Page 72 of The Wildest One

There was a vibration in my pocket, and I took out my phone to read the screen.

Jolie

I wish I had better news. I won’t be able to make it tonight. Sorry!

I shoved the phone back in my pocket, balled up my fingers, and banged them on the bar. “Walker, I need you to hurry up with that refill.”

As he lifted a bottle from behind the bar and tipped it toward my glass, I heard Eden ask, “Was that Jolie who just texted you?”

“Yes.” My jaw was clenched. “She’s not coming.”

Eden’s fingers hugged me harder. “I’m confused.”

“That makes two of us,” I admitted.

Once Walker finished pouring, I lifted the drink to my lips.

“Because something isn’t adding up,” she continued. “If things went well last night—and I’m figuring that if you asked her to come here, you believed things had gone really well—then why is she turning you down?”

“I don’t know.”

But I knew the anger I had about this situation and how badly I wanted to see her again, and I could only fucking imagine what she had felt when she didn’t get a reply from me about Africa.

“And darting out in the morning without even a goodbye—also fishy,” Eden said. “What if she’s heading back to Boston in the morning and tonight was your only shot at seeing her again?”

“Women are so fucking confusing,” Walker moaned.

Hart laughed. “I’m the only non-single one among us, and I’m still lost when it comes to how their brains work. I’ve got zero advice for you, Beck. I’m leaving this one up to Eden.”

“I’ve got this, none of you need to worry,” my sister said. “Except for you—youdoneed to worry.” She was aiming her statement at me. “Even if she has something going on tonight—whatever that something is—and say she has another something planned for early tomorrow morning, she could see you during the in-between hours. That’s what we do when it comes to something we care about—we run on no sleep, and we make it happen. Being tired isn’t even a concern.”

I placed my elbows on the bar and hung my head over my glass. “But maybe—whatever it is—it’s too important to miss out on sleep.”

“If you had a game bright and early the next morning, would that stop you?” Walker asked.

I stared straight into his green eyes. “No.”

“Case closed,” Eden replied.

I tilted my neck to gaze at my sister, and before my lips parted, I heard Jolie’s voice in my head, speaking the line that had stuck with me for all these years.“It’s not what they tell you, it’s what they show you.”

And what she was showing me? Fuck …

EIGHTEEN

Jolie

Beck

It’s too bad last night didn’t work out. Let me know if you can meet up tonight. I’d love to bring you to Toro, our new sushi restaurant.

While I stared at Beck’s text, my stomach did this weird thing, where it tingled from what he’d typed and the thought of seeing him. And at the same time, it churned because I knew I shouldn’t see him again.

I couldn’t.

Oh God, I hated this.

This whole situation.