Worth the Fall (The McKinney Brothers, #1)(44)

“That’s great, sweetie. Where was it?”

“In the LEGOs.”

Nope. Never would have found it. “Thank you.” She put her arm around his waist and hugged him tightly. He was getting so big. “Would you be a big help and plug it in for me?” Abby went back to the form.

“Okay, I will, but…I kinda used it. I know I’m not supposed to, but…”

Emergency contacts. She didn’t mind putting Meredith, but having to write “Babysitter” next to “Relationship to child” was—Wait. She turned back to Jack. “You did what?”

“I texted someone.”

Great. She was going to get a text from some weirdo. “You know you’re not supposed to play with my phone. It’s dangerous to talk to people you don’t know.”

“But I did know him.”

“What? Who did you know?”

Jack looked down at his feet. “Matt.”

The pen fell from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

Jack’s head jerked up. “He did it first.”

Oh, Lord. It’d been twelve days, not that she was counting. “What did he say?”

Jack’s face brightened a little. “I can show you.” He pulled out her phone, which he’d been hiding behind his back.

Abby scrolled through the messages and there it was. Sent at almost two a.m. This morning.

Matt: I need to see you, OK?

Matt: OK?

Holy hell. Good thing she was sitting down. And he hadn’t said “I want to see you.” He needed to see her. What did that even mean?

“I couldn’t read all of it, but Matt said okay, so I said okay back. See?” Jack smiled proudly as she read her son’s response.

Abby: OK

Yes. She did see: Jack’s confidence that he’d done the right thing, and the next text from Matt.

Matt: See you Friday.

That’s…today.





Chapter 16


Matt paced the blacktop, waiting on Tony’s mechanic to finish his preflight check. The skinny man held a clipboard as he inspected the outside of his brother’s new Diamond Twin Star airplane. Every now and then Chaz the spaz bobbed his head to the beat playing through his earbuds. The man looked all kinds of incompetent, but his brother trusted him, so he’d trust him. To get me back where I need to be.

He hadn’t heard her voice in almost two weeks, but a text was something. He was glad no one had been around to see his fist-pumping Thank you, Jesus happy dance when he’d gotten her reply.

Just a simple “OK.” So like Abby, because she probably didn’t know what to say. Either that or she’d list all the reasons he shouldn’t come. His text hadn’t been time specific regarding his arrival, so he pulled out his phone and tapped her name. The one he’d programmed into his phone before leaving the beach. He was so screwed, and he stood there, grinning like a fool.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Hey,” she said.

“It’s Matt.” Idiot.

“I know.”

“I just wanted to give you a better idea of when I’d be there. I’ll be leaving here in about fifteen. Should be to your house by five.”

The other end of the phone was still and quiet. “Abby?”

“I’m here.”

“You still okay with me coming?” Please don’t say no.

“Matt…um…the text you got…It wasn’t from me.”

The happy feeling in his chest turned to tar.

“It was from Jack.”

A black sludge slid toward his stomach. He heard her breathing, pictured her face. He needed to see it. Touch it.

“I lost my phone, and…Well, Jack just told me he found it, and that…you…uh—”

“I don’t have to come. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to see you. I just…I…”

He imagined her flustered, probably biting down on her delectable lip. The pink little mouth he was dreaming of kissing…“Just say it. Do you want me to come, yes or no?”

The seconds were marked by the heavy beat of his heart as he waited. The plane engine started with a loud whine. Shit. Did she say yes or no? “What?”

“Yes! I want you to come, okay?”

She’d screamed her answer into his ear, and he wasn’t sure but she didn’t exactly sound happy about that.

He laughed. “I’ll be there soon.”

She didn’t want to want him. He was about to change that.

—

Matt double-checked his directions and made a right on a tree-lined street. Oaks and maples, so dense he couldn’t get a good look, secluded the houses set far back from the street. He matched the number on the mailbox and followed a winding drive through overhanging foliage until a large gray brick house came into view. Massive cedar beams framed the front door, and he couldn’t help admiring the architecture. It suited her.

He pulled the black Lexus rental to the top of the circular driveway and got out. Heart pounding, he climbed the wide stone steps to the front entry accented with the same gray stone. The big house she’d have happily given up to feel loved.