She was relieved to hear he wasn’t bed-hopping. “So, what else do you do for fun?”
“I own a fishing boat. My brothers and some of the guys I work with enjoy fishing. We don’t go after the big fish. We’re not equipped to land swordfish or tuna or anything like that…mostly mackerel, but there’s nothing like being on the water on a nice summer day.”
The subway entrance loomed ahead. “I’m getting on the subway here,” Kristine said.
He slipped his arm around her waist and swooped in for another kiss…this one a toe-curling, tongue-seeking, hot lip-lock.
“Whew.” She stepped back and shook her head to clear the daze. “I’ll tell my hygienist to hurry.”
* * *
Jayce was glad he went early to pick up the tickets. They were almost out. Kristine had called to say she wanted to stop at home before going for sticky buns—or possibly a salad.
His phone rang, and he was happy to hear the ringtone he had already programmed in for Kristine: “Too Hot.”
“Hey, hot stuff. You ready?”
“Um… Actually I have to cancel. I’m really sorry.”
What?“Cancel? Did I freak you out this morning? Running into you really was a coincidence.”
“Oh, yeah. I know that.”
But maybe she didn’t believe it. Rather than jumping to conclusions, he asked, “Then why?”
“I—it’s my mother.”
“Is she sick?”
“I can’t talk right now.”
“Okay. I can tell something has you upset. I’m here for you if you need me.”
“Maybe it would be better if you just spend the rest of your vacation doing the tourist thing. Then just go home and forget about me. We knew a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work anyway—”
“Whoa. You’re not making sense. We agreed to try it. Something is very wrong. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I can’t.” Her voice wobbled. Then the call disconnected.
“Shit!” He cursed out loud and then glanced at the pedestrians within earshot. No one even blinked.
How could he pretend he hadn’t heard the desperation in her voice? He’d go to her apartment and demand to know what had her so spooked—but he didn’t know where she lived. He didn’t want to ask her firefighter buddies in case she already thought he was a stalker. He tried the Internet, hoping some information might lead him in the right direction. There was nothing. What the hell could he do?
A little rule-breaking might be in order.
He jogged to a nearby parking garage and made sure he wasn’t being observed and there were no cameras to record his actions. Then he stripped, stashed his clothes behind a large cardboard box, and shifted into his phoenix form. His tail feathers were too colorful to be ignored, even in New York, so he found a pile of dirt and rolled in it. Fortunately, if he needed to refresh his camouflage, there was no shortage of it.
Now that he was less ostentatious, he flew to the Hell’s Kitchen firehouse. Kristine lived somewhere in the area. He could scope out the neighborhood from above, hoping to spot his beautiful redheaded firefighter coming out of an apartment building. If nothing else, she was due back to work in a couple of days.
A couple of days. If he had been able to groan in phoenix form, he would have. He’d age like a regular bird. Three days in a bird’s life was approximately one year in a human’s. However, with a lot of flying, the aging process ramped up even more. At the moment, he was willing to age two or more years if it took all week to find her. Something was drastically wrong, and he had to know what was frightening her.
He flapped his powerful wings, gliding on the wind. He only hoped that when he finally found her, he wasn’t too late.
* * *
Kristine lowered herself onto the couch with a thud. How long had that note been on the floor? She tried to remember the last time she saw her mother. Had she knocked the paper off the sofa table when she tossed her clutch there?
“I was getting ready for my date last night, and she seemed fine then,” Kristine mumbled. “I was gone for about five hours…”
