She smiled and patted me on the chest. “But now, I think you have somewhere you need to be. And a little bird tells me you might want to hurry.”
I grabbed her hands in both of mine and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you. Thank you. You’ve no idea how much this means to me.”
“Of course I do.” She blushed furiously, and I had to look twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Delia Cumberlandneverblushed.Ever.“I figure it should at least earn me a discount, right?” She patted me on the arm. “Now, get out of here. You too, Tap. I’m too old to be a gay icon.”
We ran for the stairs and were out of the council building in record time, but there was no trace of Thaddeus on the way. A crowd of angry people lingered outside, and a man pushed a flyer into my hand. I didn’t hang around to look or hear what he had to say. Instead, I hightailed it to the parking lot and jogged a loop around the cars to check for Thaddeus’s Rover, but it was nowhere to be seen.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I hadn’t been that far behind, so where the hell had he disappeared to? I scanned the brightly lit lot, breathing hard. Unless he was avoiding me, of course. I’d made it perfectly clear that his excuses didn’t cut it with me, after all. Why would he stick around only to be reminded of that again?
All those times I’d wanted to text or call him, only to chicken out after telling myself how much it hurt to take a chance on someone and be let down.
It appeared Thaddeus wasn’t the only one who ran from the hard stuff.
But he hadn’t run tonight.
No. For the last three weeks,I’dbeen the one doing the running.
And I’d been a fucking idiot.
I pulled out my phone to find he hadn’t replied to or even seen my text.
I fired off another.
You were brilliant tonight. I can’t believe you did that. Can we please talk?
Yep, way to sound desperate. I waited for a reply, but nothing.
Tap appeared at my shoulder, breathing hard. “He’s not on the street or talking with anyone. Have you seen this?” He shoved the flyer under my nose.
I quickly scanned the long list of bullet points with links to additional resources. They highlighted every concern the public needed to consider about the impact of data storage centres on the community in one easy-to-read format.
I looked up to find Tap grinning at me. “The guy handing these out said they’ve been put up all over town,” he said. “Libraries, doctor surgeries, supermarkets, everywhere. Plus,the local paper will be running a spread, and they’ve fielded calls from the TV networks.”
I stared back down at the flyer. “I can’t believe he did all this in three weeks.”
Tap huffed. “Delia said he was on a mission. I think it was his way of making things right.” He paused and rested a hand on my shoulder. “You know where he lives, right? You can’t tell me you didn’t look him up.”
I nodded, cheeks burning, because I’d spent hours online researching Thaddeus Grey, shocked at just how often his name came up and in what context, his company being an up-and-coming leader in the software industry. No wonder he’d struggled with the idea of getting out. He had a lot to lose. As much as I had, in many ways, and I wasn’t sure I’d have been as brave. And I hadn’t missed the business headlines the previous week when Thaddeus had sold his company share to some hotshot Auckland software firm. I’d been somewhat taken aback. I’d thought Thaddeus had been trying to sell to Phillip. Wasn’t that why Phillip had been at the cottage that day?
Tap pressed his car keys into my hand. “Go find him. I’ll catch a ride home.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
RYDER
It was almosteleven when I pulled into the visitor’s car park of Thaddeus’s swanky apartment building. It sat over the harbour like a glittering pier. I switched off the engine and stared up at the scattered lights winking at me from the expensive address.
Naomi had been right. If Thaddeus owned one of these, he wasn’t short of a bit of coin. But it also didn’t fit him either. Not the Thaddeus I knew. Or if he did love it, then how in the hell would he cope with the kind of environment that I needed? Because I sure as hell couldn’t live in something like this.
Jesus.Maybe I was making a mistake, after all.
He was wearing your sweatshirt.
That’s right. He was. I had to believe that meant something.
And there was only one way to find out.
