Chapter 40
CHAPTER 40
T he helicopter touched down in Paige’s yard, and the pilot handed him his phone.
He didn’t bother to turn it on. He just jogged up to the house. He stopped dead just before he reached the door. Sitting on the front porch was his suitcases and his dog.
His heart sank.
He tried the door, but it was locked. He hauled out his own keys, and while they opened the locks, Paige had thrown the slide lock. He pounded on the door.
“Paige, I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is we can work through it.”
There was no response.
He turned his phone on and waited. There were a bunch of voicemails and text messages. He’d expected as much. He found Paige’s number. She’d sent him a text every day he was gone telling him how much she loved and missed him.
Yet today, his stuff was sitting on the front porch. This made no sense. He scrolled all the way to the last text but found nothing unusual about it.
What was going on?
He flipped through the voicemail notifications. Nothing there either.
A Facebook notification popped up. That was weird. He rarely even looked at Facebook. In fact, he couldn’t remember when’d been on there last.
He opened the app and stared at the picture that Debbie had taken of them eight years ago. Then he read the message and felt his stomach sinking. Of all the crappy things Debbie could do, this one took the cake. He had no idea she could be so vindictive. She never had been before.
Then again, he’d never turned her down in favor of another woman before. He pinched the bridge of his nose and then sent a quick text to Paige.
I know what it looks like, but it’s not true. Nothing happened between Debbie and me.
He waited for just a moment before the three dots on the bottom of the screen showed that she was responding.
I don’t believe you. Go away.
He swallowed. He had no idea how to convince her that it was true. Either she would believe him or not. But he wasn’t getting anywhere standing on her front porch. He hadn’t really slept in days, and that meant he’d make poor decisions like breaking open a window and not leaving until she believed him.
He grabbed the suitcase and dragged it down the driveway. He’d crash at Anna and Hayden’s place and get Lukas to tell him how to convince Paige he was telling the truth.
He just hoped Lukas would believe him.