Sorry I couldn’t answer any of your calls, but it was for good reason. If you’re too tired to come by after practice, can you please just call me? I really need to talk to you.

Did she really think he would be too tired to see her, especially tonight? Every call that had gone unanswered had made him more paranoid. She never ignored his calls this long. He hit speed dial immediately, knowing he had time before practice started to talk to her. It went straight to voice mail, so he looked down at his phone to make sure it was her he’d called and not someone else. Her text had been sent less than fifteen minutes ago.

It was her he’d called. Her phone was off? He tried again, and once again it went straight to voice mail. She really needed to talk to him but turned her phone off? He was pissed now that he’d missed her text when she first sent it. With his mind going wild about all the possibilities of what she might really need to talk to him after spending the day with Syd and ignoring his calls, he did something he only ever did when he was desperate. He called her mom. The entire time he’d been with Sarah he’d only done that a few times. Each time he’d been worried for some reason or another and unable to get a hold of her.

No way was he going to be able to concentrate at practice now until he talked to her. Her mom answered after a few rings. “Hey, Luna, it’s Angel.”

It felt weird at first calling her by her first name, but when they’d hired her on to work at the restaurant a couple of years ago, she insisted they all call her by her first name. She’d since left when she got another job somewhere else, but the name had stuck by then.

“Hi, honey,” she said, sounding a little tired. “Are you looking for Sarah?”

“Yeah,” he said, walking out of the locker room. “Not sure if her phone’s off or the battery died, but it’s going straight to voice mail.”

“Let me check,” she said then a few moments later whispered, “Oh yeah. She’s knocked out, hon. Is it important? You need me to wake her for you?”

“No,” Angel said quickly, his brows pinching. “That’s okay. Let her sleep. Was she not feeling well or something? Is that why she didn’t go into work?”

The only times Angel knew Sarah to take naps in the middle of the day were if she wasn’t feeling well or if they’d stayed out late the night before.

“No,” her mom said. “I didn’t even realize she was scheduled to go in today. I just assumed it was her day off. She was fine earlier I think she was just feeling a little drained. I’ll make sure to tell her you’ve been trying to reach her as soon as she wakes up.”

Clenching his teeth, Angel started back into the locker room, the tension he’d felt all day reaching another height. “All right, I appreciate that.”

He hung up and finished suiting up for practice, slamming his locker as he started toward Alex, who was waiting for him.

“Did you ever get a hold of her?” Alex asked.

“Nope,” Angel said simply as he walked past him.

Fortunately, his brother knew better than to ask anything else.

~~~

The moment Angel was showered and dressed he walked out of the locker room. Alex, who hadn’t dressed and showered in record time like Angel, had barely gotten out of the shower. Angel told him he’d be outside waiting for him. He’d already read the text from Sarah telling him her mom had given her the message and she’d be waiting for his call.

“What happened?” he asked as soon as she answered.

His practice had done two things. One, it worked to help alleviate some of the tension he’d built up all day thinking about Sarah and Sydney. He’d cracked a few guys a little harder than he normally would’ve, and that felt good, but it’d also made his being worried cross over to being pissed. He’d let his imagination get the best of him, and it’d run wild, so he tried now to calm himself before saying something he might regret later. Sarah not responding immediately to his question didn’t help.

“I, uh, can you talk?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing really, I just . . . ” She paused, working Angel’s already anxious nerves to the brink. “I just have so much to tell you that I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start with why you had to take a nap today,” he said, his words sounding harder than he’d anticipated. He held back asking if she’d been up late with Sydney because he knew he wouldn’t be able to tone that down.

It was something that made him slam a few guys on their asses today at practice because the thought of Sarah being up all night with Syd made him want to spit.

“I was up late,” she confirmed as he ran his hand through his hair, trying to stay calm. “And after everything that happened today, I felt so drained, so I just passed out.”

“Yeah, your mom mentioned you being drained. Why? And why were you up late?”

She let out a long breath and Angel held his. “Well, first of all, Sydney didn’t just decide to come down to surprise me on a whim like he first said he did. He came down to tell me my dad had shown up at his place a few days ago, looking for me. At least it was a man claiming to be my dad, but Syd and his mom swear he looks just like me. It’s why we were up late talking last night. He didn’t want to do it in front of my mom.”

“Why not?”

He was beginning to feel slightly relieved that the voice in his head, the one that had been drowned out by all the worrying he’d done today, was right again. There was a reasonable explanation for all this. But the paranoia was hard to kill. He still had his doubts.