Just then, the phone on my hip rang out. I furrowed my brow, not recognizing the number scrolling across my screen. Everyone I’d ever come into contact with for a decent amount of time had a slot in my phone. I still had my parents’ numbers, and I still had Hailey’s number.
Hell, I still had John’s number in my phone.
“Take it,” Drew said. “I got some stuff to price out anyway, dude. Let me know who it is. I can tell you don’t recognize the call.”
I answered the phone and put it to my ear as I was shutting Drew’s door.
“Hello?”
“Before you hang up or say anything, I just have something to say.”
Her voice made me freeze. How the hell did Anna get my phone number?
“Hailey told me everything. All the bullshit you pulled with her that night. But if it’s affecting you half the way it’s affecting her, that shit didn’t work. Now, I’m willing to put killing you aside if you come hear what Hailey has to say. Listen to her story, her side of it with your brother. Then, if you still want nothing to do with Hailey, then I’ll pick her up off her feet, and we’ll continue going. Without you.”
Her words hit me like a ton of bricks. Anna was in town? How long had she been in town? Did Drew know? Drew would probably want to know. I knew they’d had a good time when she was here back in July, but as I walked back into my office I wasn’t sure how to answer her.
“You can speak now,” she said.
“I’m still thinking,” I said.
“Don’t think for too long. Hailey doesn’t know I’m making this call,” she said.
“So I figured. But fine. What if I come meet her in a week? At her studio when I’m not needed in the office or on site anywhere.”
“Fine. But come with an attitude of listening. Whether or not you want to acknowledge it, she’s hurting like you are except she’s not drinking her sorrows away. She’s running herself ragged at this gallery, so much so that she’s giving herself stress headaches. Get yourself the relief you need, and in the process, maybe it’ll help her.”
“Stress headaches?” I asked.
“Like you give a shit,” she said. “One week. Be there or be ready for me to intervene for good.”
She hung up the call as my eyes gazed back out the window. I could see the number on the for sale sign I told Drew I’d call, but my mind was whirling with all the things Anna had just thrown at me. Stress headaches? The gallery? Was Hailey all right? Why the fuck did I even care? She was a liar. For all I knew, her sister was too.
But I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t adding up, so I went to my calendar and wrote down a time for me to stop by the gallery.
I’d schedule all the shit I had to do around it.
Chapter 12
Hailey
Halloween was only four days away, and my studio was packed. My hand-carved pumpkins were flying off the ground displays faster than I could make them, Anna was trying her hardest to keep the slots on the walls full of appropriate paintings, and all the while I was trying to work through my headaches. The lunch hour seemed to be my busiest hour. People would come from work to see what I had to offer, and then they would cross the street and go eat at the diner. I loved looking over and seeing how packed they were. It made me feel like I had unintentionally helped their business as well.
But once the floodgates closed and everyone left with their purchases, I went back into my little painting room and began carving out more pumpkins.
I was annoyed that Anna was forcing me to meet with Bryan. I sent her home after the lunch rush, telling her I needed some space. I knew she had some bullshit up her sleeve when she told me she would do anything to help. She got his number out of my phone and called him without my permission, and I wasn’t happy with her about it. I was ready to cast him aside and keep trucking. I was ready to completely flush him out of my system and move on with my life.
And now he was apparently coming to see me soon, at some designated time known only to him.
In a way, I understood why she did it. She wanted to take care of me the way I was taking care of her. She wanted to exert her sisterly muscles over the man who had broken my heart, and she wanted to put him in his place. She wanted to rid me of the hurt and the anguish I was feeling, so I could get back to smiling again.
I just wasn’t sure I was ready to look him in the face after what happened the last time we were together.
I reached into the pumpkin and dug out the guts. I threw them into a clean bucket, so I could take them home. Then, I set to work on drawing the outline of what I wanted this pumpkin to be. I was going to be carving out a ghost on this one. A ghost that was floating underneath a massive tree. I had seven more pumpkins to get rid of before Halloween rolled around, and I was taking stock of the patterns that were the most popular. Ghosts, fall trees, and the ones that said ‘Happy Halloween’ were the most popular, so those were the three images I was sticking to for these last seven pumpkins.
But the front door opening caused me to sigh as I put down my stenciling pencil.
“Take your time looking around!” I called out. “I’ll be out in a second.”