His Affection Meter Hit 100% novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: One Call

We went out to the dock behind the cabin, because it was the only place I wanted to do it.

The sun sat low over the lake.

The ten digits on my wrist had faded to the color of old pencil.

Heath held out his phone.

"Go on," he said.

My hand would not move.

Frankie sat on an upturned crate at the end of the planks with her back to us and her boots over the water.

She had said she would stay close and not listen.

I took the phone and typed the digits one at a time.

Then I pressed the green button.

It rang once.

It rang twice.

I had not heard that ring since I was twenty-two.

It was an old phone with a cord, in a kitchen with yellow curtains.

"Hello?"

Her voice was thin and dry and exactly the same.

I put my fist against my mouth.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Gran."

There was a silence so long I thought the call had dropped.

"Ainsley?" she said. "Ainsley Jean?"

"It's me."

"Oh," my grandmother said. "Oh, my girl."

I sat down on the planks.

Heath sat down next to me and put an arm around my back.

"Where are you?" she said. "Are you hurt? Are you in trouble? You went out for milk three years ago and the milk's gone off, Ainsley, I want you to know that."

I laughed, and then I was sobbing.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Gran, I'm so sorry. I couldn't call."

"Are you alive?"

"Yes. I'm alive, and I'm safe, and I'm all right."

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