Since I love hearing the history of the club, as much as the women know, I stay quiet and listen. I know from the little she’s shared that Livy had the club’s backing during her situation. Considering how outgoing and self-assured she is now, I find it hard to believe she was once so timid and scared. But the loveof a good man who has an army behind him will do that for a woman.
We’ve moved on from talking about the men and are now discussing tattoos when I see Abyss striding toward me. While he’s smiling, it doesn’t totally reach his eyes which is concerning. Still, when he leans in and gives me a quick kiss, then asks, “You ready to go?” I don’t hesitate to stand and put my hand in his.
“Thanks again for going with me, y’all,” I say, looking at Issy and Livy. “We may need to make this a quarterly thing depending on how fast we all run out of stuff.”
“Monthly, we should go monthly,” Issy muses as she grins up at Rio who looks up at the ceiling with a ‘why me?’ look on his face.
“That works too!” I exclaim as Abyss laces his fingers with mine. Walking outside, I break away to go to my Jeep and see the puzzled look on his face. “I have my stuff in the back and it’s too much to fit in the saddlebags,” I admit, making him smirk.
“Bought that much, huh?” he asks.
“I was out of a lot of stuff,” I reply, shrugging. I mean, there are worse things I could buy, I guess. I don’t smoke, do illegal drugs, or have piercings all over my body. Skincare and smelling nice are definitely not crimes as far as I’m concerned, so I ignore his teasing and get in my car.
“Wanna stop to grab something to eat first?” he questions before I get the door closed.
“I mean, I can cook for us if you’d like,” I say. “We eat out a lot and that can’t be healthy.”
“We’ll cook the rest of the time. Let’s hit the diner first, sweetheart,” he suggests.
“Okay, that works too.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
Abyss
As we waitfor our food to arrive, I look at her and decide to fill her in as much as possible concerning Gretchen. “So, while I normally won’t talk about club business, since this kind of concerns you, I want to fill you in about what our meeting was about,” I say.
“Both Livy and Issy have explained what ‘club business’ means, Abyss, so I don’t want you to tell me anything you’re not supposed to,” she replies. “It doesn’t mean I don’t want to know, of course, but only if it’s okay.”
“It’s okay for me to tell you this, Shelly, I promise,” I say. “It may become something that turns into club business at some point, but right now, it’s not. I told them about Gretchen, and it turns out that she actually works at the same clinic that Doc does. They weren’t aware she was missing, but now they are. We’re looking into it and will do our best to find out what happened to her.”
Her face is so expressive, I can see every emotion flash across it as I talk, so I reach out and clasp her hand in mine. “God, that’skind of terrifying,” she murmurs. “When… when was the last time Doc saw her?”
Clearing my throat, I wait for the waitress to put our food down, not wanting a stranger to overhear our conversation and the things I’m about to share. They may not be top secret, but there are some things the public doesn’t need to be made aware of. Once she leaves, I pick up where I left off and say, “She told everyone about getting her tattoo, according to Doc. He said the last time anyone saw her was the night before her appointment.”
“That means something must have happened after she left work,” Shelly muses.
I become fascinated as I watch her lightly tapping the tines of her fork against her bottom lip. While I’ve been slowly getting her used to me, constantly touching her whenever she’s nearby or kissing her, I find she continues to surprise me time and time again. When I first met her, she was closed off, like a flower that hadn’t opened yet and bloomed, the grief and loss she experienced causing her to retreat from life to somewhere she felt safe. As time has passed, she’s been slowly opening up. Not just to me, but to Livy, Issy, and Marge. The grief that hung like a pall over her is still there, of course, but she’s no longer just plodding through life. She’s living and hopefully, I’m one of the reasons.
Because down to the marrow of my bones, she’s it for me. Much like the fillies I’ve helped train over the years, she’s shown me that while she may sometimes need a gentler touch, she has a steel backbone. It’s been ingrained in her from an early age, and the accident bent it slightly and caused her to retreat into herself, but now she’s coming into her own. She’s the woman I’ve been looking for, and I didn’t even realize that fact, but since I’m aware now, I’ll do whatever it takes to cement her to me for life.
She’s going to be my ol’ lady, my wife, the mother of my children.
“Probably so,” I admit. “Right now, Nerd is doing a deep dive on her life to see if there’s any trail of her anywhere.”
“I hope y’all find her,” she murmurs. “I don’t know her except the little bit that Gina has shared, but anyone who has that much time in on their recovery is someone to admire. She’s young too, well, older than me, but still young in the grand scheme of things.”
I nod since I agree with her and take a bite of food while she continues to talk, allowing her words to run through my mind while I eat. Once I swallow, I ask, “Do you know if Gina has a picture of her?”
Her eyes widen and she says, “I don’t know. I’m going to text her and ask.” She pulls out her phone, and I watch her fingers fly as she sends a message to Gina.
“Good idea,” I reply. “If she does, I’ll get it to Nerd.” I’m pretty sure there are pictures of her on the clinic’s website and throughout social media, but they’re probably not current, and if she’s the type of woman who colors her hair frequently, she might have a completely different look. Plus, it’s possible that the picture on the website is several years old and a lot can change; people gain and lose weight, cut their hair, get tattoos, and don’t get me started on all of the filters people use nowadays on social media.
“Okay, she just sent me several pictures that were taken a week before she went missing,” she says, looking down at her phone. “Want me to send them to you?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, that’d be good,” I reply.
