Page 42 of His Angel
“Why don’t you join us on Saturday night? See how it really is. You could bring your friend with you too,” I say.
“He’s not the house party kind of guy,” she replies. “And he wouldn’t be caught dead somewhere like Pendleton Prep.”
“Fair enough. But you’ll come?” I do my best to keep the triumph off my face and out of my voice as she reluctantly nods.
There is a guy. Someone special. The same person she’s no doubt checking her phone for again. It’s not a lot, but it’s a start, and it makes her reaction to Wyatt all the more interesting.
“Ladies,” Amy says, clapping twice like a cheerleader. “It’s time for us to head home. Finish up, please.”
We both stand, more than ready to get this sparring session over and done with.
“I’ll send you the time and place,” I say.
Tamsin hugs Mercedes, but I get nothing more than a chin lift as Ruby heads towards the front doors and back to her life.
“We should totally double sister and go to a movie or something,” Tamsin says, wrapping her arm in mine as we head to the waiting SUV. “Mercedes is so sweet, she’ll totally get Rubes to open up and you guys will be the best of friends in no time.”
“I’m good,” I reply. I might be tired of fighting with her, but I’m making progress. “I’ve invited her to the party though, is that okay?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I would check with Taylor, but he’s not been replying all afternoon. Have you heard from Nick?”
“Uh, no, but that’s not unusual.” Grabbing my phone from my bag and checking shows that I have no new messages, and whilst that’s not unsurprising, it’s still a little disappointing.
“He usually replies straight away but it’s been hours,” she continues.
“Is he in a class?” I offer.
“Shouldn’t be…”
“How odd. Maybe he’s at the gym? Gone for a run? Dropped his phone in the sink… There are a million reasons he might not be answering,” I say, refusing to even consider the alternative.
The car bumps along the road, just seconds from turning onto the campus grounds as she holds her phone up, moving it from one side to the other, as if there was anything wrong with her signal. There isn’t.
“Why don’t we stop by the house?” I offer. “One of the guys will know where he is.”
It takes the guy in the front of the car nothing more than a few messages to get the approval required, and then we’re deposited outside the doors of the main house. Why he needed approval when we could have just walked back up, I don’t know, but here we are.
Rain threatens, the stillness in the air that comes before the heavens open and the rain pours washing around us as we stand, watching the cars disappear down the driveway as an awful thought flits through my mind. What if he’s not here?
She bangs on the door and we wait.Nothing
I ring the doorbell and we wait.Nothing.
She curses, I bang on the door and she rings the doorbell again, and still, we wait.Nothing.
Nobody comes.
“Well, they’re either all gone and we’re free to get on and live our lives… or they’re busy,” I say, trying to inject humour rather than blind panic into my tone.
They’re notallgone, are they? They can’t be.
The signal is fine as I check my phone, sending a quick message to Wyatt, knowing that he’s the easiest of the Devils to talk to, and the one least likely to give me shit about the panic attack I’m currently staving off, but the message remains unread.
Shit.
Maybe Tamsin really does have a reason to be concerned.
“It looks like nobody is home,” I comment, trying the doorbell one last time. “They must be busy or something.”
