“I’m okay,” I lie.
She shakes her head. “Do you want to eat something?”
“No.” My stomach rolls at the idea of food and I pull my quilt up around my waist.
“You really should eat.”
“I know. I’m just not hungry right now,” I say, and her face softens as she walks across the pink rug covering the floor toward where I’m sitting in the middle of my day bed before taking a seat next to me.
Running her hand down the hair at the side of my head, she pulls it back over my shoulder. “Things will be okay. Give him some time. He’ll come around.”
Nodding, I don’t agree out loud. I can’t. I left Tennessee on a whim, and now I’m wishing I hadn’t. I should have waited Sage out. I should have let him cool down then talked to him. Instead, I ran away to my parents’ house like a coward. I was so caught up in everything I was feeling and protecting myself that I didn’t think about what Sage must have felt when he found out about my illness and how upset he was by the news. I didn’t think about anything except running away from him.
“Have you tried calling him?”
“His phone is going to voice mail,” I whisper, closing my eyes. I’ve called three times since I realized me leaving was a mistake. Every single time, his phone has gone right to voice mail, which means he’s turned it off and doesn’t want to hear from me.
“Don’t cry, honey.”
“I’m not,” I lie again, wiping the proof of my lie from my cheeks.
She laughs softly while she wraps her arms around me and drags me to rest against her chest. “Even as a kid, you were stubborn.” She pulls in a breath while running her hand down my hair. “Always so hardheaded.” I hear the nostalgic tone in her voice, and my arms tighten around her middle as I bury my face against her. “Your dad and I learned early on to let you make mistakes. You wouldn’t learn any other way. We could tell you fire was hot and that it could hurt you until we were blue in the face, but until you felt the heat from the flames yourself, you didn’t believe us.”
“Because I’m an idiot.”
“No.” She leans back, taking hold of my face, and I watch tears pool in her eyes. “You’re not an idiot. You’re one of the most amazing women I know. You’re smart, loving, loyal, and inspiring. You make me want to be a better person. From the very first moment I held you in my arms, you made me want to be a better person, and your determination to do things your way is one of the things I admire about you.”
“Mom.” I close my eyes then open them back up when she gives me a gentle shake.
“If he doesn’t find a way to accept you as you are, then he’s not worthy of you,” she says quietly, and I nod then close my eyes again as she leans in, pressing her lips to my forehead. “I’ll bring you some soup. You need to eat and take your pills.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” She kisses my cheek before she stands and leaves the room, coming back a few minutes later with a bowl of hot soup.
After eating as much as I can stomach and taking my pills, I climb under my covers and call Sage one last time, feeling my heart clench in my chest when he doesn’t answer and I once again get his voice mail.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper before I hang up and drop my phone to the bed.
Tucking my hands under my cheek, it takes a while, but eventually I cry myself to sleep.
Sage
OPENING THE FRONT door, I head down the hall, past the kitchen, and straight to the bedroom. As I flip on the light, my jaw clenches when I see the room is picked up, the sheets off the bed, and the duvet folded neatly across the end of the bare mattress. Moving to the closet, I grab my duffle off the top shelf and drop it to the floor.
An hour ago, I got a voice mail from Jax telling me that Kim left town. He said Ellie called him earlier in the afternoon to tell him that Kim was taking off, that she stopped by the shop on her way to the airport to let her and Frankie know she was leaving and needed a few days off to go see her parents.
When I got that message, my anger that had dissipated throughout the day came back. Jax knew I had been out of cell range all day, but he didn’t know Kim and I fought. He thought something happened to one of her parents, so he’d been trying to get a hold of me. Unfortunately, I had taken off to the mountains to think, which left me without phone service, and my delay in getting any calls all afternoon meant Kim was able to leave town without me knowing.