Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
ADDY
“ F uck, shit. Stay here, Adds. Be right back.” Ruby springs from her seat and rushes from the Italian restaurant like it’s caught fire, and the firemen are standing outside shirtless. Never seen the girl move so fast. Her phone buzzes. Reed. Those two are always talking. It’s sweet.
I draw mindless patterns on the red tablecloth. I might not be hungry, but she insists we eat out. Something about getting back on the horse. That phrase will never be the same or stop haunting me. I check my phone. A message from Mom. Nothing else.
When Ruby walks back in, she mouths sorry . And when Adam slips around her and leans down to kiss my cheek, I freeze, eyes wide and on my best friend.
“Who wants drinks?” Adam asks, upbeat, as if he’s welcome and this is simply a happy coincidence.
“No thanks,” I utter.
“Gin and tonic, Hervey. Take your time.”
Ruby sits down, stare burning into Adam’s back as he weaves through the crowd near the bar before tracking her wide eyes to mine. “Sorry, Adds. I had no idea he would be on this side of town, I swear.”
“It’s fine.” I force a smile.
She shakes her head and taps her phone. Muttering, “Reed is going to kill me.”
“You two get along well, still.”
“Who, Adam?”
I huff a laugh. “No, Reedsy .”
“Oh, yeah, we kind of clicked, I guess. He’s a goof. Like a big brother or something.”
When I raise an eyebrow, she stares out the window and I mutter, “Or something.”
Adam appears with three drinks, and I roll my eyes as he sets down my favorite drink and takes the seat beside me. I shuffle a little way away. And Ruby suppresses a smile. “If I wasn’t starving, Hervey, we would have abandoned you.” Ruby nods to the drink I didn’t ask for.
“Drama isn’t your color, sweetheart,” he coos at her before turning to me. “So, Addy girl, I bet you’re happy to be back in civilization?”
“Sure,” I drawl but don’t meet his gaze. Civilization is the last place this girl wants to be. Our food arrives and Adam plucks a strand of spaghetti from my plate like we have gone backward twelve months and he and I are still sharing food, a bed, and whatever else. I slap his hand the way Louisa would.
“Oi!” he snaps.
“Get your own, Hervey.”
“Oh, I see how it is. You go off getting all wild in the middle of nowhere and now I am just Hervey?”
Ruby’s phone vibrates, wiggling across the table.
Reed.
My stomach plummets.
Then it pings.
Again.
And again.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
“Shit, sorry Adds, I have to answer him.”
“Go ahead,” I say. But inside I’m screaming, Don’t leave me here with Adam! Take me with you, Rubes! I school my face to socially appropriate politeness and comment on the weather. Ruby takes off toward the front of the restaurant, and when her voice turns to an urgent whisper, she veers and disappears into the ladies’ room.
I shove the spaghetti around my fork, trying to convince my stomach it’s hungry. The food smells so good. The company leaves a little to be desired...
Adam leans back on his chair and lays an arm over the back of my chair.
I glance to the street, desperate to put my focus anywhere else than to where he sits. Shoulders hunched over, I slurp up a strand of spaghetti and look back out the window.
And then... On the other side of the restaurant window.
That white Stetson.
Blue eyes that swallow me whole.
His gorgeous face . . .
His gaze shifts to my left.
To Adam.
He turns back, heads for the door, but walks away, disappearing into the crowd on the sidewalk.
The breath in my lungs burns out.
No . . . No!
I push from the chair fast. It falls over, hitting the floor with a clatter. Skipping around Adam, who gives me a stunned, confused look, I push through the patrons in the restaurant entrance. “Sorry, sorry. Please, I have to get out.”
I slam a hand onto the glass door and spill out onto the street. Air leaving my lungs laced with fire, tears burning my eyes, I spin side to side. Trying desperately to find that white Stetson in the sea of commuters and nightlife. My hands ball to fists by my sides. “Huddy,” I rasp. Yellow catches my attention, poking up from the bin near the restaurant door.
I step over and glance in. A bunch of yellow daisies. The same as the ones he bought me when we went to the restaurant in Lewistown. Like the ones he scattered around the house the night of Louisa’s party. I slap a hand to my mouth, stifling a moan.
“Hudson!?” I push through the crowd one way, then another. I have no idea where he would have gone to. “Hudson!”
Tears stream down my face. Shit.
Dammit.
I come to a stop, sobs bubbling from my throat. A hand touches my arm.
I spin back.
“I’m sorry, Adds.” Ruby stands with Adam behind her.
“Hudson, he was?—”
Adam scoffs. “What? The hick was here?”
“Shut up, Adam. Just stop it!”
“Why are you getting hung up over that small-town yokel?”
I stalk to where he stands. “I said, shut up.” I shove him. But he chuckles.
“Come on, Addy girl. You know you and I are meant to be. I have forgiven you for your little fling. Come home.”
“You forgive me ?” I huff out an incredulous laugh. “Three years, Adam. Of you doing whatever you want and me letting you! We are done . We were done over six months ago. And I am not yours.” The words growl from my lips. My fists shake by my sides.
Ruby waves to the crowd. “You heard her, Hervey. Fuck off.” When she turns back her brows drop and her mouth twists. “Reed was trying to tell me Hudson was here. Guess he was a bit late?”
“I have to find him, Rubes.” I grip my hair in my fists. “God, I can’t believe the only time Hervey bothers to show up, it fucks everything up.”
“Irony is funny like that.” She grabs my hand. “Come on, let’s go home. Reed gave him our address; maybe he went there.”
We all but run the three blocks back to Ruby’s place. But when we dash up the four flights of stairs, Hudson is nowhere to be found. Ruby unlocks the door, and we sink onto the couch. I stare numbly at the black TV screen. “You want Reed to find him for you?” Ruby asks. The messages and calls I tried to find Hudson with have gone unanswered.
“I—”
She pulls me into her side. “I’m sorry, Adds.”
I have never cried so much in my entire life as I have in the past five days.
Ruby’s phone pings again and she groans. “You want me to tell him to drop it?”
I don’t answer. I can’t.
“What the?” Ruby utters, moving away from me a little. “Message from Reed to the Captain?”
When I turn to her with wide eyes, hers light up. “You know what that means, don’t you...”
I nod.
She glances down at her phone before looking back up.
“He says, ‘Come home and sign the paperwork, Captain.’”
I gasp.
Ruby turns the phone around... A salute emoji from Reed.
I chuckle a strained laugh. I need to video call Harry.
Right now.