They Left Me at the Canyon, So I Came Back for the Wedding novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Gate

Carrie walks Caleb out under the flood siren, and he calls Joanna from her phone and hears her smoothest lie. Then Joanna posts that he ended the engagement.

Carrie didn't let go of my sleeve until we were on the service road.

The siren kept going behind us, rising and falling.

"Walk where I walk," she said. "The wash fills from the top. You won't hear it come."

I walked where she walked.

Her flashlight stayed on the gravel, and her braid stayed in front of me.

"How long were you up there?" she asked.

"Since four. I took forty pictures."

"Forty." She nearly laughed. "Then you were having a good day."

"Until I got down to the lot."

She was quiet for a few steps.

"The photo," she said. "I saw it on your screen. I'm sorry I looked."

"Everyone's seen it. It has four hundred likes."

"Is the one in the front seat your fiancee?"

"Yes. And my best friend."

Carrie said a word I wouldn't have expected from a ranger.

I laughed, and then my throat closed up, and I stopped.

She didn't say anything kind.

She kept walking, and I was grateful.

Her truck was parked behind the gate booth, with a park shield on the door and a dog blanket on the seat.

She got a thermos out of the back and put it in my hands.

"Drink. It's cocoa. It's mine, so be nice."

I drank.

It was too sweet and it was the best thing I had ever tasted.

The guard from the booth walked out with a clipboard, a heavy man in his sixties.

"Carrie, I told you nobody's in there," he said.

"I found a man in there."

"The woman said her party was out."

"The woman was lying, and this is the party." She pointed the flashlight at me.

The guard looked at me, then at the clipboard.

His face went gray.

"She signed it," he said. "She wrote it down and signed it. I didn't know."

"Put that clipboard in the office safe," Carrie said. "Don't write on it. Don't let anyone touch it."

"Okay. Okay, Carrie."

I got into the truck.

My phone said four percent.

"I need to call her," I said.

"You said you stopped calling."

"I want to hear what she says. She doesn't know where I am."

Carrie looked at me for a second and then took her own phone off the dash.

"Use mine. She won't know the number, so she'll pick up."

I dialed Joanna from memory.

It rang three times.

"Hello?" Joanna's voice was bright and a little puzzled. "Who's this?"

"It's me."

There was the smallest pause.

"Oh, babe! Oh my God, where are you? We've been so worried!"

"You've been worried."

"We came back to the lot and you were gone. A man said you'd caught a ride with some friends! We thought you were being funny about the pictures."

"What man?"

"Just a man, Caleb. A man in the lot. I don't know, I was upset."

I held the phone away from my ear and looked at Carrie.

She had both hands on the wheel and her eyes on the road, and I could tell she was hearing everything.

"Joanna. You took my wallet."

"I did! I'm so sorry, I'll mail it, I'll send it express. Where are you staying? We'll figure it out."

"I'm at Hollow Rock. At the gate. The gate you signed out of."

Another pause.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding," she said. "I think you're upset."

"There's a picture."

"There's a picture of two friends who love you, being silly in a car. That is what that is."

Her mouth was on his mouth.

I didn't say it out loud.

"Where are you right now?" I said.

"Heading east. We have to get Brett to his flight."

"You're not coming back for me."

"Caleb, honey." Her voice went soft and patient, the voice she used with her patients at the dental office. "You're tired. You're overwhelmed. Let's talk when you're home."

The line rustled.

Brett's voice came on, easy and warm.

"Hey, buddy. Don't be dramatic. It was a joke. You know how she is."

"Brett."

"Take a cab. Joanna will Venmo you. Don't ruin this trip with a scene."

I ended the call.

My hand was steady, which surprised me.

Carrie pulled into a gravel drive in front of a small cabin and cut the engine.

"That was the nicest voice I've ever heard anyone use to lie," she said.

"She's good at it."

"What did he mean, don't ruin the trip with a scene?"

"I don't know."

I really didn't.

My own phone buzzed in my pocket.

It was at three percent.

It was my sister, Rachel, with four messages stacked on top of each other.

The first was a link.

It was a new post, from Joanna's account.

There was a photo of the canyon at sunset, the one I had sent her that afternoon.

The caption read: Heartbroken. Caleb ended our engagement at the canyon today and walked away. I'm so grateful for Brett, who drove me home safe. Please be kind to him.

It had two thousand likes.

Under it Joanna's mother, Diane, had commented: He always was cold. We tried so hard with him. Praying for my girl.

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