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Ian: Can you pick up some ice cream on the way home?
Ian: Love you.
Collapsing back into her seat, she dropped her phone into her lap, dropped her face into her hands, and tried to catch her breath. “They’re okay,” she said, relieved tears welling while the plane finally came to a stop. “Thank god, they’re okay.” She wiped the blur from her eyes. “I’m going to have a long talk with my son about sending me multiple mundane texts about dinner when I’m on a plane. But they’re okay. They’re…” She trailed off, going silent as every drop of blood drained from his face.
“Cole?”
His eyes were glued to his phone, his knuckles turning white around it, hands shaking.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
Looking up, his expression terrifyingly blank, he only said, “It’s the guys,” before his hand rose to cover his mouth.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
MIRA
June 29,8:32am
Mira: Hi Cole
June 29, 8:36am
Mira: Just wanted to check in. I hope you’re okay.
June 29, 8:40am
Mira: I’m thinking about you.
June 29, 11:44am
Mira: I can’t imagine what you’re going through. But I’m here if you need to talk.
June 30, 2:37pm
Mira: Do you need anything? Can I help in any way?
June 30, 2:41pm
Mira: I miss you (deleted)
June 30, 6:49pm
Mira: I’m trying not to be worried, but I’m really worried. Please just let me know you’re okay (deleted)
Mira: I miss you.
July 1, 10:12am
Cole: I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve been doing everything I can to keep the rest of the guys calm and on the premises, and there’s so much I can’t talk about. I’ve barely slept since we got back, but Mad’s here now. He thinks he knows where they went and we’re trying to make a plan to get them back. I’ll call you when I can. I miss you too.
* * *
After pipinganother fine-line vein on a fondant leaf, Mira stood back, frowning at the third trial wedding cake she’d baked in the last three days. None of them looked the way she wanted them to, but at least she had something to keep herself busy, considering the bakery had been completely dead and her brain so painfully alive her entire head buzzed.
She’d received that one single text from Cole yesterday morning, and then nothing. She was trying to be calm, patient, but the silence was breaking her. Even Jen hadn’t known what to say, what advice to give her aside from “fuck every duck!” when she’d told her what had happened, what little she knew, only that two of the men had left Little Timber while she and Cole had been in the air. Only that Cole had been so devastated, so completely inconsolable he could barely speak. Only that he’d dropped her off at the bakery before peeling out like he was racing against a fire threatening to burn everything he was supposed to keep safe to the ground. Only that she’d flown into her apartment and hugged Ian and her mom for ten solid minutes because they were okay, because she wasn’t, and because she couldn’t hug Cole.
Frowning at the not-right wedding cake she needed to get right by next Saturday, she untied her apron, hung it on the hook in the kitchen, and took the tray of lemon poppyseed cupcakes she’d baked earlier in the day out to the bakery. When she rounded the corner from the hallway, the tray wobbled in her hands, all twelve cupcakes nearly toppling to the floor before she set it down on the counter. Because there he was, standing outside her door.
