Page 335 of Safe With You
“You shouldn’t.”
“Very convincing.”
“You know what I mean.”
I did.
The smile stayed on my face as I turned at the light.
There was an ease to talking to him that I’d stopped questioning somewhere along the way. Maybe I should’ve noticed when forty-minute phone calls stopped surprising me or when seeing his name on my screen started feeling less like an interruption and more like part of my day.
Tonight, I was grateful for it.
I didn’t need the distraction. I just liked talking to him.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Always.”
I hesitated, but only for a second.
“Lucas reached out to my mama.”
The silence on the other end was brief.
“When?”
“Yesterday. She told me tonight.”
“What did he want?”
“He asked how I was doing.” I adjusted my grip on the steering wheel. “And whether I was seeing anybody.”
“Did she tell him?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I glanced at the empty road ahead of me. “She told him if he wanted to know how I was doing, he should’ve cared more about that when he had me.”
Ellis laughed, the sound warm through the speaker.
“Your mama said that?”
“Word for word.”
“I knew I liked her.”
“You’ve met her once.”
“Didn’t take long.”
I laughed.
He let a few seconds pass before asking, “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
