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“What does Nick say?” I ask, referring to the guy she’s using for the project.
Nick did all the major construction on Cedar Cider and handled the rebuild of the grocery store when it caught on fire. I heard from Rusty that he’s the best guy in town to trust with an important project, so I’m glad Gabi’s decided to work with him.
She sighs again. “He says I can do whatever I want.”
Chuckling, I shake my head. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Well, it’s not bad, but it’s also not helpful at all.”
“You don’t need that Nick guy. If you’re looking for help, I’ll do anything you ask,” I tease.
“Oh will you?” she teases right back.
“You doubt me?”
Gabi laughs. “Not in the slightest.”
We talk a bit longer before getting off the phone, promising to connect again later this evening when we have a bit more privacy. When I head into the kitchen looking for a snack, I find a concerned-looking Bellamy sitting at the island, staring at her phone.
“Everything okay?” I ask, resting my arms on the counter.
She opens her mouth then closes it again. Then she shakes her head. “Have you talked to Busy lately?”
A sense of foreboding hits me at her question. I haven’t spoken with Busy since Thanksgiving, since that conversation that felt so weird and unlike my sister. She didn’t come home for Christmas either, letting us all know she’d made plans with some friends to go to Mexico and enjoy warmer weather. My mom was crushed.
“We’ve texted a few times,” I reply. “But she hasn’t been answering my calls. She always seems to have some excuse. Why?”
Bellamy glances at her phone again and types out another message, sending it before returning her attention to me.
“I was supposed to go visit her next weekend, and she canceled. Said she has too much going on with school and work to have any visitors.”
I shake my head. “What is going on with her? I’m starting to get really worried that something’s wrong.”
Bellamy rests her chin on her hand and looks out the window, out at the snowy expanse stretching along the back yard and down to the water.
“I am too.”
I bring up my worries about Busy to Gabi the next day as we’re lounging at her place, listening to a new record we got from The Vault last week.
“I mean, what could be going on that would make her want to avoid us?” I ask, voicing the question out loud for the first time even though I’ve thought it to myself more than once. “We are the people who love her the most.”
“Maybe that’s why,” Gabi says.
I raise an eyebrow at where she sits on the other end of the couch, her body stretched long, her feet pressed against my hip.
“Maybe what’s why?”
“You’re the people who love her the most,” she says, repeating my words. “Maybe whatever is wrong, she’s afraid she’ll let you all down.”
Sighing, I tilt my head back and stare at the ceiling, my chest heavy with the weight of the unknowns. It’s unlike my sister to hide from her family. Boyd and Briar are the more quiet, reclusive types, and Bellamy is the people pleaser. Busy and I are bowling balls—bright and loud and unapologetically ourselves—so to have her withdraw feels…wrong.
I lift my phone and quickly shoot off a text.
Bishop: Hey. Just missing you.
Then I drop the phone onto my chest and return to staring at the ceiling. It’s the only thing I say, because it feels like the only thing that matters. I guess I just have to hope whatever is going on, Busy will remember we’re here for her. All of us, no matter what.
An incoming call has me raising my phone again quickly, hope filling my chest that my sister is calling me after nearly two months of not talking. I’m pretty sure my heart stops when I see who it is.
