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“I’d just like for him to come home now.”
Mandy leaned over toward her purse and pulled out her phone. She tapped around until a map came up on her screen, a little circle with Owen’s face in the middle of it popping up on the other side of town. She showed me the screen, but not long enough for me to get a read on the exact location, then she turned the screen off and dropped her phone back into her purse.
“Yeah, Archer. I’d like that for him too.’
CHAPTER28
OWEN
Even after I’dcalmed down, Frankie hovered like a hawk. He told me he was worried about me running headfirst into dehydration, what with all the crying and snotting I’d been doing, paired with all the ejaculating he was sure I’d done over the weekend. He wasn’t wrong about any of it, but hydration was the last thought in my mind as he called for takeout Vietnamese from our favorite Pho restaurant down the street.
My phone stayed quiet on the table, and Frankie didn’t push me about that. Thank God.
Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and my stomach rumbled in response, but when I opened the door with my wallet in hand, I didn’t find a delivery driver.
I found my sister, looking tired around the eyes and red in the cheeks.
“Oh,” she said weakly. “You’re alive.”
It would have been so easy to stick with the lie that I’d been feeding her all weekend, but the fight with Archie had taken everything out of me.
“Do you want to come in?” I asked.
“Are you going to get me sick?”
I shook my head and stepped out of the way.
“Because you’re not sick, are you?” she asked, coming inside and kicking out of her flip-flops.
I shook my head again as Frankie chimed in from the couch, “He’s sick in the head, Mandy.”
She leveled an accusatory glare across the apartment at him. “Did you know the whole time?”
“Just found out today or I would have told you the truth, you know that.”
“Thanks for ratting me out,” I grumbled, shoving the door closed behind Mandy.
“You were going to tell her the truth anyway.” Frankie gave my sister a sympathetic smile. “Did you want me to go?”
“You can stay.” Mandy sat on the couch next to Frankie with a weary groan. “So, what was going on?”
Frankie pulled his lips between his teeth and stared out the window.
“I was in California,” I said.
“I was in California,” she mocked. “I know you were in California, Owen.”
My body went ice cold, palms immediately starting to sweat. “How did you know?” I whispered.
“I knew because of that ridiculous app you made me download that shares our locations with each other.”
I let out a breath and my chin fell against my chest.
“But even if I hadn’t checked the app, Archie is home.”
“What?”
“Well, maybe not home for him, but he’s here.” The corner of my sister’s mouth twisted into what looked like half a smile and half a frown, like her brain couldn’t single out the emotion she wanted to feel, and I didn’t blame her for that.
