Page 92 of Small Town Swoo
My jaw ticked. “Huh?”
“You heard me.”
I nodded toward the open door. “Just go inside and work out.”
“What, you can ask me all about my lady friend, but I can’t inquire about where you’ve been spending your nights for the last week, sneaking in early like a cat burglar?”
“That’s right.”
He chuckled and patted my arm. “It’s fine, son. I don’t need to run inside a burning building to know it’s hot. I can see the flames from here.”
When we were done working out, my dad stopped to chat with a friend in the lobby while I checked my phone. I saw two new messages, one from Ari and one from Izzie.
I looked at Ari’s first.
Hey, Mabel asked if I wanted to pick her up from the airport. I’ll be back around six.
In what car?
Huh?
What car are you planning to drive to the airport in?
My car.
I’ll take you.
My car isn’t THAT bad.
It is. No arguments. What time shouldI pick you up?
Three. You big bully.
See you then.
Next, I tapped Izzie’s text.
Hey Dash! I HAVE NEWS. I’m heading to Bali for my yoga retreat but there was an inquiry about you from Katherine Carroll’s team. It came in yesterday, and my new assistant, Beatrix, is going to get back to them. Your luck is changing already! You must have cleared your cloudy energy!
Holy shit! If I hadn’t been in public, I’d have pumped a fist in the air. This was it, I could feel it. My big chance. All that walking around naked had worked!
My cell service and internet is going to be spotty for the next week, so Beatrix will be in touch. Can’t wait to hear what this is about! Cheers, darling!
I tossed my phone in my bag and stood near the door, waiting for my dad to notice I was eager to get going. I couldn’t wait to tell Ari the news about my audition—at least, I assumed it was an audition. But what else could it be? I wondered when it would happen, and if I’d have to go back to L.A. sooner than I’d planned to.
My chest caved a little at the thought of leaving her behind. Even though this was a totally casual thing, saying goodbye wasn’t going to be easy. I was going to miss her.
But that didn’t mean I was attached, did it? Just because I didn’t want to spend a night here without her and couldn’t seem to go more than ten minutes without thinking of her and felt like my heart had this Ari mode itshifted into whenever she was around that made it beat extra hard and fast didn’t mean strings had been created, right?
Fuck. Maybe it did. Maybe Xander had been right and even if you were careful, it just happened.
But it’s not like anything could be done about it. She lived here and I lived there. She was focused on her family, and I was focused on my career. She wanted a relationship like her parents had, like Gianni and Ellie had, or Veronica and Austin. She’d told me flat out she wanted someone who’dbe there. Bein it.
It just wasn’t me.
Frowning, I grabbed my sunglasses from the outside pocket of my bag and slipped them on.
Once I was gone, the strings would snap.
