The words had an odd echoey sound. “Did you just put me on speaker?”
“So, to be clear, you’re upset because it’s late and Cara didn’t tell you she’d be late today, and you don’t know where she is or when she will be home, and that’s a problem because dinner was ruined?”
Wes ground his teeth when Nina’s laughter rang out.
“But you’re not into her. Got it.” Nina howled. “Thank you so much for this. I’ve felt crummy all day, and this is the funniest—"
“Never mind.” He cut her off. “You’re both idiots, high on cold medicine.”
They were still cackling when he ended the call.
They were wrong. It was an absolutely ordinary and common thing for him to want to know where Cara was, he thought.
But Nina’s words had sent his brain into a tailspin. He didn’t have feelings for Cara.
Okay, he was attracted to her—very attracted—but he couldn’t help his body’s physical reaction. It’s a physiological response.
That’s not the same asfeelings.Well of course I have feelings, he thought pacing the room. We’re friends. I have friend feelings.
Friends worry about each other.
Everything was totally fine.
Wes pushed his glasses up onto his forehead and pressed the heel of his palms into his eyes. He was exhausted. He should go to bed. There was another project due to a client tomorrow.
He stopped in the middle of the room, staring at Cara’s dark doorway. Jin was right. Cara was an adult, and she could take care of herself. Besides, most likely she went out with Jerrod and Skye. The three had become friends.
He lay back on the sofa, staring blankly at the television. He could text Skye something like, “Hope you’re out having a good time since you got a surprise day off.”
Most likely she’d text back what they were doing, and then he’d know—or he could check Instagram. Cara didn’t use it for personal things, but Skye did, and she always posted where she was.
Wes was reaching for his phone when it hit him.
What am I doing?This is crazy.It’s not like she’s my girlfriend!
He was only having these weird reactions because Melody had been gone for so much longer than she’d originally thought. He ignored the voice in his head that said, “You haven’t seen Melody for much longer periods. It had never made him feel like this about someone before.”
No! Melody was his future. That was the plan.
Picking up his phone again, his thumb tapped rapidly across the keyboard, and before second guessing himself, he hit send.
Wes: Where are you this week? I thought I’d fly over for a couple days. Vacation desperately needed.
He instantly felt better. There, course correction. He would go to Melody if she weren’t ready to come back. And when he got back, everything would be normal with Cara again.
Wes was just shutting his bedroom door when he heard the front door softly closing. His door ajar, he watched as she tiptoed in, and annoyed as he’d been, he couldn’t help smiling at her elaborate efforts not to wake him.
She was home. She was safe.
His hand was on the door to push it all the way closed when he saw her swipe at her cheeks and let out a little sniff.
Was she…crying?
Fury filled Wes’s body as he swung the door open. He reached her side in three long steps, causing her to yelp in surprise.
“Wes? What the—?”
Wes gripped her chin with his forefinger and thumb and turned her head to each side as his eyes feverishly checked her face. He didn’t see any bruises, only the plain evidence that she’d been crying.
