Chapter 28
June was leaving the office late after another grueling day when her phone rang. She looked at her caller ID. It was her brother. She didn’t really want to talk to him right now, but if she ignored him for too long, he would start blowing up her phone or just come out and check on her.
“Hey, Liam.” She smiled, trying to sound upbeat instead of tired and heartbroken. Her brother was trained to listen for tells like that, and she didn’t want to have that talk with her brother right now.
“June bug, you okay?” Leave it to a Delta to hear the lie in her voice. She should have known she couldn’t pull the wool over his eyes.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, using her go-to response.
“No, you’re not,” he called her out. “You were happy as could be when I talked to you almost two weeks ago. Now you sound like someone ran over your dog.”
“I don’t have a dog.”
“It’s an expression, and you’re deflecting,” he said deadpan.
“I wonder where I learned that from,” she mumbled.
“What happened, June? Something at work?”
“No, work is good. Busy but manageable.” Barely, but she was at the tail end of things. A few more days and she would be back to her normal schedule.
“Rosa? Your house? You have to give me something. I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me.”
“It’s my problem, Liam, not yours.”
“I can listen. Maybe give advice.”
“You can’t help me with this.” Her brother was the last person she wanted dating advice from. “Please let it go.”
“Not in my nature. Talk to me.”
Her brother wasn’t going to let this go. “Rob,” she couldn’t call him her boyfriend, “ghosted me.”
“Your new boyfriend? What do you mean ghosted you? When did this happen?” He asked in rapid-fire questioning, getting just as worked up as she had been a week ago.
Now she’d had time to process it and come to terms with Rob using her and then disappearing.
She hadn’t even seen any of his friends come to the clinic. Everyone was avoiding her.
“After I last talked to you. I thought he was busy at work or something, but I haven’t heard from him in two weeks.
” She wasn’t about to tell her brother they’d had sex.
“I’ve called him and texted, but I haven’t heard back.
” June choked back a sob. She had cried enough over the past two weeks.
She still couldn’t believe that he would do something like that.
“What’s his last name?” Liam questioned evenly, but June detected his anger in his undertone. He was trying to keep cool for her.
“Liam, stop. You’re not going to track him down.” She might be upset with Rob, but she wasn’t going to unleash her brother on him. Only terrorists and the lowest scum of the world deserved that. Rob was close to that but not quite.
“Watch me. You know I have connections.”
It wasn’t an idle threat. If she gave him Rob’s last name, Liam could track him down and put him in a hospital. She didn’t want that, even if he had hurt and humiliated her. “I know, but he’s not worth it.”
“I’m sorry, June bug,” Liam said, sounding dejected as if he were the one ghosted and not her.
“Yeah, me too.” The first time she had put her heart out there, and it had gotten ripped apart and stomped on.
“How about I come out for a visit? We can go see a show. As long as it’s not one of those stripper ones.”
It was a sweet offer, but she knew he had ulterior motives behind it. He would use it as an excuse to look for Rob. “Another time. I have a lot going on right now, and you have a baby to plan for.”
“How about Cora and I both come out and visit? We get drunk and do the wedding. Win-win,” he suggested as if it were the greatest plan.
“Cora will never sign off on a Vegas wedding.” She was a traditionalist. “And she’ll never forgive you if you do it drunk.”
“Maybe—”
“Liam,” June cut him off before he suggested something else as an excuse to come out, “I appreciate your concern and wanting to help, but I’m fine. I’m not the first woman who has been dumped, or ghosted, or whatever you want to call it. It sucks, but I’ll get over it.”
“I know you will, June bug. You’re one of the strongest women I know.”
“Thanks, Liam.” She smiled, but it barely made her lips lift.
She knew Liam was trying to cheer her up, but she had a long way to go before she could be happy again.
Rob wasn’t the first failed relationship, but he was the first guy she’d had deep feelings for, so it hurt worse than the relationships before. She just needed time to move on.
“If you change your mind and want him punished for breaking your heart, just remember, I’m a call away. No one will ever find the body.”
June laughed at the offer. The first time she had laughed in two weeks even though her brother was probably half serious. “I’ll keep that in mind. I have to go. Send Cora my love.”
“Bye, June bug.”