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“Yeah.”

“Do you have another credit card you would like to use or is there a better number I could reach your wife on?”

I shake my head. “No. Just cancel it.”

“Cancel the reservation?” she asks like I’m speaking fucking French over here and I nod, my heart hammering so hard, it’s a wonder one of my ribs hasn’t cracked.

“Yes. Cancel the reservation.”

Silence greets me for a moment. “Are you sure? We only have a couple of rooms left and if I cancel this now, I’m not sure you’ll be able to make another reservation.”

“Just cancel it!” I yell, my stomach twisting as the possibilities start ticking through my mind.

Is Piper leaving me?

Did I scare her last night?

Push her too far by asking her to renew our vows?

Is the fear getting to her?

Making her see things again?

She seemed so happy all day yesterday and in the truck, cuddled up by my side this morning but maybe once she got to work, the panic started to set in and she felt like she needed to run. Maybe she is slipping away from me. The time in my life that I spent without Piper flickers through my brain and I shudder as the memory of that hollow ache in my chest haunts me. My mind drifts to that little fucker James and the shit he said the other night as I hear the woman on the other end of the line start typing.

I’ll only stay away if Piper wants me to…

Is she with him? Has this all just been one big joke since the start?

I shake my head again.

No.

There is no way she is with that little piece of shit.

Right?

“No,” I whisper, pulling the phone away from my ear as I shake my head and try to reassure myself that Piper wouldn’t do this to me. “No, no, no. She wouldn’t…”

She just told me yesterday that she would never cheat on me. Could she really lie right to my face? Is she so cold that she would string me along and agree to marry me again when all along she was planning to run away with her ex?

I press the phone to my ear again as my stomach flips.

“Okay, sir. The reservation has been canceled,” Diane says, her tone guarded. It is fucking rude but I don’t even care. Doesn’t she realize that my whole life is falling apart right now?

“Thanks.”

I hang up without waiting for her reply and toss the phone across the table before dropping my head into my hands as my vision blurs.

Fuck.

What the hell is going on? I go over the last two days in excruciating detail, looking for any sign that Piper was freaking out about anything but nothing stands out. Have I been so lost in my own shit that I just missed it? Is she fed up with me and thought it would be easier to run than confront me? God, I wouldn’t fucking blame her with all this drama in our lives right now. What kind of crazy person would hang around with such a blatant threat to their lives?

Shoving the chair back, I stand up and stare into the living room, looking for a clue but there is nothing. It’s the same as when we left yesterday. Running my hand through my hair, I turn and march down the hallway to our bedroom before staring at the space but everything looks exactly the same as it did the last time I was in here two days ago. I turn back to the wall and place both of my hands on it before squeezing my eyes shut and blowing out a breath.

You know what…

It doesn't matter why Piper is running. I made her a promise last night and there is no way in hell I’m going to let her walk away from me again. Over my dead fucking body. She is my wife and I refuse to live another second of my life without her in it. Done it before and I’ll be damned if I let it happen again. Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I pull up the GPS and release a sigh when it blinks, showing her location at the studio. With renewed determination, I walk back out to the dining room and grab my keys off of the table as I stare at the screen.

“Go ahead and run, baby,” I whisper as I walk out to my truck, my mission clear to me and a wave of calm washes over me. “I’ll be right behind you.”