Chapter 23 #2
“I tried to get her attention subtly. I nudged her foot with mine a few times—” But she hadn’t so much as looked at me.
“Then Aaron showed up.” And I’d wanted to kill him the second he’d touched her.
“Clearly, I jumped to conclusions when Louise told me she’d overheard Phoebe saying he could stay with her.
It didn’t help that everyone speculated if there was something romantic between them. ”
Looking back now, I realized how idiotic I was.
“Let’s just clear that up, shall we? Because if you’re a Neanderthal who is going to have issues with one of her lifelong friends, that’s going to be a problem for me.”
“I’m not going to have a problem with him.” I wasn’t. He’d understand she’s off-limits when I made it clear and then we’d be fine.
Alex’s look was disbelieving. “That still doesn’t explain why you ignored her calls and her texts.”
This was at least not my fault. “I didn’t.” I pointed to my phone in her hand. “Look. I sent her messages. I called her. There was no reply.”
Pinching her lips together, Alex made herself at home on my phone. She looked at my texts with Phoebe and my call logs, and then she decided to go through my texts with Olivia. Given there was the issue of my “date” with Olivia, I decided not to stop her.
“She never got these.” Alex handed me my phone back.
“And I never got anything from her. My sister Delilah found my phone at some point when she came to the job site to help out. My phone had been encased in mud, and it fried its circuits or something because Phoebe was blocked, which I figured out this fucking morning. The blocks must have been ported over when I restored my new phone from the cloud.” That was a fun moment when another client chewed me out for not answering them.
I held up my hands when Alex looked like she was about to accuse me of bullshit.
“If I had blocked her, why would I have texted her or called her? My calls never went through. They disconnected right away and my texts went unanswered. I thought it was she who wanted nothing to do with me.”
I still felt queasy just thinking about it.
“So only Phoebe was blocked magically because of some mud?” She made it sound like I was high.
“No. Several other people’s contacts were messed up, and a few other people were blocked, too.” When she looked like she was going to blast me, I reminded her, “I texted and called, remember?”
She nodded. “So why did you ignore her when she came to your job site?”
“Because I’m a dumbass?” I paced, gripping the back of my neck.
Staying in here was starting to make me antsy.
I needed to find Phoebe before the asshole convinced her that she was better off with him.
“The first couple of times she came by, either Mom was there or Olivia. Or even Helen. I still didn’t know how Phoebe wanted me to handle anything, so I used work as an excuse.
By the end of the week—” A week of driving by her house and seeing Aaron’s car in the driveway “—I let other things piss me off…and I fucked up, okay?”
“I believe you,” she said slowly, and I stopped pacing, letting out a relieved breath.
This was good. “Look, I can’t let you just go out there all willy-nilly.
You need to understand a few things or you’re going to screw this up.
And as long as you never hurt her again, I’m going to grant you an opportunity to fix this. But you only get one, Tyler.”
I only needed one. “Done.” Anything to get out of here.
“Phoebe will kill me if I tell you this. She’s really sensitive about it. I also know you know about her…work. You’ll be signing an NDA, by the way. However, we’ll keep that between us.” Alex was challenging me.
I’d die before betraying Phoebe, so if it made the woman happy, I’d sign it. I’d already offered to Phoebe, and she’d declined, looking stricken. “Not a problem.”
She nodded. “Here’s how it is. Aaron is only Phoebe’s friend.
They’ve only ever been friends. Phoebe has always been…
different. God, she’s going to kill me for telling you this.
Phoebe has anxiety. And not the I-feel-a-little-nervous kind.
The I-curl-up-in-the-fetal-position-when-I’m-exposed-to-too-many-people kind.
Actually, there are a few other things that set her off, but the end result is the same.
One of them is being overly exposed. Being with you will expose her in ways that can cripple her unless you’re able to handle it.
She’s been fighting so hard to get over all of this… she’s just not there yet.”
I knew all of this, even if Phoebe hadn’t said it. My heart broke for her when I saw how she fought it day after day.
“It’s been this way since she was small.
She wrote as an outlet to help her cope.
It’s manifested in different ways, but it all comes along with a healthy dose of low self-esteem.
It’s brutal watching her sometimes. She’s not someone who doles out small pieces of her heart.
She gives her heart in its entirety. She’s incredibly kind.
Even when people treat her badly, she’ll still give them the shirt off her back. ”
I narrowed my eyes on her, not liking the sense that she meant something else there. I’d find out about that later.
“Her heart has been stomped too many times and still, she gives to anyone and everyone around her. She’s also incredibly loyal. It’s made her sick to have feelings for you all this time—”
“She has feelings for me?” Damn, if that didn’t make my heart happy.
“Yes, dingus. Don’t you see the problem for her?
She’s friends with your mother. Your mother who has made some subtle and then not-so-subtle comments about Phoebe and you being together.
Her being with you will feel like a betrayal to Cady-Jo, even though I’m not sure Cady-Jo’s entitled to any loyalty from Phoebe. ”
“My mom’s not—” I automatically defended her.
“Nope! You get zero say on women’s business.” She held up her hand.
I wanted to argue but shut up. Alex was right about one thing; Mom had already meddled too much. “I’ll talk to my mother.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You won’t. You talking to Cady-Jo will push Phoebe over the edge if things aren’t cleared up between you two. She doesn’t need the trouble your mother is threatening when her plate is already full of problems.”
“What do you mean?” What threats?
“That’s not my place to say.” She looked at her watch pointedly. “We’ve been gone long enough. I believe what you said, Hammerhead. Know this, though: you now know where you stand.”
Throwing open the door, she looked over her shoulder at me.
“Oh, by the way, Phoebe’s not here on a date with Prescott.
I only made it look that way to piss you off and show you what you were missing.
You better fix this fast, though. He’s had a thing for her for years.
” She craned her neck, looking down the hall toward the dance floor.
“And it looks like Phoebe’s having a great time dancing with him, too. ”
With that, she flounced out of the room, leaving me to follow.
Emerging from the back, I saw Alex walk to Phoebe and give her a smack on the ass. Phoebe laughed, leaning into Prescott to avoid another swat.
My fists clenched. Now, it was my turn not to cause a scene.