Until this exact moment.
“Don’t say anything,” she says before she hits Margot’s number.
I nod against her shoulder.
Three rings in, I hear a familiar voice. A familiar, worried voice. “Daph? Where are you?”
“Hey,” Daph says, her voice light and carefree in a way that belies the tension of her body against me. “I’ve been outcamping. Got into an area with signal and saw I missed your calls. What’s up? Everything okay?”
There’s a small pause, and then—“You’re camping?”
“Yep. In a tent as we speak.” The wind buffets the tent with soft raindrops, backing up her story.
“With your work friends?”
Daphne’s body tenses even more. “You know I don’t go alone. Hey, did you hear Bea and Simon are official? I’m gonna have to start knocking before I walk into my own apartment.”
“Daphne.”
I want to grab the phone, tell Margot she’s with me, and that if anyone has a problem with it, to blame me.
But I also know Daph wants to handle this herself.
For now.
“Yeah?” Daph says.
“Are you okay?”
Daphne’s chest wavers like she’s having a hard time keeping her breathing steady. “Yeah, why? What’s going on? Did something happen?”
Margot’s sigh stretches across the country. “Mom thought she saw you at William Cumberland’s welcome-home party last week.”
Shit.
Now I’m tensing even more too.
“Ew, fancy people parties,” Daphne says.
This woman.
Even when my jaw’s getting tight and I’m feeling that pull back into my old life—hearing Margot’s voice and my father’s name aren’t good for me—Daph can still make me smile.
“And my assistant called to tell me there’s a woman matching your description who’s been spotted all over the Midwest with a guy who looks like Oliver,” Margot says.
“Wow, that’s weird.”
“Daph?”
“I’m camping. Want a picture of my tent?”
“Are you okay?”
Daphne’s chest wobbles again, and she holds the phone away from her ear for a second while she sucks in a loud breath.
“If you’re not okay, if you need me, you know I’ll be there as fast as humanly possible,” Margot continues. “Just say the word. You know the word.”
“I know the word,” Daph says quietly. “And I’m okay. I’m camping.”
