Text Me Part 20

Carter grunted and returned his mother's glare. "Yeah, and you and I need to do a little talking too, before I go back. Seems like someone's been holding out on me."

Becky grabbed the doc's arm and rushed toward a waiting car. "We'll talk later. Go have fun. You know you need it-you've been working too much anyway. We'll see you back at the house later. Much later."

Just like that, they were alone. In a crowded craft fair.

Fortunately, Abby was as ready to leave as he was, so coercing her into the car wasn't necessary. Coercing her out of the car when it ran out of gas eight miles from home was another story. She stared at him as if he was lying out his a.s.s. He cursed Doctor Bernard-for the gas, and for his relationship with his mom.

Abby opened her mouth then closed it. A couple seconds ticked by before she spoke. "You really think I'm that stupid? That's the oldest line in the book. No one ever runs out of gas anymore. Come on."

He cursed again and stepped out of the car, slamming the door. "Yeah, well, it's not my car so give me a break, okay?"

"Doesn't it have one of those signals that shows it's low?"

Carter glanced at the red light above the gauge. The car was old-maybe ten years or so. The letters by the light had long since rubbed away. "If that red light with a black dot next to it is supposed to mean something, then sure, but how the h.e.l.l am I supposed to know? Besides, it's too late now. The gas station is fifteen miles one way and the house is eight in the other."

"We're going for gas?" She'd stepped from the car and followed him into the road. There were no signs of traffic. Not even a dust cloud.

"h.e.l.l, no. I'm going to the house ... it's closer. He can get the gas when they come home. If you want to go, feel free."

His shoes crunched as he marched away from the stranded car. A quick glance at his phone showed the time and he added another curse. He'd intended on spending a couple of hours or so with his mother, taking care of her meds and checking out the house, and then getting an early start home.

"Where you rushing off to?" Abby's voice was way too cheerful. "Work?"

"No, it's late. I was hoping to leave earlier than this. I haven't been home in-"

"Three weeks and four days."

She noticed? "Yeah. Something like that. Listen, Abs. I'm tired and I shouldn't have acted like that earlier, okay? It's just-"

She interrupted. "How close are you to Jackson? I mean, do you call him a best friend? Or just a so-so friend?"

He shrugged. When they were younger, it would have been best. Now? He had no idea. They hadn't kept in touch very much in college. Then, when they both ended up in the same city after graduation, it had been easy to catch up. He'd seen Jackson's status on Facebook and shot him a note. "We were best friends as kids. Now? I don't know. You tell me."

Abby's eyes shot skyward. "Leave me out of this for now. This had-has-nothing to do with me. Let's say you were in a bind and needed help. Like now, for instance. Let's say you were stranded fifty miles from home instead of eight. Would you call him? Would he be there for you? Despite anything else?"

Hmmm. Good question. He considered it. A cardinal flew across the road in front of them, lighted on a fencepost and flicked its tail up and down. Abby grabbed his arm to stop his steps. It opened its wings and flitted away. "Yeah, probably."

"Do you think he'd call you?"

"I have no idea. Why does it matter?" Aware her hand still clutched his bicep, he backed away.

She released him.

"What's your point?"

"I don't know. I ... just wondered. I wanted to make sense of it. I mean, why would he-"

"Why would he? Are you serious? Look at yourself, Abs. Anyone can see why he did what he did. What about you? Why him?"

"It wasn't him."

"Then why me?"

"It was never him. Where's your phone, Carter?" She stopped walking and settled her hands across her chest.

"In my pocket, why?"

"Can I see it?" Her voice was soft. He drew the phone out and handed it over when she snapped her fingers.

She opened his contacts, found Jackson's name, and pressed Dial.

"You're calling him? From my phone? What kind of game is this? You answer his phone when I call him? Now you call him from mine? You are seriously deranged."

She groaned. "Dammit. No signal. Seriously? Where are we, Mayberry?"

He laughed. "Yeah, pretty much. So, why check in with my phone? Why not call him on yours?"

Abby ignored him and walked in silence for thirty long-as-h.e.l.l minutes. The silence was killing her. "What happened to your sister?"

"She died." His standard answer when people asked came easily. It was a good way of saying leave it alone.

"I know that. How? Or is that off limits?"

Off limits? No. Too close for comfort? Maybe. It happened so long ago, he really had no desire to dwell on it. Enough. "I thought I was the one that earned the right to ask the hard questions. I won, remember? All you've done is hammer me with one question after another since I showed up. Tell you what, let's just leave it alone. I won't ask anything of you, and you don't ask anything of me either. Sound good?"

"Ooooh, sounds like someone has some pent-up issues."

They crested a hill, then another, and his mother's house came into view in the valley below. Thank G.o.d. "Finally."

"Aw, a reprieve from the hard questions. Aren't you lucky."

"And aren't you catty."

Abby thrust a hand out and dug her nails into his bicep. Again. "Give me your phone again."

"Use your own to call him. No signal, remember?" He tried to shake her loose.

"Give it to me." She held out her other hand and snapped her fingers.

"No."

"Okay, fine. You call him then. Right now." She tightened her already vice-like grip.

"No."

"Then text him. Send him a message. Tell him to go to h.e.l.l. I don't care. Say something."

"You're really obsessed with this threesome thing we have going on, aren't you? You play him when you're with me and you play me when you're with-" The fingernails sank in and h.e.l.l if she hadn't drawn blood. "Hey!"

