“Supposed to be tomorrow night,” Casey said, fumbling around near the chair for her phone. “But I want to talk to him now.”
She finally found the phone between two cushions and flicked it open, sitting in the comfort circle with the girls as she did so. Her heart was racing, and her chest was tight, but it was anticipation, not panic.
Until she opened Jake’s thread.
Casey let out a shocked, thin wail. Her fingers failed, and the phone clattered to the floor.
“What is it?” Halle yelled.
“What the fuck?” Jinny cried.
“The message, the message!” Casey pointed at her phone where it lay on the floor as if she could change reality through sheer force of will.
“What message?” Halle asked, confused.
“I accidentally sent one!” Casey yelled. “I composed all these stupid break-up messages before when I was freaking out. I thought I deleted them all!”
“Oh, no,” Jinny muttered.
Casey shook her head, tugging her hands through her hair. “I deleted them,” she said dully. “But I must have sent the last one by mistake.”
“Call him anyway,” Halle said softly.
Casey picked up her phone slowly as if it was going to bite her. She tapped the screen, waiting for the call to go through.
All of them listened intently, waiting for the ringing.
The phone crackled, and Jake’s voicemail message played. Casey stared at the phone in utter shock.
He blocked me!
She looked around at her friends, panic blooming in her chest.
What now?
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
JAKE
Jake heard his phone ding on his way into the house. He pulled it out eagerly, hoping it would be Casey.
When he opened his phone and saw the message, his heart fell. He wasn’t giving up on her, though, not by a long shot. For a few minutes, he stood there in the foyer of the big house, letting his emotions toss back and forth inside him like a tiny boat on a reckless sea.
He didn’t understand why she’d suddenly want to break up, especially since they’d seemed to have such a good night together. He wondered if it was his confession of love itself or maybe the fated mates thing.
Surely Gerri had told her? Jake was sure he’d mentioned it at least once. Maybe, without his declaration of love, the fated mates part hadn’t really sunk in until now.
He wanted to text her back quite desperately, in fact, but he didn’t know what to say. He sensed that getting back in the car and charging to her place would also not be the right thing to do.
With a sense of determination, he didn’t really feel, Jake turned off his phone and headed upstairs. He tried to forget that his phone even existed as he took a long shower and then went to bed.
Not surprisingly, he didn’t sleep well. This was the same bed he and Casey had shared so many times, and he kept waking up, expecting her to be by his side. Every time he reached for her and found his bed empty, Jake had to settle his mind all over again and try to get back to sleep.
Even though his mind was in turmoil, his heart didn’t hurt. He had faith in love now. He also had faith in Gerri and in the idea of fated mates. He and Casey were meant to be together; he knew it right through to his core. The only thing he didn’t know was what to say or do to make Casey see it.
The next morning, he woke up to strong, angled sunlight shining through the window. In spite of his restless night, it looked like he’d managed to sleep through the morning hours. He reached for his phone, and when he switched it on, he saw that it was early afternoon.
His phone vibrated for a while as work messages came in. Jake didn’t bother checking them. There were always lower managers available, and it wasn’t unusual for him to drop off the radar here and there. Of course, in the old days, before Casey, that would have meant a long night clubbing and a hot model, as well as a devastatingly long sleep-in.