Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [125]
Katy sighed. “But he won’t answer my calls. He hates me.”
“He’s hurting,” Erin repeated. “He’s protecting himself. Now that I know the importance of what you want to tell him, I believe it would be much better hearing it from you. I’ll tell him you dropped by and ask him to call you.”
“He won’t,” Katy replied. “I don’t blame him.”
“I know,” David said. “Just give Katy a call when he returns, and she can come back. I think he’ll listen if they’re face-to-face.”
“There’s the glitch,” Jessie piped up, tapping a red fingernail against a porcelain cheek.
Katy and David both snapped their heads in her direction.
Jessie’s hand fell gracefully to the table. “He’s run away.”
“What?” Katy exclaimed, glancing fretfully at David.
“He got a job offer,” Erin explained. “In Texas.”
Katy reeled from yet another hard blow then sat in stunned silence. She covered her mouth with her hand, taking in all the implications. How many different ways could she lose him? “I guess we’re not to be,” she said, glumly.
Jessie leaned forward. “I know you’re more important to him than a job. Let me call him. Maybe he’ll listen to me.”
“No!” Katy blurted, unable to accept Jessie’s interference.
For the first time, Jessie’s eyes snapped with indignation. “Look. I’m not an idiot.”
“I—” Katy started.
But Jessie interrupted, her gaze softening again. “I know I’m partly to blame for all this. I want to help. Make it right somehow.”
Katy met her gaze and held it. “That’s not necessary.”
The foursome sat in quiet contemplation. “There must be something we can do,” Erin blurted out as she rose. Katy thought she was getting up to pace, but then she saw she was getting a bowl of chips and dip. She plopped it on the table as if food would provide a solution to their problem.
David dove in, crunching happily.
“I know!” Jessie exclaimed. “You can e-mail him. Pour out your heart. It’s perfect because you can say everything you want to say without him interrupting.”
A flutter of hope tickled Katy’s spine. Jessie was right. He might read an e-mail. Her heart began to race, and she shot Jessie an appreciative look. “You’re a genius. It is a perfect idea because our last argument started with a disagreement over using the Internet. It would shock him and at the same time validate my change of heart.”
Jessie glanced up at Katy’s covering, then back down to her face. Katy blushed, realizing how silly such an argument must sound to an outsider, much like all her many run-ins with Tammy.
But Erin caught her enthusiasm. “This could work.”
“Got any more of that dip?” David asked.
All three girls rolled their gazes heavenward. Ignoring him, Katy went on, “Only…he might not read it when he realizes it’s from me.”
“But that’s the beauty of it. He’ll think it’s from me!”
Katy gave Jessie a sideways frown, trying not to let her irritation show.
Jessie went on undeterred, “And once he gets into it, he’ll be too hooked to stop reading. Come on. Let’s go do it before you chicken out.”
Katy worried her lip and glanced at David, wondering how everyone pegged her inner wavering so easily. He motioned as if she were a five-year-old. “Go.”
Erin blushed. Katy understood why when she offered, “I’ll stay and get David some more dip.”
Starting to feel like a third wheel, Katy scooted her chair back and followed the enthusiastic Jessie, who seemed to be as self-willed as David. In the short time she’d known Jessie, she saw that Jake’s assessment of the girl was accurate. She was helpful and straightforward. Didn’t make a big deal out of social differences. And she looked like she would probably be fun, too. To her own amazement, she could see how Jake had gravitated to her when she extended a helpful hand through the maze of campus life. And she imagined Jessie hadn’t intentionally led him astray. Well, possibly she had an ulterior