Page 119 of Off Plan

“I’m great,” I said. “Thanks. Not a vacation, I live in Florida now. But now’s not an awesome time to chat, honestly, Vic. I’m driving and the rain is pouring, so… was there something you needed?”

“Oh. Well.” She cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about the way things ended, Mase.”

For half a second I wondered if she was going to want to get back together, and I couldn’t restrain my shudder at the idea. The Mason who’d been so content with her was a completely different person than the man I was now, and I had no desire to go back to that.

“Gunner and I were talking. I, um, told him I regretted some of the things I said, and he reminded me that it wasn’t too late to tell you the things Ishouldhave said instead.” The affection in her voice was clear, and I actually smiled in the darkness. I wasgladshe was happy.

And Gunner wasstilla stupid name.

“Vic, I don’t expect—”

“No, I know. This is for me.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry that I made this out to be your fault, Mason. It wasn’t. You’re a very passionate person. You’re passionate about your family, and about medicine. You just weren’t very passionate about…me. And it hurt. But until I met Gunner, I didn’t have the… thestrength, I guess… to be honest with myself about that. About wantingmore.”

“I get it,” I said quietly. “Andthank you. Because if you hadn’t been the one to make that break, I don’t know that I would have. I was sleepwalking.”

“And now you’re not.”

“Now neither of us is, sounds like.” Definitelynotasleep. Not when the mere fact that I’d passed over the bridge and was now on Whispering Key made my stomach flip.

“Yeah.” She paused. “The guy on your Insta…”

“Fenn. My boyfriend.”I think.If he’ll let me be.

“He’s cute,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “What did your family say about him?”

I snorted. “Nothing yet. None of them are Instagram regulars, and I figured this was a conversation I wanted to have in person, anyway.”

“Yeah. For what it’s worth, I’m really happy you’re happy, Mason. You deserve that. Take care.”

I clicked the disconnect button and lifted my ass to shove my phone in my pocket.

As I drove through the center of town, which appeared completely deserted in the dark and lashing water, I marveled that today was officially the most surreal day of my life. Except that thiswasmy life. And I was pretty fucking happy about—

It hit without warning as I went around the curve in the road by the motel. The pothole I’d forgotten from earlier was suddenly no longer a pothole but acraterin the center of the road, nearly ten feet wide, three or four feet across, and God only knew how deep.

I knew immediately that it was too big and I was going too fast to avoid it, even as I slammed on the brakes and steered into the left lane, and then suddenly I was on a roller coaster, flipping ass over head,falling falling falling…And all I could think was that I couldn’t let this be the end because I hadn’t gotten to tell Fenn I loved him.

* * *

“Mason!Mason! Ah,fuck fuck fuck.Fenn is gonnafreakwhen he gets here. Mason! It’s Beale! Help is on the way! I called Rafe and I called the police. I’m going to get something to get you out of there, okay? If you can hear me,hang on!”

I groaned and opened my eyes to the darkness—absolute, unrelenting darkness. No headlights. No flashlight. No moonlight.Nothing.

Think, Mason, think.

My ribs felt bruised, and my shoulder was a little numb and probably sprained. I could feel an abrasion throbbing on my hand. My knees were smushed underneath the dashboard and ached. All in all, not as bad as it could be…

But it also felt like the weight of the entire earth was pushingdownon the back of the driver’s seat, and the seat was forcing my diaphragm into the steering wheel, making it harder and harder to breathe. I pushed back experimentally and the seat moved, but so did the car, and I suddenly realized the steering wheel was the only thing preventing me from falling into the yawning crevasse into the earth’s core in the middle of Godfrey Pass. Breathing suddenly didn’t seemthatimportant.

I forced myself to swallow. Okay,yawning crevassewas probably a bit dramatic. It was likely more of a very wide pothole. Of unknown depth.

Maybe.

Or maybe it was exactly as bad as I imagined,because I couldn’t see.

Don’t panic.Panic helps nothing, I reminded myself. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t help.

Water poured in the busted windshield, soaking me to the skin, and I could feel it pooling up around my feet.