“No. He needs to know. I’m not going to let him find out through someone else.” The sense of dread was so palpable nowthat my muscles were all tensed like I would need to sprint at any moment. “Kaylee is back in town.”
Now my head snapped to Levi. I was so distracted by the worry grinding loudly in my ears that it took me a minute to even put two and two together.
“Kaylee is in Cozy Creek?” I asked Levi.
This feeling wasn’t normal for me, this growing pressure in my chest. It was like one more piece of information, and I was going to collapse inward like a building that had lost its structural integrity. I’d been in actual life-or-death situations, with flames licking up walls feet from me, and I hadn’t felt this way.
Levi nodded, brow knit in concern. It was Claire who stepped forward to get my attention.
“Her dad is sick, I guess. I’m not sure. I just overheard at the confectionery that she was in town. And I remembered Levi mentioning the name.” Claire talked rapid-fire. “I had Levi make sure it was true before we told you. I didn’t want a classic case of misunderstanding, but she really is here. I’m sure—” Claire rambled, but then it hit me.
I knew what set me on edge. I held up a hand. I was sure that they misinterpreted the sudden concern in my features.
I couldn’t process Kaylee’s return with the other flashing red alarm blaring in my mind. At one point in time, that would have been all I could think about, but it hardly registered because I’d figured out what had caused my sense of dread.
In the air, above the happy shouts of the crowds in town and the smell of popcorn and cotton candy, was a sharp, acrid, burning smell. Not of the safe variety that came from firewood and campfires, but the wrongness of a chemical burning that shouldn’t be. That was what had been niggling at me. It was hardly noticeable, but I must have gotten notes of it. And nowit was like I was a heat-seeking missile, and that was all I could focus on.
“Are you okay, man?” