Oh, thank god.
“She wants you to call her, though.”
Rowan sighed. “I’ll call her tomorrow. I’m going to go to bed and sleep for the next twelve hours.”
“All right, get some rest,” he said. “Come home if you need to, okay?”
Tears stung the backs of her eyes. “Thanks, Daddy.”
“Love you, pumpkin.”
“Love you, too.” She hung up and clasped the phone to her chest.
If she didn’t go home, her dad would probably fly out to make sure she was okay. She didn’t want to deal with all the questions, especially if the rumor was that she and Luke eloped.
Rolling off the chair, she hung up the cordless and retrieved her cell phone from her purse, powering it up on her way to the bedroom. Ten seconds after the home screen appeared, it began pinging incessantly—to the point it gave up and a text box appeared telling her she had new messages.
Eight-four texts alone. She didn’t have Messenger set up for notifications, so there was no telling how many she had in there.
Sierra wanted to know why she hadn’t said anything. Several other co-workers wanted to know how she knew Luke Stone and whether they’d eloped. Tomorrow would be fun if she went into work.
Claudia, Maria, her parents, and sister all wanted her to call to let them know she was okay. She’d taken care of her parents and her mom would tell Adalynn, so she thumbed Claudia’s texts.
Let me know when you get there
Saw the weather rpt-did you beat the rain?
Where are you?
Are you okay?
I hope you’re not answering because you don’t have reception & not because you’re in a ditch somewhere
Well, Luke ended up in a ditch.
Maybe we should drive up and check on you
OMG! Maria just told me what she did. I’M SO SORRY!
Maria and I are fighting. I want to check on you but she hid my keys and told me her gut said you were fine.
Seriously thinking about punching her in the gut.
P.S. Not really
Please call. We’re worried.
The stream of messages continued, but Rowan hit the call button rather than reading them all.
“Where are you?” Claudia asked as soon as she answered.
“I’m home. I’m safe. We didn’t elope.”
“Ugh. I’d hoped you hadn’t seen all that.”
“I haven’t. Dad told me.”
“How are you really?”
