It was one in the morning. Three in the morning in Omaha. Or wherever Neal was.
The hand that was holding the phone to her ear had gone numb, but Georgie didn’t roll over.
She should let him go. He was yawning. He might even be falling asleep—she’d had to repeat her last question.
But Georgie didn’t want to.
Because . . .
Well, because she couldn’t expect this to go on. Whatever this was. This thing that she’d started, just in the last few hours, to think of as a gift.
And because . . . she wasn’t sure when she’d hear Neal’s voice again.
“Neal. Are you asleep?”
“Hmmm,” he answered. “Almost. I’m sorry.”
“S’okay. Just—why didn’t you want to talk about everything tonight?”
“Everything. You mean, why didn’t I want to fight?”
“Yeah.”
“I—” He sounded like he was moving, maybe sitting up. “—I felt so bad when I left California, and I felt so bad when I yelled at you on the phone last night, and—I don’t know, Georgie, maybe it’s never going to work with us. When I think about coming back to L.A., all my anger starts to come back. I feel trapped, and frustrated, and I just want to drive as far as I can away from there. Away from you, honestly.”
“God, Neal . . .”
“Wait, I’m not done. I feel that way. Until I hear your voice. And then . . . I don’t want to break up with you. Not right now. Definitely not tonight. Tonight, I just wanted to pretend that all that other stuff wasn’t there. Tonight, I just wanted to be in love with you.”
She pressed the phone into her ear. “What about tomorrow?”
“You mean today?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
“Do you want me to call you later? Today?”
Neal yawned. “Yeah.”
“Okay. I’ll let you go to sleep now.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Sorry I’m so tired.”
“It’s okay. Time zones.”
“Tell me again.”
“What?”
“Why you called.”
Georgie squeezed the phone. “To make sure you’re okay. To tell you that I love you.”
“I love you, too. Never doubt it.”
A tear slipped over the bridge of her nose, into the eye below. “I never do,” she said. “Never.”
“Good night,” Neal said.
“Good night,” Georgie answered.
“Call me.”
“I will.”