90 Days (Prairie Town Book 2) (14 page)

     “Has Mama fixed supper yet?”

     So that was the only reason he was calling? He was hungry? Typical.

     “It’ll be ready in about… ten minutes. She said for you to come on over.”

     “Great.  I haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping.  I’ll be there in five.”

     “Okay, but may I ask why you’re acting so—”

    
Click.

     Oh, no he didn’t!

     She tossed her phone onto the bed and stared at it.  Why was he acting so weird?  Jeb never hung up on her like that.  Come to think of it, he never lost his patience with Lydia like he did that morning either.  He was too afraid of screwing up and pushing her away again, so what was going on?

    
I’ll get to the bottom of it.

     God help her, she’d solve the mystery, Nancy Drew-style if she had to.  Something was wrong with her brother.  There was something he wasn’t telling her and she didn’t like it.

     But what? 

----------

Lydia

     “He’s never going to forgive me for acting like that.” She wailed, tears soaking the pillow as she buried her face against it.  “I said such awful things!  What’s wrong with me?”

     “There’s nothing wrong with you, darlin.  You’re just under a lot of stress, and I know it sucked losing all the invitations like that.” Callum rubbed her back gently and pressed kisses against her shoulder. 

     “They were already filled out and everything.” She sniffed.  “I don’t care how much they cost us, it’s just the fact the hard work was already done.  All I had to do was send them out and now I have to start all over again.”

     She wiped at her eyes and sighed, slowly rolling over to face him.  Callum’s soft gaze remained on her face as he offered her a smile.

     He was too perfect for his own good.

     “We’ll do it together, just like everything else.” He promised.  “I can reorder them first thing in the morning and have them here by Tuesday.  Maybe we can get Aggie and Benji to help us fill them out.”

     “After the way I acted this morning we’ll be lucky if Aggie and Benji want to be associated with me at all.” She swallowed the lump in her throat.  “I was terrible.  I yelled at Jeb and I called him names.  He didn’t deserve that.”

    “No, he didn’t, but I’m sure he understands the pressure you’re under.  Don’t underestimate him, Lydia.  He does actually put his brain to use every now and then.”

     She laughed in spite of her tears and grabbed his hand, squeezing gently.  “What would I do without you?”

     “I don’t even want to think about it.” He admitted.  “But you’d probably marry someone less awesome.”

     “Probably.”

     The chirping of her phone caught their attention and Callum leaned over her to grab it off the nightstand. 

     “It’s a new voicemail.”

     “Oh, crap.  I bet it’s from Laney. I forgot to call her.  I suck at everything.”

     “Not everything.  Maybe just one thing, but it’s
good
.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Want me to check?”

     “Yes, please.  If you don’t mind.”

     “I never mind.” He grinned and pressed down on the voicemail button, lifting the phone to his ear.

     She relaxed against the bed and closed her eyes, making a mental note to call and apologize to both her brother and her sister before the night was through.  How else would she get a good night’s sleep knowing what a spoiled brat she’d been? 

     Benji and Aggie had been hanging out in the living room all evening.  She needed to apologize to them, too.  Ugh.  Why did she have to let the wedding go to her head? It was a promise she’d made before the planning even started: no turning into a nightmare bridezilla.

     What a fail.

     “Babe?”

     The tone of Callum’s voice caused her eyes to snap open.  She was met with a frown and furrowed eyebrows. 

     “You might want to listen to this.”

     “What is it?” Her heart stopped and restarted as panic ran through her.  What if Laney had gotten hurt?  What if she’d needed her, but Lydia was too busy being mad to even acknowledge it? 

     “I’m honestly not sure.” Callum replied, putting the phone on speaker.  “Just listen.”

     He played the voicemail again.

     “Hi, Lydia.” A female voice said. “I just want you to know that I know.  I know everything.  I know who you are and who you used to be.”

     Lydia swallowed hard and felt her body weaken.

    “I know.” The voice repeated.  “And I’m going to tell everybody.”

     Staring at her phone in horror, she couldn’t stop the choked sob that sounded shortly after.

    
Someone knows.

     “Oh, God.” She whispered, covering her mouth with a trembling hand. “Oh, God. Oh…”

     What on earth had she done to deserve this?  Why would anyone want to destroy her life?  Who was the woman?  She didn’t recognize the voice.

     “It must have come from a blocked number.” Callum sat up slowly and slid his thumb over the screen. “The only missed call you have is from Laney.  I don’t get it—did the phone even ring?  I didn’t hear it.  Did you?”

    “No. We were a little busy, don’t you think?” She ran her fingers through her messy hair and tried to calm her breathing.  Her stomach was a mess of knots and butterflies.  God, she was going to be sick.

     “Yeah, but it should have at least rang.  My house gets great signal.  Who would say something like that to you?”

     “I don’t know.  I don’t know that voice. Oh, god.”  Her emotions became a painful lump in her throat and try as she might, she couldn’t swallow them down.  “Why?”

     “I don’t know why, baby, but we’ll get to the bottom of it.  That’s bullshit.  I won’t let anybody do this to you, Lydia.  Are you sure you can’t think of who that voice belongs to?”

     “I really don’t know who it was.” She sniffled and quickly brushed a tear away with her thumb.  “Is this punishment for being a bitch earlier?”

     “Hey… come here.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, kissing her temple.  “Don’t ever call yourself that, do you hear me? You are
not
a bitch, Lydia.  You’re a wonderful woman who deserves everything in the world.  We won’t let this happen.  I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

     “But, how? We don’t even know who she is!”

     “We’ll figure it out somehow.”

