Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
In short, it was… fun.
Good, friendly fun.
And then, in the beginning of November, Hugh had met someone named Jed—or was it Jeffrey… or Jeremiah?—and things shifted again. Within a week of meeting, J-bro had invited Hugh to the uncharted wilds of North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with his family, and when I’d expressed concern at this speed, Hugh had gone unexpectedly quiet, his usual stream of texts slowing to only a trickle.
It wasn’t hard to see why, of course. The guy seemed to be all in, and Hugh was giving the budding relationship his full attention while I was… Well, I was concerned, that was all.
Concerned. Like any good friend would be.
I was also profoundly grateful that I’d put the brakes on anything more than simple friendship with Hugh Linzee because otherwise I might have felt a bit put out. I might have wondered out loud to Frank whether J-bro was now getting the daily spam texts about Shonda Rhimes’s brilliance that Hugh used to send to me. I might have been a bit—ha! can you even imagine?—jealous. I might have almost… missed him.
Fortunately, I told myself as I tucked Frank into the pocket of my Burberry suit and prepared to spend my holiday overimbibing with a few acquaintances at my ex Ivan’s Friendsgiving bash, I’d been smarter than that.
You couldn’t miss something you’d never had in the first place.
4
HUGH
I paced down the long corridor at Raleigh Durham International Airport, clutching my phone tightly to my ear as it rang, and rang, and rang some more, trying very hard not to scream when it clicked over to voicemail.
“Abby,” I said, fear lacing every syllable. “It’s Hugh. Again. Please call me the second you get this. I got a call from the hospital, and I… I just need to know you’re okay. Please be okay.”
I ended the call and immediately sent her a text as well.
Hugh
If I don’t hear from you soon I’m going to assume that the hospital was downplaying your injuries. Call me!
Cursing under my breath, I called her fiancé.
As soon as Dex answered, I asked, “Have you heard anything?”
“No.” His voice was strained. “The hospital won’t tell me anything since we’re not married yet. They’ll only talk to family. Sandy—she’s the high school principal—said the group was on their way home from the Thanksgiving parade when they ran into some bad weather. The bus driver lost control and hit a guardrail. All the students, the other teacher chaperones, and the driver are fine. But I guess when the bus crashed, Abby was leaning out of her seat to talk to the driver and was…” His voice broke a little. “Thrown.”
I shoved a hand through my hair and resumed pacing. “They said her injuries aren’t life-threatening, she’s stable with a good prognosis, and the doctor will reach out with more information when he’s able. The hospital is slammed with accidents caused by the weather. I tried calling Abby directly, but she’s not picking up or responding to my texts.”
“Mine either,” Dex said. “That’s what has me more worried than anything. When she’s not teaching, Abby’s always glued to her phone.”
“I’m at the airport in Raleigh, trying to catch a flight.” I glanced back at the gate. The boarding screen still showed no standby seats available for the flight to Newark. “So far, no luck.”
“Same. That damn winter storm snarled everything up, and they’ve got nothing going out of Detroit for at least another day. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t just stay home or insist she come out here with me. But she was worried about the ticket costs with the wedding, and she had a chance to make a little money by being a chaperone, so—” He cut himself off with a sigh. “I just want to know that she’s okay.” His voice wobbled, and I could hear his desperation.
It was obvious how much he loved Abby and how worried he was. He was a good man who’d be a great husband, and I was happy for them… if slightly jealous at how easily love seemed to come to them.
Ironically, I’d introduced the pair. I’d been in a serious relationship—or what I’d thought was a serious relationship—with Dex’s brother Jared at the time, and the way Dex and Jared’s huge, loving family had immediately opened their arms to Abby and me had felt like a dream come true. That was partly why it had taken me longer than it should have to realize Jared didn’t have the same dream. Two years into our relationship, he’d admitted he didn’t plan to settle down with one person long-term, ever. Information that would have been a whole lot more useful before I’d begun planning my future around him.
Water under the bridge, I reminded myself. Abby got her happily ever after, and that meant the world to me. Even if I was still searching for mine.