Shay made it three blocks before she pulled in to check her phone. “Fuck it.” She slipped in her earbud and called Rosie.
“Are you really bailing on your brother’s party?” Rosie asked.
The humor in her words wasn’t backed up by the usual playfulness in her voice, and Shay cursed inwardly. “Hello to you too. Have I…disturbed you?” She didn’t want to ask if Rosie was with someone. That’d sound way too weird. But it shouldn’t be, should it? Non-exclusive should mean they could talk about other women… Or maybethat’dbe weird.
“You mean, am I having hot and dirty sex with someone else?”
Shay frowned. The banter was there, but the undertone was harsh. Fuck, shehadoverstepped. “No… Yes? Look, don’t worry about it. I’m just driving home.”And I was thinking about you…Fuck. Thatwasweird.“I’ll leave you to it.”
“Please don’t…” Rosie’s voice choked.
“Are you okay? Is something wrong?”
Rosie cleared her throat. “Talk to me while you drive. I was…taking a break from the Unity Tools project.”
Shay laughed and pulled back into light traffic. “Working on a Saturday night? That’s dedication.”
“Or stupidity.”
“So you were thinking about me too?”Oh, shit. She hoped Rosie didn’t make anything of that. “Because you’re working on our project—your project. The garage stuff.”The Lord save me.
“I was, actually. Franklin sold me on this project when he showed me a picture of you and the team at the big auction. I had it printed out, and it’s on my desk.”
“So you can think about me when I’m not there?”
“I have far better photos of you forthatpurpose.”
Shay shook her head. Something was definitely wrong. Rosiewas saying all the right things, but there was a missing piece, a distance Shay had never felt before. It looked like she’d be joining RB and Woody tonight, because Rosie didn’t sound like she was in the mood for anything other than work. Maybe that was it. Maybe this was Rosie super-focused on a project. Shay joined the highway and opened up the engine. Driving fast would help her ease a little tension if she couldn’t work it out with Rosie.
“I was thinking of swinging by, but it sounds like you’re swamped with work. Or something.” Her attempt at not letting her suspicions creep into her words failed.
“Or something,” Rosie said quietly.
The line went quiet, and Shay glanced at her phone screen to make sure she hadn’t lost the connection. For a while, the only sound was the deep growl of her engine eating up the road. “We’re friends, right?”
“Yeah. We are.”
“So even with the obvious benefits of keeping our situation simple, we should still share what’s going on in our lives…whether it’s related to our work or family, right?”
Rosie huffed loudly in her ear. “Well, I’ve shared stuff with you, but you got a little squirrelly when you tried it—I’m sorry, that was harsh.”
“No, you’re right. I know I shut down after talking about my momma the other night. It’s just hard for me. It still feels so raw even though it’s been…a while.” She licked her lips and half-smiled when she could still taste the ribs as if her momma had made them.
“It’s hard for me too, Shay,” Rosie said. “I’m ashamed of my childhood and my…my mom.” Her voice cracked. “And I’m so ashamed of myself for feeling those things.”
The line went silent like it’d been muted. “Rosie?” She waited for a few seconds before saying her name again. There was background noise in her ear after another prolonged period of quiet. Then she heard a low sniffling. “Rosie, what’s happened? Are you okay?” So many awful scenarios went through Shay’s head likea montage of movie clips. Had a hookup gone wrong? Had she been attacked? “Rosie…”
“I…” Rosie’s sniffling turned into a full-blown sob. “My… I can’t…”
“It’s okay, Rosie. I’m on my way. Stay on the line if you want. You don’t have to talk.” More flashes of what could’ve happened invaded Shay’s mind, and she tried to push the unwanted images out. It wasn’t like her to catastrophize, but Rosie wasn’t someone to break down lightly either. Rosie’s sobbing continued, and she was obviously still unable to talk. The miles ticked by painfully slowly, and Shay prayed that the traffic gods would be kind. She pressed harder on the gas pedal. All thoughts of her own problems receded into the background as she focused on the road; she had to get back to Rosie.
CHAPTER 14
Rosie staredout the window as the last delicate fingers of sunlight were subdued below the horizon. She usually loved this time of day, loved the fragile balance of dark and light, and how they complemented each other, just as they did within a person’s soul. But tonight’s darkness brought a sense of foreboding with it. As the sun went down on her little part of the world, she had to process the realization that it would never come up anywhere again for her mom.
The silence in the living room contrasted with the chaotic cacophony of screaming thoughts in her mind. Anger, confusion, dread, and grief swirled back and forth, competing to be heard, contradicting each other in their opinions on how she was supposed to feel about the news that had been delivered so callously, and then about the next steps she had to take.
She glanced at her phone. Staying on the line and making Shay listen to her incoherent attempts to voice what had happened while peppering it with her uncontrollable sobbing had been too mortifying to let it continue. She’d allowed herself around fifteen minutes of quiet comfort from Shay’s end before she’d forced herself to terminate the call. Lori hadn’t responded to her text yet, though Rosie wasn’t sure that she’d be able to do anything to help anyway. She’d kept her mom away from every part of her life, so maybe she should continue with that and head out to Tijuana alone.
