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Colby sat down on the edge of the garden tub. “Don’t freak out.”
“You can’t tell me not to freak out and expect that I’m not going to freak out! What is it?!”
“Remember Nate? From Rice.”
“How could I forget the guy you fell for that broke your heart? Why are you bringing him up? Colby.”
“So, it’s a long story, but I ran into him. And he stayed with me.”
Colby held the phone away from her ear when Jane started screaming. When she put the phone back to her ear, she could hear Jane’s husband talking to her. “No, I’m fine. It’s just Colby.” Her voice got louder, like Jane had held it away from her face to talk with her husband. “Colby. I need to hear this whole long story sometime, but for right now, I’ll keep it simple. What are you thinking? Why would you consider letting him back in your life or even inside Liz’s house? He stood you up and disappeared and never called. You sat and pined for him for months, wasting away. You were a mess. Personally, I think he’s why you keep sabotaging all your relationships with that PCOS stuff. The girls agree with me.”
Colby sucked in a breath. “You guys talk about me like that?”
Jane was quiet. “No.”
“Shut up. Obviously, you do.”
“We were just worried about you. Look, I don’t trust that guy and you shouldn’t either. Has he apologized? Or explained? Is that why you let him stay there? And how did he just happen to run into you? That’s really weird in and of itself. Is he stalking you?”
Colby snorted. “No, he’s not stalking me. He’s the mailman for Liz’s neighborhood.”
“He’s a mailman? I mean, I don’t want to sound judge-y or anything—”
“Well, you do. Look, everything’s fine. He’s not a crazy stalker and he’s been really helpful while he’s been here. It’s been really nice, actually.”
“Oh my gosh. You’re still into him. Colby,” Jane whined. “You can’t. You can’t fall for this guy again. He’s just going to crush you. And I still think it’s totally suspect that he happens to be delivering your mail. What are the chances of that?”
“Be serious. How would he rig it so that he’s delivering my mail? I’m not even on the listing. This is Liz’s house. We aren’t in some spy movie.”
“Maybe. But it’s still very weird.”
“Maybe it’s fate. Or a sign of some kind.” There was a long silence. Colby lifted the phone from her ear to see if the call had been cut off. “Jane? What?”
“You just…That sounded so romantic and hopeful. I’d forgotten that you used to be more like that. You lost that. Because of him. I’d love for you to get it back, but I don’t think Nate’s going to be your happily ever after.”
“Wow. Tell me how you really feel.”
Jane made a frustrated noise. “I’m getting off the phone because Matt’s giving me looks and my blood pressure is probably going through the roof. You’re stressing out my baby. Get Nate out of there and don’t fall for him again.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You weren’t fine last time,” Jane said. Her voice was softer now. “Promise me you’ll be really careful? I mean, he’s gone from delivering your mail to staying in your house. That’s creepy-stalker-movie material right there.”
“Stop worrying,” Colby said. “I’m fine. He’s not a stalker.”
Thinking of Nate making her s’mores in the kitchen with his kind eyes and bright smile, Colby knew that. But it was odd that he happened to be her mail carrier. How often did coincidences like that happen in real life? Then again, how often were people manipulative or crazy enough to do something like track her down staying at a friend’s house and become the mail carrier on that route. That was crazy.
“What about the guy you were dating on the app?” Jane asked.
Guilt touched down and rested on Colby’s shoulders. “Yeah, we’re still talking too. It’s fine. I’m not dating Nate and I haven’t met this guy yet. It’s okay.”
“Huh. Well, I’m on Team Dating-App Guy. You remember that’s how Matt and I met?”
“You like to remind us,” Colby said.
“Shut up. Well, we’re going to all have a long talk about this at the next girls’ dinner. We’ll get together as soon as all this hurricane stuff blows over. Ha! Blows over. Hurricane humor.”
Colby groaned. “I’m going! Bye, Jane.”
