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I cradle her head in my hands and study the delicate contours of her features. Her slender nose fits perfectly on her heart-shaped face, and her cheeks are flushed from the kiss we just shared.
I trace my thumb over her plump bottom lip. “Thank you for believing in me. It means the world to me that you do.”
She smiles. “I’ll always be by your side, no matter what—baseball, using your business degree at a nine-to-five job, or even trying to make a living playing that guitar that you love so much. I’m not going anywhere.”
I nip at her bottom lip. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Our relationship is easy and natural, like breathing. I can see a clear-cut future with her. A life that stays simple, just like it is now—no matter how my life turns out.
London and I study outside the rest of the afternoon without interruption. It’s not until I check the time that I notice it’s nearly four, and I begin to wonder what Dad had to say about the game yesterday. “I think I should call Mom.”
London looks up from her book. “Okay. Let me just pack my books up and we can take off.”
We walk hand in hand back to the dorm, chatting about classes and my upcoming game against the University of Kentucky.
When we step up onto the stoop of her building, I lean in and give her a quick peck before telling her I will call her after I speak with Mom so we can decide on a place to eat for dinner tonight.
Once I’m in my own room, I pick up the phone and dial Mom. The phone rings over and over without an answer, and then it hits me. She’s probably still at the shop, working on orders. That happens from time to time since she’s a one-woman show in the place. She takes all the orders, does all the baking, makes the candies, practically everything except for deliveries. An older gentleman named Bud does that just to have something to do because he’s retired. He insists he loves the job because he likes brightening other people’s days.
I dial the candy shop, and that phone too goes unanswered, which is odd because Mom is a creature of habit. She rarely strays from either of those two locations unless she needs to get groceries for the house or run an errand or two.
I open my book and attempt to pass the time, but I can’t focus. Another hour passes, and then I try Mom again, and I’m too anxious to wait much longer. I try both the home and the shop numbers, and again they both go unanswered.
An odd feeling comes over me, and my thoughts turn to a dark place. What if something happened to her? With both me and Wes away at school, she’s all alone since Dad’s out on deployment. She could have fallen down the stairs carrying a basket of laundry and gotten hurt, and there’s no one there to help her.
My heart races beneath my ribs, and the urge to drive out there and check on her overwhelms me, but before I get too crazy with worry, I need to make one more phone call.
Wes answers on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, man. Have you heard from Mom today?” I ask.
“No, but I was just thinking about calling her to find out what happened to Dad’s call yesterday. Did you talk to her?”
“I haven’t, and I tried to call her a couple times today but got no answer. I’m starting to worry about her. I’m thinking I may drive out to the house and check on her.”
“I’ll come with you. Pick me up in five?” he asks.
“Yeah, let me just grab London and we’ll be on our way.”
Once I call London and explain what’s going on, she agrees that we need to go check on Mom just to be safe. I can tell by the tone in her voice that sh
e’s worried too, because it’s unlike Mom to be unreachable for so long.
London is already waiting for me on the stoop of her dorm when I get there. When I pull up in front of her, she hops into the passenger side and immediately slides over next to me on the bench seat. “Wes ready?”
I nod as I glance over at her beautiful face. Her eyes hold a million questions in them—questions I’m just as anxious as she is to discover the answers to. “We’ll pick him up and then be on our way.”
London places her hand on top of mine and gives it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sure everything will be okay. Maybe she’s just sick and sleeping and didn’t hear the phone ring.”
I sigh. “I hope you’re right.”
It doesn’t take long before we arrive at Wes’s apartment. My brother is sitting on the steps leading to his front door, and when he sees my truck, he pushes himself up and then dusts his hands off on the front of his jeans before he hops inside.
Wes’s attention immediately falls on London, and his gaze trails up and down her body as he checks her out in the jean shorts and red T-shirt she’s wearing. “Hey, London. How ya doin’?”
If I wasn’t already going out of my mind with worry, I might be tempted to call my brother out for looking at my girl the way he has been lately. He needs to stop that shit.
