Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
“Nah, I think I’m going to head home. My soaking tub and I have a reservation.”
“Lucky tub,” Zane says with a smile. He looks off into the distance and then back at me.
Do not linger.
Get in your truck.
Go home.
“I’ll see ya later, Zane.” I turn away from him.
“Eve.” He says my name with such softness it makes my heart thump with anticipation.
I shake my head as I turn to face him. He’s closer, and I can see the torment in his eyes. It’s etched in his features.
“Go home, Zane. It’s for the best.”
TWELVE
ZANE
All night, I wait for Caryn to call. I wait for her to let me know she’s okay, that she’s not lying in a ditch somewhere between Deer Ridge and Albany. All night, I put on a smile, act happy, and make excuses to the people at the festival, asking where my bride-to-be is.
“She got held up.”
“She sends her apologies.”
“Caryn had a previous engagement.”
Each one a lie.
Each one making me angrier.
I didn’t want to come back to the inn. To maybe seeing my fiancée sitting in the room, doing nothing, when she was supposed to be by my side. By my father’s side. But here I am because the only other person I’m interested in speaking to right now is smart enough to turn me down.
Evangeline had to have noticed Caryn’s absence. Yet, she never asked. Why would she? As far as she knows, I left her for Caryn. Ev shouldn’t care. She doesn’t need to be involved in my drama.
My SUV idles in the driveway of the inn. I never wanted to stay here, but there was no way Caryn would’ve stayed at my dad’s. If we had, the complaint list would’ve been a mile long. He doesn’t have the right towels or sheets. The couch is lumpy, and the water doesn’t stay hot for long. It’s not her fault she’s like this. It’s her parents’.
Inside the inn, it’s dark except the strategically placed night-lights. I head up the stairs, praying Caryn’s here. Before I get to our room, I check my phone one last time. Her location isn’t sharing, which means her phone is dead or she’s turned the feature off, so I don’t know where she is. She’s done this a couple times, mostly when she’s out with her girlfriends. I’ve never said anything because I don’t want to be that guy.
I already know she’s not inside. If she was, the television would be on. Caryn doesn’t like to be alone. The room is dark, with the moon barely giving me any sight. I flick on the lights and head right to the closet. Everything is gone. All her clothes, shoes, handbags. I groan and run my hand through my hair. Something tells me she has no intention of coming back.
She didn’t even have the decency to tell me she wasn’t coming to the event, after she said she’d be there.
Pressing her name on my phone, I hold it in my hand while I pace. After three attempts, she picks up.
“Where are you?”
“Well, that’s rude,” she says with some snark.
It takes everything in me not to scream. I sit on the edge of the bed and pinch the bridge of my nose. “No, Caryn. What’s rude is you not showing up for the event tonight. What’s inexcusable is you not having the common courtesy to let me know.”
On the other end, I hear shuffling and a door closing. She could be anywhere, except where she said she would be.
“Caryn, are you safe?”
“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you turned your location services off or because you’re not here like you told me you would be.”
“I don’t get what the big deal is, Zane. It was just some silly tree thing.”
My eyes close, hoping to center myself. I take a deep inhale, let it out, and repeat the process. “Look, I know you think the people here are beneath you.”
“I don’t think this, Zane. I know they are.”
Caryn needs some serious help.
“This event was important to me. To my dad. People asked about you. They wanted to meet you. I had to make excuses for your absence.”
“Why not tell them the truth?”
“Which is?”
“That I don’t want to be there.” She huffs.
“Caryn—”
“No, listen. I know I said I wanted to but it’s not for me, Zane. The small town, eating at the same place every day, going to the general store that hasn’t been updated since the eighties, I’m not about that life. And honestly, when we get married, we’re selling the store. There is zero value in it, and we’ll be lucky to make a buck.”
“We’re not selling the store.” My jaw ticks in frustration.
“We are. You like to think I don’t know anything, but I know a struggling business when I see one. The store isn’t just struggling, Zane. It’s dead. Lock the door and throw away the key.”