"Don't say it. Not about me. It's not true about me. I am not with Jackson," Abby hissed.

Holy s.h.i.t, was water pooling in her eyes? She extracted her claws from his arm and nearly ran down the hill. d.a.m.ned if he knew what her problem was. Other than being certifiably crazy. So she wanted him to call Jackson? Okay. Fine.

He dialed.

Abby was breathless and almost made it to the long driveway when her cell burst into action. Why the h.e.l.l couldn't it have done that earlier? Why had this po-dunk country place chosen to lose the signal right when she needed one? What sort of crazy fate made stupid things happen the way they did? She glanced at the display and stopped running. She stopped walking as well.

In fact, she stood dumbfounded, staring at the display for two seconds. Then she hit the b.u.t.ton to answer.

"It's about time you called."

She turned and looked up the hill at an equally dumbfounded but extremely s.e.xy man. Who had just been hit by a brick wall.

"You?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"How am I supposed to know? You're the one that started it. You sent me a message."

He trudged toward her down the hill. She retraced her steps up.

"I sent you a message?"

"I believe your exact words were ... 'she broke up with me, you idiot. The tickets were a s.h.i.t idea.'"

Seconds ticked before he spoke again. "I called information for Jackson's number but you can't get a cell number there, so I asked Roger to give me his number along with several others of our friends. He must have written it down wrong. Or I ... "

"You got it. Your friend Roger gave you my number instead."

"Why would he do that?" There was less than fifteen feet between them and he closed it in three steps.

"You need to ask him that question but according to Jackson-"

"So, you are involved with Ja-"

Abby threw a finger up. "No! He wanted me to understand what happened in that meeting. He came by the store to explain it but that was after you'd already quit talking."

"Uh, sorry. So, all this time I've been texting and e-mailing Jackson-it was you?"

She nodded. "Pretty much."

"And you never said a word? You let me think you were him? Why?"

Uh, oh. Well, that was the question. She had no idea.

"I didn't intend to. You just ... kept going. And things got more and more messy. Then ... " She hadn't a clue how to tell the story in full. There was too much to tell.

"Then?"

"We met and I didn't know you were the same guy sending the messages or the same guy that I had fired. Not at first." Abby kicked a rock and it tumbled down the road as they ambled toward Becky's drive.

"Wait. So, you knew it was me when I was at Sotby's? You were there intentionally?" His frown deepened.

"No. I went to Sotby's because I was going to meet ... " Who? What should she say?

"Me." He clenched his lips together and stopped walking. "This whole thing was a game, wasn't it?"

"What? Of course not. I went to Sotby's because this random guy that was texting me thought he was meeting the person on the other side of the conversation. So, technically I was invited. After all he'd been through, it seemed wrong to let him sit alone."

"There was no blind date?"

Abby grimaced. "Ugh. No. I never go on blind dates. Way too complicated."

Carter leaned over, picked up a rock from the road, and stood to toss it into the trees. "No, you just date friends of friends. And pretend to be someone else. And kiss one guy when you're sleeping with another. Or maybe it's more of a booty-call one night here, one night there thing? Yeah, nothing complicated about that. Simple as h.e.l.l."

Abby growled and stomped a foot. Dust flew from below her shoe. "Look. I haven't done any of those things. I was just trying to be nice."

His eyes popped. "Nice! You've got to be s.h.i.tting me. That's nice? Which part? d.a.m.n, you really have a skewed sense of etiquette."

"I didn't want to be the one to tell you about Jackson. It wasn't my place to do that."

"Right. Who am I to want to know the girl in my bed was in his the day before? Why should that matter?"

"I wasn't in his bed the day before. Or the day after. Or any day. Ever! I don't even know Jackson. Other than the day I doused him with water and the day he came into the store for the wedding ... "

"Wedding?"

Abby threw a hand to her mouth. What an idiot thing to say! Hadn't she already complicated it enough? Now, there was that? No. More. Lies. "Yes, he's going to be in a wedding and we're doing the arrangements." Okay, it wasn't perfect but still accurate.

She stomped to Becky's porch and tried the door, hoping to escape his scrutiny. It was locked, so she dropped to the step and stretched her legs in front. It was time. "Carter, I've lied to you since I met you. Well, technically, since right after I met you because you texted me the same day you ran over me with Ruckus. You thought I was Jackson and I never told you-you just kept sending messages. At first, I tried to stop it. Then, after that day in the park ... well, you were talking about me. Then you said how much you hated dishonesty and I knew you'd never forgive me. I thought maybe once we had a little more time, it would be easier. I was-"

"Spying."

She shrugged, unable to look at him. "Sort of, but it wasn't intentional."

Carter stepped up to the porch and dropped next to her. "How do you figure that?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. In fact, none of that matters. Here's the thing. Whatever you think I have or haven't done, it's probably not true. The key part being that you think it, you don't know it. Everything that's happened between us in person, not through messages, that was real. You know that. I know that." She put a hand over his as it rested on his thigh. "Trust that. It's the real part ... the truth. Okay?"

He squinted and leveled his gaze on her mouth. "Is it? Was it?"

Abby looked away then slapped her hands to her thighs and stood. "You'll have to decide. I have to go home now. I only came because I thought Becky was in trouble. I need to get back. I have to work tomorrow."

"Your keys are inside on the counter, remember?"