AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Except your own?”
“I mean, I don’t have a choice when it comes to that one.”
“That’s great, June. The teaching thing. Not the assholes.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s also a bullshit answer.”
“Oh, so you can just not tell me what happened with Olivia, but I have to tell you about my ex?”
I set the bottle down. “Your ex?”
She colors. “It’s fresh.”
Her phone rings on the arm of the porch swing, and she glances at the screen. The look on her face is as if she’s been punched in the gut. She looks ready to cry, ready to chew through a wall.
“June?”
Fourteen
JUNE
I don’t recognizethe number. It’s not Braydon. He can’t call me because I’ve blocked his number, and I have his mother’s saved, so it can’t be her. Never mind the fact that Grace Rowling would rather eat a plate full of sea cucumbers than call me first. She’s like my mother, except the richer, less needy version.
I shake my head. “Sorry. Not sure who this is.” It might be Marci or my mom, since she’s changed her number several times. Panic scratches at me, at the thought of either of them in danger or need.
“Go ahead and answer it.” Cash gets up. “Refill?”
“I’m good.”
He smiles at me, his first genuine smile since I arrived in Heatstroke, and it’s stunning.
The continued trilling of my phone brings me back to the moment, and I scoop it up and answer. “Hello?”
A scratchy noise on the other end of the line.
“Hello? Who’s there?”
“June.”
No.
It’s Braydon.
His smooth, unctuous, sell-you-the-stars voice is painfully recognizable.
“What do you want?” I snap.
“June, come on, it’s me. It’s your Baby Bray.”
I’ve never called him that in my life. “Are you drunk?”
“What does that matter?” he asks, his words slurring a little. “Look, I miss you, June. You are such an amazing woman, and I can’t— Fuck off, Marty. Wait. Ha!”
I grit my teeth. I don’t want to wait, and I don’t want to talk to him. “I’m hanging up now. Don’t ever call this number again.”
“Sorry, Marty’s here with me. He’s telling me to tell you that you’ve got a sweet ass that won’t quit.”
