Our Now and Forever(88)

There was only one hottie that Caleb wanted, and she wouldn’t be found at Losers. Not this time.

“Good luck with the show tonight,” he said, making his way toward the exit.

“Hey,” the bartender called. “You never had that second beer.”

“I’ll pay for Tuck’s,” Caleb answered and stepped into the sunshine.





Chapter 26




Snow had looked everywhere she could think of, but Caleb was either a step ahead of her, or he’d driven through Nashville without stopping. By the time she’d reached the city, the sun had set and the shoppers all seemed to be on the roads at once. Thinking that he might have maintained some kind of home base while looking for her, she drove by Caleb’s old apartment. The eight mum-filled hanging baskets decorating the entry made it unlikely that Caleb still held the lease.

She drove the streets around Vanderbilt, certain that if he planned to blow off steam, that’s where he’d go. Checking the smaller venues first, she’d inquired inside but no one remembered seeing a man who fit Caleb’s description. Though one female bartender said if she found a guy like that, she’d be keeping him for herself. Not what Snow needed to hear.

Fighting off the memories, she drove by Losers, but the crowd was too thick and the music too loud to ask questions. Caleb’s Jeep wasn’t in the parking lot, and though he could have left it parked at a hotel and called a friend for a ride, she doubted that would be the case. The man had a thing about being in the driver’s seat, something that had bothered her before, but tonight she’d gladly scoot over if she could find him.

Thanks to changing phones when she’d arrived in Ardent Springs, Snow’s phone didn’t have most of her old friends’ numbers. Not that she knew who was still around and who wasn’t. The one person she did contact was Deb, her old roommate. Unfortunately, Deb didn’t answer, forcing Snow to leave a message. How was she supposed to tell the person who’d helped her hide out when she ditched her husband that said husband had now ditched her?

If by some miracle Snow managed to find Caleb and make this right, they’d have to make up a story about the beginning of their marriage so their kids didn’t know how bad they were at this.

On the chance that he’d ventured downtown, Snow cruised Broadway trying to keep her car on the road while checking out every male pedestrian over six feet tall. When a glimpse to her right revealed a white Jeep pulling into a parking space at the union   Station Hotel off Tenth Avenue, she nearly took out an elderly lady in the crosswalk trying to make the turn. But when she reached the Jeep, the man who climbed out was not Caleb.

Adrenaline had sent her heart racing, and the letdown was like someone pulling a plug. She rested her forehead on her steering wheel until a car honked behind her and she was forced to drive on. By ten that night, defeat had settled in, but Snow wasn’t ready to give up. Traveling a short distance north of downtown, she found an Econo Lodge off the interstate and settled in for the night. When three more calls to Deb got her nowhere, she turned off the light, but left the TV on for company.

And then cried herself to sleep.



Standing at the window of his hotel room in the downtown Omni, Caleb watched the dawning sun glisten off the skyscraper that locals liked to call the Batman building, contemplating his next move. When he’d booked the room, his intention had been to get an early start for Baton Rouge. But a night’s sleep, not that he’d slept much, along with some distance allowed him to process things more rationally.

His instincts told him Snow wasn’t lying. That there’d never been another man. But if he accepted her word, then his mother was lying. Vivien McGraw could be overbearing and opinionated, but to fabricate a story like this? To claim she’d seen the other man with her own eyes? She wouldn’t go that far.

Caleb’s phone vibrated on the nightstand, but he ignored it. Snow had been calling every couple of hours. He hadn’t brought himself to listen to the messages. Or read the texts. Now she knew what he’d gone through. How he’d worried and panicked, desperate to find her and clueless where to look. Only in his case, Caleb had a good reason for leaving.

As he reached for the bag holding the change of clothes he’d bought the night before, his phone went off again. He was close enough to see the screen, and he was surprised to find his father was the caller.

“Hello?” he said, curiosity getting the better of him. Jackson McGraw never called his son.

“Where the hell are you?” his father clipped. No hello. No how are you.

He should have known his mother would bring in reinforcements. She’d also called several times. And been ignored.