“I needed to know you weresafe.” Bailey’s voice dropped to a whisper, as if she were revealing a state secret.
I shifted in my seat, feeling the intense gaze of both matchmakers burning a hole in the side of my face. I lowered my voice, fully aware that they were listening intently to every word I spoke. “You thought the stalker stole my phone and came to Ever After to keep my appointment?”
“Shut up! You really scared me.”
I winced. Even through the bravado, I could hear the little eight-year-old girl, cowering under the covers while “monsters” rattled the windows. The girl who would wake up with night terrors and would come sleep in my bed. She was genuinely scared.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice tightened as my throat closed with regret.
“Are you coming straight here after your appointment?”
“You’ll be tracking me, so I guess you’ll find out.” I tried to lighten the mood.
“Billie.”
“Yes, I am. I’ll text you when I’m on my way,” I promised.
Bailey released a long, shuddering breath. “Thank you. Love you.”
“Love you.”
A thick silence stretched across the room, broken only by the soft hum of the HVAC unit and the clatter of Trevor’s nervous fingertip tap-dancing on his iPad. I watched a dust mote drift through a sunbeam, wishing I could do the same.
I knew what was coming next.
“Spill,” Liv said, her voice neither gentle nor harsh, just…neutral. Like a doctor asking what your symptoms are.
So, I told them. I told them about all of the events from the weekend, minus my hookup with Adam, even my matchmakers didn’t need to know about that.
“You really have no clue who it could be?” Liv questioned.
“No. The detective is looking into some of the guys from the apps.”
“Are you sure you want to do this today?” Trevor reached over and squeezed my hand. “We can reschedule?”
“No. I mean, yes. Yes, I want to do this today.” I was so tired of my life being hijacked.
First I felt that my childhood and teen years were stolen while I was raising my sisters. Then my early twenties were spent getting both of my sisters through college, and I thought I could start my career, however, my grandparents both passed away and I had to help my sisters save Bliss Bridal and the house, both of which were not in great shape.
Now I wanted a relationship. Not marriage. Not children. But a relationship. I wanted something that was mine. I wanted to be selfish. I wasn’t going to let some freak who had some sort of unhealthy obsession with me ruin that.
The real question was, was I going to let Adam Knight ruin it?
22
ADAM
I stoodon the unicorn carpet in the twins’ bedroom, surrounded by two heaps of laundry, a rainbow-bright pile of clean clothes, and a much smaller, sadder pile of socks.
It wasn’t like folding laundry was particularly meditative. If anything, it gave my brain more room to replay my last conversation with Billie, editing and re-editing it with the desperate hope that I could change the ending if I just folded enough pairs of leggings. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. No matter how many times I replayed it, she didn’t come over for pizza or stay at my house instead of her sister’s.
I pressed a tiny t-shirt into a perfect square and set it on the stack. Then I caught myself glancing out the window, the same way I’d done about forty times in the twenty minutes I’d been up there. I was looking for Billie. Or more accurately, for her car, or the flicker of her silhouette on the street, or any sign at all that she might be in range, ready to unpause our relationship. My brain tried to phrase it as curiosity, or neighborly concern, but I knew it was the craving of someone who’s just lost their favorite thing and doesn’t know how to live without it.
Two weeks had passed since I dropped Billie’s bags on her porch, and we hadn’t spoken. I wanted to believe she wasn’t avoiding me, but she was. I found myself checking the front window every morning the way some people check the weather. Not for rain or fog—though in spring in San Francisco, both were a possibility—but for Billie. She was parking her Tesla in the garage, which was great for security but meant I never knew if she was home or not, unless I happened to see her coming or going, which had only happened a handful of times.
I’d gotten used to the rhythms of the neighborhood, I was getting more familiar with who should be around and who shouldn’t. I spoke to Mrs. Cable every morning after I took the girls to school and I knew she would tell me if she saw anything suspicious, which made me feel even better. Shewasthe neighborhood watch. So far, so good. Nothing to report.
As I folded leggings with strawberries on them in thirds, I didn’t quite recognize my life. Over the past fourteen days, I’d become a man who owned apple-scented shampoo and Kleenex with kittens printed on the box. I was starting to feel like a dad, not just a guardian.
