“Ouch,” Alyssa quips as she walks back into the kitchen. “I’m thinking Tenn is going to get a major ass chewing when he finally calls.”

Almost as if on cue, my phone actually dings in my pocket and despite how mad I am at him and my bratty side demanding that I ignore him so he sees how it feels, I frantically reach into my pocket for my phone.

It’s indeed a text from Tenn, and my heart feels like it’s going to leap from my chest.

Back in WY. Have been slammed with meetings. Sorry haven’t called. Will call soon.

I stare at the text and my anger rages even hotter. I can’t believe he texts me a lame-ass apology with a vague promise to talk to me at some vague point in the future.

Don’t bother, I hastily text back as Brody stares at my phone over my shoulder.

Shaking his head, Brody gives me a reprimand. “Seriously, Casey? Kind of juvenile.”

“No more juvenile than when I tell you to ‘bite me’,” I sneer back at him, and my eyes stay glued to my screen.

The first contact in three days and it’s a brief text to me? I’m apparently not important enough to warrant a quick phone call?

Asshole.

Another ding has me tensed and prepared for battle as I read Tenn’s reply. You really don’t want me to call you?

Well, shit. Of course I want him to call me. I want him to grovel in apology for making me worry and hurting my feelings, but something that I call a little bit of the Markham stubborn pride rears its very ugly head.

While I’m not willing to cut off my nose to spite my face, I take a middle of the road approach when I write back. I haven’t heard from you in three days. It’s really kind of moot if I hear from you soon or not.

I study the message carefully. It’s cryptic enough he’ll scratch his head, but it’s by no means cutting ties with him. It’s merely my way of voicing my feminine displeasure.

I hit send.

“You are such a brat,” Brody mutters as he continues to read our interplay over my shoulder. I turn away from him to shield my phone and patiently wait for Tenn’s reply. I expect it will actually be a phone call so he can give me a piece of his mind, so it’s no surprise my stomach drops just a bit when a text comes back quickly.

It’s only one word.

Brat.

Same fucking word Brody just used.

“Aaaghhh,” I scream out and throw my phone across the kitchen, watching as it shatters against the wall.

Brody stares at me as if I’ve gone crazy, and Alyssa’s mouth drops open in astonishment. Both my parents come running inside, looking around with wild eyes over the disturbance.

I look around at each of them, their gazes all soaked with sympathy that Casey Markham is hurting and quite possibly going insane.

Brody is the one that acts though. He merely opens his arms up to me, and I burst into tears as I step into my brother’s embrace.

“Feeling better?” Gabby asks as she burrows under my covers beside me in bed. We’re watching our favorite movie, Talladega Nights, and although Gabby snorts and wheezes in laughter every ten minutes or so, I’m staring blankly at the screen.

I look down into my empty wine glass, the fourth of the evening since Brody and Alyssa brought me home. “I’m feeling drunk, not better,” I mutter.

After my meltdown at my parents’ house, Operation Casey went into full effect. Brody comforted me with his strong arms while my mom stroked my hair and cooed words of encouragement to me. My dad made a big production of cursing Tenn as a means of showing visible support of my position, even though I know he didn’t mean it. He really, really likes Tenn. Alyssa jumped on the hotline and called Gabby, who was waiting at my house with three bottles of wine.

I climbed out of Brody and Alyssa’s truck, feeling like a wet noodle after I cried for half an hour straight. I immediately felt terrible for being—well, a brat. Tenn didn’t deserve it, but I was operating on pure emotion and BHS… Battered Heart Syndrome.

My immediate regret turned into despair when I realized that my phone was broken beyond repair and I couldn’t amend my words to Tenn. I couldn’t do this even when Brody offered his phone to me, because I had no clue what Tenn’s number was. It was programmed into my phone so I never had the need to memorize it.

My immediate thought was to go home and hover over my landline phone, hoping and praying Tenn would call, but then I remembered I disconnected that line over two months prior in an effort to cut down on expenses.

Now all I could do was drink wine, get drunk, and let Gabby and Will Ferrell try to make me feel better.

So far, it wasn’t working.

Logically, I knew Tenn loved me and that he would not let our last interchange rule the future of our relationship. He’d find a way to get up with me despite my broken phone. However, as a panicked and irrational woman feeling like she had just lost the love of her life, I was convinced I’d never talk to Tenn again. Oh, he would assuredly text me back, and hell, he’d probably try to call. But the texts and voice mails would all go unanswered because I BROKE MY FUCKING PHONE.

Letting my head fall back, it thumps against the headboard and I give what may have been the longest, most pitiful sigh of the evening yet.

“I’m so undeserving of him,” I moan to Casey.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” she growls at me, never taking her eyes off the television. “You’ll get a new phone, and you’ll call and apologize to him.”

“I can’t afford a new phone,” I whine.

“I’ll buy you one,” she says before finishing the dregs of wine in her glass.

“It won’t matter,” I say despondently. “By the time I get one, he’ll have already found someone else. He’s too good of a man, you know? He won’t stay single for long.”

Gabby gives me a tremendously vicious eye roll but when her eyes come to rest, they aren’t on the movie but rather on me. “Casey… baby… I love you like I love Will Ferrell. But you are really starting to irritate the crap out of me. Where in the hell is the self-assured, take-no-prisoners woman that I grew up with?”

“She got whipped by love,” I tell her with a drunken smile. “My poor heart has been battered by love and I’m not sure it will ever recover. In fact, I’m pretty sure even my ovaries shriveled up and died tonight. I’m a loser.”

She mutters something… I think confirming my loser status, but then reaches over to the nightstand to open up another bottle of wine. Silently, she unscrews the cap—because that’s the way Gabby rolls—and fills her glass up again. She then tops mine off and puts the bottle back.

Reaching out, she clinks the lip of her glass against mine and then takes a sip. I, in turn, take a huge gulp and after I swallow, I lay my head on Gabby’s shoulder.

I’m drunk, I’m sad, and that’s a recipe for tears. They pool in my eyes and with the first blink, start sliding down my face. “I just want the same chance,” I say quietly and maybe a bit slurred.

“Same chance at what?” Gabby asks as she grabs the remote control and pauses the movie. She can tell I’m in a mood for some serious talk.

“Love,” I tell her tremulously. “I want what you and Hunter have. I want what Brody and Alyssa have. Gavin and Savannah, Wyatt and Andrea. I want what you all have, and I want it now. I want it with Tenn and no one else, and Gabby… I swear to God… if I lose him, I’ll never smile again.”

She pats my hand briefly then wraps her fingers around mine, giving them a reassuring squeeze. “Casey… trust me on this, please. You are going to have what all of us have. And I’m just optimistic enough for the both of us to know you’re going to have it with Tenn. Right now… you both are going through some tough times, but I know one thing… that man is crazy about you. He is not going to give you up, no matter what the fuck is going on back in Wyoming. No matter how big of a brat you were to him. I guarantee you that he is doing everything humanly possible to make his way back to you, and you know what? If he isn’t able to get out from underneath those obligations, he’s going to bring you to Wyoming. I don’t want to lose you, but I’ll gladly pack you up and send you off to him, because I know that this is what you are destined for. You and Tenn are meant for each other. You’re going to get married, have the most beautiful babies in the world, and you are going to become a full-fledged member in our Club of Love.”