     “How?  Are you going to call your dad and ask him to magically trace a number that we don’t have?” She snapped, suddenly so angry at the world she couldn’t see straight.  “Are you going to call up the Scooby gang and have them hunt for clues as to who would want to fuck up the most important day of my life?  It is my life we’re talking about, you know.  This isn’t something that’s just going to get swept under a rug or forgotten about in a couple of weeks.  She’s going to destroy me and I don’t even know who ‘she’ is or what I’ve done to her!”

     “Hey.” He cupped her face between his hands and stared at her.  The corner of his mouth twitched as his gaze hardened.  “It’s my life, too, Lydia—
our
life.  You hurt, I hurt.  Don’t you think for a minute I’ll let this go so easily.  I
will
find out who she is and I
will
put a stop to it.”

     “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to get so upset, Callum.  I just… God, I was beginning to think life would be smooth sailing from here on out.  I never would have thought anyone would try to steal this from me.  I’m so sorry.”

     “What are you apologizing for?” He slid his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his, kissing her tenderly. “You never have to apologize to me for being human, Lydia.”

     She stifled another sob as their lips touched and wrapped her arms around him, thanking her lucky stars for sending someone so compassionate and kind.  They would get through this together, wouldn’t they?  No matter what happened and no matter how it turned out, at the end of the day Callum loved her, her family loved her, and that’s what was most important.  The obsession over her wedding day had gone too far.

    The woman threatening to shatter her life would not succeed.  If Prairie Town found out the truth about her past, so be it.  They could either love and accept her, or they could look the other way.  She really didn’t care.

     “Lydia? Sugar?” Aggie knocked on the bedroom door.   “Are you okay in there?  I heard yelling and it wasn’t the sexy kind.”

     “Oh, God.” She hid her face against Callum’s naked chest.

     “We’re fine, Ags.” Callum called back to her.  “Come on in.”

     “Are you sure? I don’t want to accidentally see your sausage, Cal.  That’s a vision I’ll never get out of my head and it’ll make things awkward.”

     “I’m covered up, Aggie.” He snorted, causing Lydia to giggle weakly. “Come on in.”

     The door slowly creaked open and Aggie, curlers rolled in her bright red hair, stepped inside.  Lydia cheered up a little upon seeing the Betty Boop pajamas her friend was sporting.

     “Hey, guys.” Aggie dove onto the bed like a kid, burrowing between them.  She looked at Callum and then looked at Lydia, lifting an eyebrow in suspicion.  “What’s going on, muffin?”

     Callum glanced over the top of Aggie’s head and met Lydia’s gaze.  His expression said he would wait for her cue; it was entirely up to her.

     Lydia had made a promise to Aggie when they became roommates that she would never hide anything from her.  Now was not the time to break that promise.

     “I’m not really sure what’s going on.” She admitted, grabbing Aggie’s warm hand and holding it tightly. “But it’s not good, Ags.”

     Aggie wiggled and squirmed, turning to face her as her eyes clouded over.  Was she angry? Sad?  “Tell me what’s happening, honey.  Let me help.”

     Callum played the voicemail again and they all sat in silence as a heavy blanket of uncertainty fell upon them. 

     Lydia knew there wasn’t much she could do until she knew for certain whom the woman was, but she wasn’t sure she could focus on anything else until she found out the truth.  Laney needed her; her parents were depending on her; Jeb deserved an apology.  What was she going to do?

    “Well.” Aggie broke the silence as she smacked her palms together.  “Somebody sounds like a spiteful twat.”

     “Tell me about it.” Callum sighed. “We don’t even have a number to trace.”

     “Maybe she’ll call back.”

     “Maybe she won’t.” Lydia frowned.  “What if it was just somebody trying to rile me up?  I mean… maybe it’s someone in Vermont.”

     “Oooh! Like Tara?” Aggie’s eyes widened.

    “Tara.  Ugh.” Lydia rolled her eyes and shook her head slowly.  “I hope not.”

     “Who’s Tara?” Callum asked, completely lost.

     “Tara is like, the worst person on Earth.” Aggie explained as she twisted around to talk to him.  “She used to be with Benji.  Well, she’s been with him twice.  God, I never liked her.  She was seriously high maintenance and so prissy.  You would have thought her vagina was made of gold or something.”

     “One of those kinds, huh?”

     “So much worse.” Lydia rubbed at her temples.  A migraine. Perfect.  “I hated the way she treated Benji.  She was never kind to him. Ever.  And she cheated on him, too, right, Ags?”

     “Right.”

     “Well…what does her cheating on Benji have to do with our wedding? Why would she call and threaten Lydia?”

     “Oh. That.” Aggie grinned.   “Her and Lydia never really saw eye to eye—none of us saw eye to eye with her. What Benji ever saw in her…  Anyway, Lydia almost kicked her ass once.  She was calling Benji worthless and stupid and…holy shit that still bothers me.  What a bitch! Ugh.”

     Callum cleared his throat and that seemed to get Aggie back on track.

     “It was glorious!  You should have seen it, Cal.  She took out her earrings and everything.”

    “Lydia did?”

    “Yep. She was going to kick her ass and I was ready to put down a bet on who would win.  You don’t mess with our Benji.” She blinked.  “You just don’t.”

     “Is that true?” His eyes fell back to Lydia and she blushed.  “I never pictured you as the violent type.”

    “I’m not really violent—not at all.  But she hurt him and I was seeing red that night.”

     “So not violent, just protective.” Callum’s eyes twinkled.  “You’re a good friend.”

    “You’re damn right she is.  But I’m almost willing to bet that’s who’s calling.  Freaking Tara.” Aggie crawled out of the bed and put her hands on her hips.  “I’m going to go tell Benji.  He’s still got her number, I think.”

     “I am not going to ask Benji to call her.”

     “Why not?  How else are we going to find out if she’s the culprit?”

     “We can find another way.”

     “She’s right.” Callum said, stroking his chin.  “Give me her last name and I’ll look into it.”