“Can’t you just tell me now what’s happening?”
“It’s complicated. Please, just come over and we’ll talk. We…need to talk, as a family. I’m calling a family meeting.” Mom didn’t give me much choice in the matter. The desperate plea in her voice was enough to spur me into action.
Dare
My stomach wastight with uneasiness and had been since Calum dropped in unannounced. The anger he’d directed at me when he put two and two together wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it was the panicked anger over the blue trunk that had me concerned.
Connor was right, he hadn’t come here expecting to find the two of us together. He’d come here looking for a blue trunk.
After he left, I tried calling him. He sent me straight to voicemail. Then I texted him, telling him I was sorry and had meant to tell him sooner, but he left my text unread.
I gave him enough time to get home before I called Harper. She answered on the third ring.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Dare. Is Cal in yet?”
“No.” I could hear the concern in her voice. “Have you seen him?”
“He was just here at Frank’s, looking for a blue trunk?”
“Oh.” Harper let out a breath, her voice laden with emotion. “We-he…he found out something tonight and wanted to confirm if it was true, I guess. Did he happen to say where he was headed next?”
“No, he didn’t have much to say to me. He’s pretty mad at me right now,” I admitted.
“Why?”
“He found me with Connor,” I replied. “We’ve…kind of been seeing each other.”
“Oh.” Harper didn’t sound surprised by that news. “I don’t think he’s madatyou. He’s dealing with a lot. I don’t know if he told you about Raina?”
“Yeah, he did earlier today,” I replied, thinking back to when we were in the future recording studio. “He didn’t seem so pissed off then.”
“Yeah, well, that was before he found out there’s a little more to the story.”
I glanced over my shoulder as the kitchen to the doorway swung open. Connor walked through, her eyes full of confusion and concern. She still had no clue about Raina, but I couldn’t very well fill her in.
“Shoot me a text when he gets in, and I’ll let you know if I hear from him too,” I assured Harper.
“Okay, I’ll try calling him,” Harper told me before disconnecting the call. Connor waited until I’d pocketed my phone again before she spoke.
“Calum’s at my parents now, and my mom wants me to go home to talk. Apparently, we’re having a family meeting,” she said, her pretty brow furrowing with concern. “Can you drive me?” I nodded at her as I grabbed my coat off the hook.
I had a feeling I knew exactly what the family meeting was about.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
Connor
It didn’t takeus long to get to Lunenburg, and when Dare pulled up in front of my parents’ house, I was relieved to see Calum’s Jeep still parked in the driveway. I’d thought for sure he’d be gone by the time we pulled up.
Dare had been uncharacteristically quiet on the drive over, and I could tell his thoughts were spinning a mile a minute, but my own thoughts were a tangled mess in my head.
“I’ll just…cruise around until you’re done here?” Dare asked.
“I guess so.” I looked up at the house with a sense of forlorn dread. I wanted him to come in with me, I didn’t want to face whatever catalytic event was about to happen on my own. I knew it’d be a catastrophe. Not only from Calum’s dark mood, but I could sense it in the uneasiness that had ridden on my shoulders for far too long now.
My mother hadn’t called for a family meeting in a near decade. Usually, it was over Dad and Calum butting heads, so I could only assume that’s what had happened again. But I couldn’t shake the blue trunk from my mind.
