk toward my bed when my phone’s buzzing could be heard a second time.
I picked it up and shoved it into my pocket, my plan to answer once I got another bottle of water in me. However, that plan didn’t work out seeing as it started to immediately buzz again, signaling another call.
I pulled it out of my pocket and saw Harlow’s name flash across the screen.
I seriously contemplated not answering it, not having the energy to deal with Harlow’s upbeat personality right then.
However, based on the number of missed calls on my screen, it must be important.
Harlow didn’t call ten times without needing something.
Though, the last time it was because her car was broken down halfway between Dallas and Paris, and she needed a lift home.
Her boyfriend, the joke of a man that he was, had no vehicle knowledge. Oh, and he had zero male tendencies that wanted to protect and serve.
He’d rather let someone else take care of his girl than take care of her himself.
Groaning inwardly, I answered on the second to last ring and said, “Hello?”
I likely sounded as tired as I felt.
“Um, Jazz?” Harlow’s voice sounded hesitant. “I think we need you to get here as fast as you can.”
“What?” I asked, thinking nothing sounded worse than going to Paris where she lived after just running—and walking—twenty-six point two miles. “Why?”
I expected her to say a lot of things, mostly about her dumbass of a boyfriend.
What I did not expect were the next words out of her mouth.
“Because Calli’s been arrested, and it’s all my fault!”
It took me two hours to get there. By the time that I pulled up to the police station at the little po-dunk hole in the wall right off Main Street, my nerves were frazzled and my anger was on point.
I just knew, somehow, this was Calli’s fault, and yet again I was having to clean up her mess.
“You will pry this watch off my cold, dead hands!” I heard screamed the moment I breached the doors of the small office.
“I’ll take that watch and throw it in the garbage if you don’t give it to me!”
“I won’t take it off, you fuckin’ nut job. It’s a twenty-nine-thousand-dollar watch, and it doesn’t even belong to me. It belongs to my neighbor. If you lose it, I’ll never be able to pay it back off. It has sentimental value. Which I’ve already told you. So either you can let me keep it, or you can let me go!”
I heard some officers muttering, but I couldn’t help but smile at her words.
That was why I’d had Haggard’s good buddy, Taos, drop it off to Calli.
I knew that she would look out for it while I was running.
I still couldn’t believe that Haggard and Sophia had Dad’s watch—something he’d found in the goddamn gutter and worn until the day he died—restored for me.
At the time of my dad’s passing, he’d been wearing it on his wrist.
