“Not great, from the looks of him. He seems pretty haggard.”
“I’m not surprised,” she says glumly.
Silence stretches between us.
My mind pings to something else. “Hey, earlier in the restroom, you said that Seth had been hurt by someone he trusted. What did you mean by that?”
She pulls her eyes off the road long enough to throw me a glance. “He hasn’t told you?”
“No.”
“I’m sure he will eventually.”
“You could tell me.”
“Maybe I will … after you tell Seth the truth.”
I chuckle. “Fair enough.”
Chapter
Thirteen
The next day,I’m fixing my hair when my phone rings. It’s Harmony … again. She called several times yesterday and left a slew of texts. I was too zonked to call her back, and I wasn’t ready to talk to her. She won’t be happy when she learns that Axel and I are an item. She certainly won’t be happy when I change the direction of my column. Thanks to me, Harmony is now heavily invested in digging up all the dirt she can on Axel Cox.
I might as well answer, or she’ll keep calling. “Hello,” I say briskly.
She jumps in with a breathy, “Why haven’t you been answering my calls or texts?”
“Sorry, it’s been crazy.”
“What’s going on?” Her annoyance reaches through the phone and prickles the hair on my arms.
“Axel’s dad is in the hospital. He had a car accident that resulted in a brain injury. He was rushed into surgery, and now he’s being sedated until the pressure in his brain subsides.”
“That’s awful.” She sounds quelled for going on the attack.
“It is.”
“Did Axel go back to Mt. Pleasant?”
“He did.” I swallow, knowing this next part won’t sit well. “I’m here with him. We drove.”
“What?” she shrieks. “What about the party tomorrow night?”
“I’m not sure what’ll happen about that.”
“I haven’t heard a word from you or Bianca, so I had no way of knowing what was going on,” she sulks.
Harmony can be quite good at playing the victim when it suits her.
“When did the accident happen?”
“Yesterday evening.”
Her irritation returns. “Why didn’t you call and tell me?”
I don’t have to be a mind reader to gauge her thoughts. As far as she’s concerned, I’m not only falling down on the job, but I’m also letting her down personally. “Everything happened so fast that there wasn’t time. We drove through the night. I slept for several hours yesterday to catch up.”
