“No,” Cal says finally. “Why?”
Tessa lowers her voice, but not enough. “There’s been…a situation.”
“With Luke?”
“With Lilly.”
My stomach clenches.
I should move. I should stop listening. But I can’t make myself do it.
Another pause.
“The girl staying with him?” Cal asks.
“He fired her,” Tessa says, and there’s anger in her voice now. “And he sent her here in the middle of a storm.”
“He did what?”
Cal doesn’t raise his voice, but something in it changes.
“Yeah,” Holt says. “That was pretty much my reaction, too.”
“Haven’t talked to him much,” Cal says, “But I got the impression…well…I thought that he was…with her…ya know.”
“Yeah,” Holt says. “We did too.”
“We still do,” Tessa says quickly.
“Where is she?”
“In the bath,” Tessa says. “Warming up. She was half frozen by the time she got here.”
I look toward the bathroom door at the end of the hall, my pulse climbing. They still think I’m in there. Good. That means I can leave before they realize I’m not.
“Luke know she made it here?” Cal asks.
“I called him,” Tessa says. “He’s shut down.”
“He usually is when it matters.”
“Cal,” Holt says.
“What?” His voice doesn’t rise. “You want me to lie?”
No one says anything.
Neither do I.
Because whatever else Luke is, Cal isn’t wrong.
This morning, Luke looked me straight in the eye and made it clear there was nothing left to talk about.
There was no explanation, nosoftness. No…no room for me at all. Like, I didn’t matter, and I never did.
I swallow hard and press my hand against the wall to steady myself.
Then Cal speaks again, and I forget how to breathe.
