Page 96 of Make It Last

“Nice!” I was surprised, but relieved that my sister was coming home. “Did you tell Mom?”

“I’m not ready yet. I’m going to meet with them to confirm. Anyway,” she added, her tone shifting. “What’s up with you? I’ve heard rumors.”

“About me?” My voice jumped an octave.

“Yes, about you. That you might be seeing someone?”

I could practically hear her eyebrow waggle. I glanced down at my phone on the console, at the unanswered texts. “Yeah,” I said quietly. “I am.”

Chapter Forty-Five

Tanner

Go big, or stay home

“So what does that mean? Who is it? Tell me all about her.” Sophie wasn’t one to waste time.

I gave her the condensed version. “Her name’s Ava. She’s smart, sarcastic, and organized to a fault. She broke her ankle when she was here on vacation, and I helped rescue her. One thing led to another.” I paused and took a breath. “She’s coming back to Alaska, but something’s up with my phone. Our texts aren’t getting through to each other.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Josie told me since they’re in touch. I need to call the phone company. Meanwhile,” I continued, “I’m going to fly down to Seattle.”

“Oh, I love that,” she said immediately. “Do it, Tanner. Go big, or stay home.”

I snorted. “Something like that.”

“I think I know what’s up with your phone, though.”

“Do tell,” I replied with a sigh.

“Wasn’t Laney on the account with you before?”

I stopped pacing abruptly. “Uh, yeah, but she hasn’t been since we broke up.”

“But did you change the login and password and all that jazz?”

“To my phone? She doesn’t have access to my phone.”

My sister snorted, and I could imagine the eye roll that came with it. “No, I mean online, doofus. She could log in and manually block numbers.”

I tapped my fingertips on the steering wheel. “You are fucking kidding me,” I muttered.

“I am not fucking kidding you,” my sister said dryly. “And I would not put it past her.”

“I’ve gotta go.”

“Give her hell.”

Sophie had never really liked Laney. She had been polite because she loved me, but that was the extent of it.

“I’m glad Mom called you,” I said.

“I am too,” she said after a beat. “Talk soon. Love you.”

After the call, my jaw was so tight I had to force myself to relax it. I wanted to call Laney immediately, but I needed proof.

When I got home, I went straight to my laptop and logged into my cell phone account. I rarely touched the online dashboard because everything was automated. It took less than a minute to figure it out. Once I clicked into the section for blocked numbers, most were spam calls, but right at the top was Ava’s number.