Loving You (Love Wanted in Texas 6)

I hit his number. “That’s weird. It went straight to voicemail.”

“Maybe he sent that before he took off and it just came through.”

Staring down at my phone, I chewed on my lip. “Yeah. Maybe.”

When we pulled up to my place, Colt and Scott were sitting on the porch. An uneasy feeling quickly swept over my body.

Something was wrong.

“A welcome party!” Meagan said as she jumped out of the car and reached in the backseat for her damn bath bombs that stunk up my car.

I checked my phone again and still nothing from Jase. Calling again, it went to voicemail. My heart started pounding as I sat in the car with my hands trembling.

“Something’s wrong. He should have landed over an hour ago.”

My body went numb. I forced myself to get out of the car. I stopped dead in my tracks when Layton came walking out of the cabin.

Please don’t do this to me. Do not do this to me!

The thought of something happening to Jase hit me right in the chest as I felt my heart drop.

The look in Layton’s eyes told me everything I had feared was about to come true.

Meagan dropped her bags and quickly came back over to my side. “Taylor, baby, breathe for me.”

I hadn’t even been aware that I wasn’t breathing. “Wh-what’s happened? I had a feeling something happened.”

My eyes burned as I fought to hold my tears back. When Colt walked to the other side of me, I felt my legs go weak.

This is just a dream. It has to be a dream.

Layton walked up and stopped just in front of me.

“Taylor, sweetheart. I . . . I need to tell you something.”

Shaking my head frantically, I mumbled, “No. Please don’t, Layton.” My chin trembled as I repeated my plea. “Please don’t.”

His eyes filled with tears while he cleared this throat. “Ryder called. He was meeting Nate and Jase in Wyoming and . . . their plane didn’t land on schedule. The Denver airport said an unexpected storm popped up.”

“No,” I whispered as I let my body go while Colt held on to me. My body felt cold. I could hear Layton talking . . . yet at the same time it felt as if I was drifting away.

“They lost them on radar as they were coming out of the Rockies and into Wyoming. A search plane is already on the way to where they first lost them.”

A search plane.

My head started to hurt. It felt as if someone was taking a hammer to it and hitting it as hard as they could. “Layton . . . please . . . no.”

“Sweetheart, let’s not give up hope, but . . .”

My eyes caught Whitley standing behind Layton. She had been crying.

Everything went numb. Nothing in this world mattered if I didn’t have Jase to live it with.

“But there is a chance the plane . . . the plane might have . . .”

I shook my head frantically as sobs racked my body and my legs gave completely out. Meagan and Colt went to the ground with me. Meagan wrapped me in her arms as I started screaming out Jase’s name.

It’s a dream. That’s all this was.