Epilogue
Allie
“What the fuck am I going to do?” I groan, the second my sister’s face appears on my screen. “Fuuuuck.”
“Good morning to you, too, babes,” she says. “How are you on this bright and sunshiny day?”
“Dead.” I flop back against my pillow for dramatic effect.
Of course, because this is my life, the phone slips through my fingers and slams right into my forehead.
Go ahead, universe. Give me all the crap at once.
“You okay?” Lexi asks when I lift the phone again.
“No.”
“Okay, tell me what’s going on. I live for your drama.”
“You ready for me, Lex?” a deep voice says.
“Hang on.” Lexi looks up at something off camera, probably the owner of the voice. “Yeah. Come on in, Carson.”
The camera zooms out as she props the phone on a surface, giving me a view of a physical therapy treatment room.
“Oh. Shit.” I double-check the time. “What are you doing at work so early in the first place?”
“It’s two hours later here than it is in Denver. I’m on the road with the team this week.” She lifts a travel mug from a counter. “Lots of coffee. Helps me deal with the early morning and wimps like Carson here.”
A massive, toned man clad only in a T-shirt and boxer briefs steps into the frame. It only takes me a few seconds to recognize him as Carson Davis, star shortstop for the 14ers, Colorado’s Major League baseball team.
Lexi is always complaining about her job and pretends the athletes she works with bug her, but it’s all an act. She loves her job.
From Carson’s teasing grin, I can tell he’s used to Lexi’s ribbing and not at all bothered by it.
“Face down?” he asks, gesturing to the PT table.
“Yep. You mind if I talk with Allie while we work?”
“Anything to distract me from the torture you’re about to put me through,” he says, that same boyish grin on his face.
“Don’t be a baby. Get on the table.” Lexi rolls her eyes.
“Does your sister know what a sadist you are?”
“I was her first victim,” I offer.
“My condolences.” He chuckles, leaning toward the phone, then does a double take. “Holy shit. You look exactly like Lexi. Are you guys related?”
“Nah. Just friends from college. Met at freshman orientation,” Lexi says, deadpan.
Usually I love screwing with people as much as my twin, but I’m not in the mood today. We have more pressing issues to deal with.
“We’re identical twins.”
“Cool,” Carson says. “Well, carry on with your conversation. Don’t mind me.”
He proceeds to reach over his head, grip his T-shirt, and pull it off in one movement.
Sure, we won’t mind the professional baseball player who’s practically naked in front of us. No big deal.
Seriously, I don’t know how Lexi manages to not ogle every one of them. Maybe it’s a thing they teach in physical therapy school since so many of them go on to work with athletes. How to Ignore Ultra-Hot Guys 101.
With the way I’m straining for another look, I might need to audit that class.
Lexi shifts the phone, cutting out the view of the very hot, very jacked man. “Anyway. Your life is fucked, you said? Continue.”
Right. Back to the main reason I called her.
The short version? While my physical therapist twin sister massages hot professional baseball players and gets paid well for it, I’m in literal hell.
“I don’t even know where to start, Lex. I came up to HiLo to help out Rory when her mom was sick. I probably overstayed my welcome with her in the first place, but being here just seemed right, and I’ve liked working remotely. Things were good.”
“Uh-huh,” Lexi says. “And now?”
“I’m fucked,” I say, because that’s the simplest way to sum it up. “It’s like things were trying to fall into place, and instead they missed and crashed to the ground.”
In the background, Carson groans in response to whatever Lexi is stretching.
“That’s very poetic,” she says. “What specifically has crashed and burned? Work? Your love life? Something else?”
“Yes. All of it.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.” I blow out a breath. “The company is facing layoffs. My team is on the chopping block.”
Saying it out loud makes it even more real and more terrifying.
“Do you think you’ll get cut?” Lexi asks.
“They’re going to promote one person from the team to a managing director for a different team. The rest of us are getting the axe.”
“So get the promotion,” she says, like it’s that easy.
For her, it might be. Things seem to come easily to Lexi. Sports, friends, jobs. It’s always been a little different for me.
“That was my first thought.” I set the phone on the nightstand, face down, while I climb out of bed. “It requires going back to working full time in the office, though.”
“Hmm. What would you do if you didn’t go for the promotion?”
I button my jeans, then pull a shirt over my head before I pick up the phone again. “That’s the thing. I have no idea. I love event planning, but I’m not sure I want to start over entirely with another firm.”
“You could start your own firm.”
Once again, she makes it sound so simple. And I’ve thought about branching out on my own for a few years now.
The main reason I haven’t is my inability to commit to a single niche. I want to do it all, but when you’re a brand-new boutique event planning firm in a big city, the only way to make a name for yourself is to find a unique angle.
“So what was your other issue? Why else are you fucked?” Lexi asks, ignoring the fact that I didn’t respond to her last statement.
“Hang on.”
I cross to the bedroom door and open it a crack, listening for any sign that Dylan is home.
Spam lets out a series of high-pitched yelps and is answered almost immediately by an unholy yowl from the demon that is Norman. But no one yells at the bickering animals, which I take as solid proof that Dylan isn’t here.
