Her phone rang so many times, he was sure when the line connected, that it would be her voicemail that he heard. Instead, there she was.
"Hey!" she cheered on the other end.
He couldn't help but smile. As much as one can interpret from a one-word greeting, it sounded like his evil plan had worked, telling Barton of her birthday.
"Happy birthday, SF," he said. "What's goin' on in Berkeley tonight?"
"Well..." she began happily. "Michael's Mistress played a few songs in that bar we went to when you were here—"
"You guys are regulars there now," he joked, wishing more than anything he could be there, too.
"Ah, yeah, they kinda wrote a song about it," she laughed. "They recorded it to use as an EP, I'll have to make them give me a copy when it's done so I can give it to you."
Talyn smiled. "So you're not mad at me for telling them it was your birthday?"
"Aww, Tally," she said, sounding a little drunk. Talyn was happy to hear her sound so carefree. He still hadn't gotten used to it. Waiting to see her for Thanksgiving break after only having spent two days with her in the last six months was nearly unbearable. "This has been the best birthday ever. The only thing that could make it better would be if you were here."
He cursed John Winter—the USC coach—for making him have to miss this. Originally, when the schedule came out, he had been ecstatic, seeing that he had Thanksgiving weekend off. That had been the plan. And then all this bullshit happened. "I'm sorry I'm not."
She hesitated, almost as if she sensed something was wrong. "Thank you for the flowers," she added.
"Sure," he beamed, able to push everything else away for the moment. He didn't want to think about all that unpleasantness while she was on the phone with him. "It's tradition, right?"
She laughed.
"Where are you right now? It doesn't sound like you're in the bar."
"Oh, when I saw that it was you calling, I came outside so I could hear. I'm sitting on the curb."
Talyn chuckled. "Hey, what did Barton get you?"
She audibly grinned. "A song."
He was instantly sorry he'd asked.
YOU ARE READING
The Beautiful Truth
RomanceSawyer Fitzgerald thought she knew the story of her now-divorced parents. It's colored her whole life thus far. Now in college, her English professor assigns her class to read the book that made her dad famous -- the one that he wrote for her mom ne...
