Hockey With Benefits(32)

No. I never went. “Sure. Yeah.”

“Well, he was in the club that I was in charge of and…” Her cheeks got red. She lowered her head.

She was being shy. The guy she wanted to meet was the guy her friends had met. But it was fine. He seemed like a nice enough guy. “I can introduce you.”

Her head whipped up. “You serious?” Her chest rose, and held… It was still holding.

I frowned, willing her chest to move. “What’s your name?”

“Susan.”

“What time do you do breakfast on Tuesdays?”

“Breakfast?”

“You want to meet him or not?”

“I can meet you at nine.”

“Done. Campus coffee shop. Get there early and grab a table.”

“Are you serious?”

It was an easy enough thing to do. “Sure. Yeah.”

“Oh!” She began waving her hands in the air. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. My advice, move on to a different guy at a better frat.”

Her hands stopped moving, but she held them stationary in the air. “Why do you hang out with them?”

“I’m currently asking myself the same question.”

I started to go around her but paused when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

She moved around me, hurrying back to the room.

My phone had either been on silent earlier, or I hadn’t had cell service for the last hour. Either way, I was just now seeing an unknown number had called me thirty times.

That wasn’t right.

The phone had been by me the whole time. Thirty times was possible, but all without me getting one notification?

I knew I was going to regret it. It was a hunch, but I hit call back.

It rang, and rang, and rang. I let it go, expecting a voice message recording to start but it never did. Then, after the sixteenth ring, it was picked up.

Loud music and voices were heard first before a girl asked, sounding harassed, “Yeah?”

“Who is this?”

“Who is this?”

“You called me.”

“No, bitch. You called me. I was strolling by, and the phone wouldn’t shut up, so what do you want?”

It was Vegas. I hadn’t put the area code together till just now.

Vegas.

I knew what Vegas meant.

That bark was back in my throat, and I swallowed over it, needing to speak. “This is on a payphone?”

“Yeah. Listen, your gripe isn’t with me. I gotta go.”

“No, wait.”

“What?”

“Did you see anyone on the phone before you walked past?”

She was quiet. My heart started to thump. Hard.

“There was a woman on it.”

“What’d she look like?” Why was I asking? That was the better question. It was my mom. That was certain, and again, why was I asking?

I expected the same irritated response, but instead, the woman’s voice grew louder, and also closer to the phone. “I don’t think you want me to answer that. You missed the call. Maybe better to leave it alone?”

God. It was my mother.

I whispered, bending over, “What’d she look like?”

“Not good, honey. She was banged up. Someone worked her over.”

That made me reel because there was no way. But… there was. Was it her?

“Are you serious?”

“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here but my advice? Let it go. She’s gone. Be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

My mom called and as long as she was standing upright, I let it go. Always. It was my rule with her, but to hear what a stranger was saying? If that’d been her? She got jumped or roughed up by someone?

What should I do? Go there? Look for her?

Call my dad and tell him so he would worry about her too?

I didn’t know.

Do nothing and feel this information burn a hole in my gut. That was door number three, and door number three is what I would do, but it would hurt. It’d hurt so much.

She was my mom, end of the day.

“Thank you.”

“Listen, if she shows up again and I talk to her, I’ll give you a call. What’s your number?”

I gave it to her, along with a name, and she ended the call with a soft, “You sound young. Seems late for you to be up worrying about this lady. My advice, head to bed. I’m sure the lady is fine. She seemed like a survivor when I saw her.”

I thanked her again, and when the call was done, I saw that Cruz had texted.

Cruz: Heading over. Still studying?

I was going to text him back when Skylar spoke up, “You okay?”

I was a little dazed, staring at her for a second. My head was still reeling. “What?”

Her eyes fell to the phone in my hand. “You look like you saw a ghost. You okay?”

A fist rammed into my chest. “How much did you hear?”

She shrugged a little. “I mean, the whole thing, but just your side. Not enough to know what’s going on, but enough to know something’s going on.” She eyed me. “I mostly heard you and the other girl before. What you offered to do, that was nice of you. Unnecessary, but nice.”

Flynn’s brother. Leander. The girl. Breakfast.