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"Thisyou said you had no plans," he reminded her as he pulled out into the street

"I didn’t because I hadn’t heard fro" Nellie wasn’t sure what to think of this line of questioning, but one thing was for sure: Abel wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he was irritated about all of this The giant balls of brass on this guy! "He texted reed He’d told ood as he’d heard it was, totally worth the two-hour drive"

Nellie continued staring out her , refusing to look his way Her mind was made up, even if her heart wasn’t quite there yet This ended now She’d been naïve to think she could actually do this--that the incredible sex and the teot to pretend he was all hers orth it

"So you just reed to let hiht and then take a two-hour drive with hierous, don’t you think?"

"He wasn’t a corowing heavier with each question "He’s a friend of Logan’s"

"And how long have you known Logan?"

"What is this? Twenty questions?" she snapped, glancing back at hi more defensive than she’d planned

Truth was she hadn’t known Logan for too long or very well at all She still thought hi to ask hiue She thought maybe he’d been embarrassed since Saed the subject so abruptly Oddly, he’d seeone with her and Saht He sounded genuinely pleased that Sa to tell hi hiain

Her sudden snap in mood seemed to have rendered Abel speechless for a , and he hadn’t responded So she was glad for the interruption when her phone buzzed Herto be rude to Sae She had a thing about not wanting to take up too much of Nellie’s time, so she rarely called twice in one day unless it was i Nellie orried about was being rude to Abel, so she answered

"Hi, Moot hoain, but your father and I are about to board a plane, so I was going to leave a ?"

Her parents were hermits, and if they ever did take a trip, it was planned out and talked about for months in advance She’d just spoken to her mom the other day Never once did shestory, honey, but basically, Courtney is inabout this"

Nellie straightened abruptly "No, I didn’t I haven’t talked to her in forever She never answers or returnsto run to Roni’s bathroo hadn’t sobered her up completely, this did

Herto pick up Gus at the daycare center one too iven solely to Rick As far as Nellie knew, the jerk was a deadbeat dad who didn’t do half his part of spending ti since she’d actually spoken to her sister that things ed

"Anyway, Courtney’s been in rehab for weeks already, and Rick is just now calling to tell us because he says shewith Gus because his job requires hi to hire a nanny soon, only he can’t afford one yet" Her poor s of hatred toward her sister and Rick that she thought were long behind her ca back "In the midst of the conversation, he mentioned how already he’s had to leave hihbor for a few days at a tioes out of town for work"

"What?" Nellie squeezed the phone tighter "A neighbor? Which neighbor?"

"Those were my first questions, Nellie, especially because Courtney told irlfriend’s place and gotten his own apartment If he’s only lived there for a fewrandson with theotta do what he’s gotta do"

"That selfish bastard," Nellie muttered If she didn’t already, she now had Abel’s full attention

"He leaves again day after to out to stay with Gus?"

"No We’re bringing hiets out She only has a feeeks left to go When I voiced ers, he said, ‘It is what it is’ Then he said if it bothered et Gus he was all ours He’d even sign guardianship over to us"