I shut the door to block out the noise. “Sorry. Just had to see if anyone else was here. I’m still staying with Dylan. Which is…part of the issue.”
“Shut the front door.” Lexi picks up the phone and brings it over to her therapy table. “Carson, hold this so I can see it. Allie, I’m going to need more information.”
Carson tilts the phone, bringing one of his pale-blue eyes into the frame. “Me too. I’m invested now.”
“Just hold the phone, Davis.” The camera focuses back on Lexi, who is doing something to Carson’s calf. “I thought you were going to move back in with Rory. Or, crazy idea, go back to your apartment in Chicago. The one you pay for. Remember that?”
Right. This is why I called Lexi. Brutal honesty.
The sounds of Spam and Norman’s disagreement increase in volume, so I give up on blocking them out and head for the stairs to break it up.
“Jesus, what’s that noise?” Lexi asks.
“My life.” It’s too much work to explain the complex relationships between the Kelley siblings and their pets these days and how I, somehow, fit into all of this, because I don’t fully understand it, at least that last part.
Sure, I have a life in Chicago, and it’s one I worked damn hard for. It’s everything I dreamed of when I was growing up in the middle of nowhere in High Lonesome.
But fuck, life loves to throw us curveballs, and somehow, I’m realizing that I miss this stupid town.
More than that, I’m wondering if this town is what I’ve needed all along.
“Okay, then. From what I can tell, you’re in HiLo and have taken a position as…a zookeeper, apparently. In what way can I be of service?”
“The animals are the least of my worries, Lex. For the record, the dog belongs to Rory, and he’s going back to her tomorrow, God willing. The cat…” I look around for Norman, but he’s nowhere to be found. “The cat is a literal demon.”
Lexi snorts. “Sounds like your kind of pet.”
“Not the time, Lex.” I peer out the window just in case Dylan has happened to pull into the driveway.
The last thing I need is for him to show up and overhear this conversation.
“So what is it the time for?”
The coast seems clear. “Rory and Nate are engaged.”
“Really?” Lexi picks up the phone. From the way the image moves chaotically, she seems to be jumping with excitement. “Oh my god! I’m so excited for her. When’s the wedding?”
“Can you focus on me for a minute?” I cringe as the words come out. Selfish much? “There are some…complications.”
“Ooh,” Carson pipes up. “Tell me about these complications. Are you sleeping with her father? That happens in romance novels, I hear.”
“What? No.”
“Uncle? Grandfather?”
“Grandfather? Seriously? Lexi, control your baseball player.”
She must pick that moment to dig into a sensitive muscle because Carson throws his head back with a groan.
“Fuck, woman. Are you trying to kill me?” he asks.
“Of course not, love,” she says, her voice dripping with saccharin. “Just stretching out tight muscles to keep you at your best.”
Carson focuses the camera on his own face. “If I end up dead, please tell the police it was your sister.”
Despite my desperation, I laugh. Hot, athletic, and funny? Oh, and rich. Can’t forget that one. If he weren’t already dating that famous actress, I would have asked Lexi for an introduction a long time ago.
Maybe if I’d had her set me up with a baseball player, I wouldn’t be in this absolute shitstorm right now.
“So,” Lexi says. “What, exactly, is the crisis?”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you think I’m being overdramatic. You’re putting an emphasis on the word crisis that makes me feel like you think it’s nowhere close to that.”
Do I have a reputation for being overly dramatic? Of course I do. I like to think it’s part of my charm. But this time, I’m dead serious.
To her credit, Lexi doesn’t say anything about boys who cry about wolves.
“Okay, then. Tell me what’s going on. Are you sure you’re okay with Carson eavesdropping on this still?”
“It’s fine.” I doubt Carson cares what’s going on with my life.
The man has plenty more pressing items on his plate.
“If you change your mind, just say the word. So what’s happening? How can I help?” Lexi lifts the phone, bringing her face into focus again.
I take a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “You have to promise not to judge me. I did something, and it was a huge mistake. And it can’t happen again.”
Lexi tilts her head, the gold hoop in her nostril catching the light. “You slept with someone.”
It’s not a question, but I nod in response.
“Hang on, Carson,” Lexi says. Her face disappears from the screen for a minute, and when she pops back into view, she’s in a hallway, off-white cinder blocks lining the wall behind her. “So, you slept with someone. It happens. Is he married? In a relationship with someone else?”
I shake my head. “I’d never do that. But it’s complicated, and I don’t know what to do.”
Lexi tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. We share the same honey-blonde waves, but hers has a few streaks of blue running through it, at least this month.
“Okay. Allie, I love you with everything I have, but I have to get back to work, so let’s cut to the chase, and we’ll go from there. Who was it?”
I hate when she’s just like me.
“It’s…” I can’t bring myself to say it out loud.
“Allie. Spit it out or shut up and let me go back to work.”
Her impatience irritates me just enough to light a spark of anger and spit out the truth.
“It’s Dylan, okay? Dylan Fucking Kelley. My best friend’s brother.” The words come out in a rush.
On the other end, there’s stunned silence.
“Lexi? Say something.”
“Dylan. Dylan Kelley,” she mutters, shaking her head, then meets my gaze. “Well, fuck.”