Stolen Course (Wrecked and Ruined #2)

“Yes! Let’s do it. Hey, babe!” Emma yells. “You want to go out with us tonight? I bet they would love that bar we went to in the city.”


“Yeah, sounds good,” I lie. It sounds like shit idea, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Emma go out with these two alone.

“You grab the back. I’ll get the front,” Alex says, pointing to the dresser at the opening of the packed truck.

“Yep. One, two, three.” We both lift the dresser and carry it toward the door.

Hunter and Emma are still talking and laughing on the sidewalk.

“Little help here?” I shout pointedly at Hunter.

“Shit. Yeah. Sorry, man.” He leans forward and kisses her on the forehead before running our way.

It’s all I can do not to drop this dresser. He kissed her—right in fucking front of me.

And just in case that alone didn’t have my blood boiling, he finishes it off by saying, “I’ve really missed you, sugar.”

Hunter and I will be having words tonight. I don’t care if it does piss Emma off. She’ll have to get over it.





“HELLO.”

“Hey,” Sarah says flatly.

“Hey!” I squeal back at her.

I love when Sarah calls. Things have been going great since my first visit with Dr. Clark. I get to see her twice a week, and she usually calls once, but it’s always at random times. We’ve been spending this time getting to know each other all over again. She’s really not that different, but I let her pretend that she is.

“What are you doing?” she asks, trying to strike up conversation.

“Just moving in.”

“So the guys finally brought all your shit up?”

“Yeah. It probably took this long just to pack the truck. I did not realize how much stuff I have.”

“You never were a minimalist,” she jokes.

“Oh and you are? You forget I moved all your stuff too.”

“Where do you want all your photography stuff, sweetheart?” Caleb says walking into the bedroom I’m currently hiding in.

“Who was that?” Sarah quickly asks even though I can tell by the tone of her voice that she knows exactly who it is.

Sarah and I are doing really well, but I still haven’t broached the whole Caleb topic. I just figured it would be a topic better saved for later in her treatment and recovery.

“Oh just one of the guys helping me move.”

Caleb lifts a questioning eyebrow, but I shake my head and try to push him out of the room. He doesn’t budge though, but he suddenly becomes very interested in my phone call. He crosses his arms and leans against the doorjamb. All I can do is roll my eyes and go back to the conversation.

“So what are you up to?” I try to ignore the hot, tattooed elephant in the room.

“Why is Caleb Jones helping you move?” she asks, obviously recognizing his voice.

I flat-out lie to her. “Um, he offered to help.”

“You know he used to call Manda sweetheart?”

“What?!” I shout, whipping around to face him.

“What’s going on, Emma?” she asks.

“Shit, Sarah. I…” I stumble over my words. Caleb’s eyes go wide, and the veins in his neck begin to strain. “We’ve been seeing each other since I moved up here.”

“What. The. Fuck!” she screams.

“I’m sorry! I should have told you sooner. I just didn’t want to upset you. I mean, I’m not even sure how serious it is.” I lie again, frantically trying to backtrack out of situation that might hinder her recovery.

“No, what you should have done is not started fucking my best friend’s fiancé!” she screams so loud I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

Fantastic. I’ve downplayed it too much and now she thinks we are just sleeping together. I glance up at Caleb, whose wide eyes have turned murderous.

“Sarah, it’s not what you think.”

“What is it then?” she yells back at me.

“We started talking a couple of months ago when I first came up.” I begin to explain everything so that hopefully she will understand, but she quickly interrupts me.

“Did he tell you that he hates me? That he blames me completely for the wreck and killing Manda? That he thinks I should pay for it?”

“Sarah, no one blames you for the wreck.”

The lies won’t stop coming out. I once again glance up at Caleb, who might as well have flames shooting from his ears. I’m trying to talk my way out of this, yet I only seem to be digging myself deeper.

“Caleb does! For fuck’s sake, Emma. You can’t be this stupid. He is going to use you to get to me. He is hateful and calculating and will do just about anything he can to hurt me. And in this case, he is doing you! Wake the fuck up!” she screams before hanging up on me.

“Shit!” I quickly begin looking through my numbers to find one for Building Foundations on speed dial. “Hi, Judy, this is Emma Erickson. Can you have someone go check on Sarah? We just had a pretty big argument. I just want to make sure she doesn’t do anything rash.”

“Sure thing. I’ll call you if anything is wrong,” she says reassuringly.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”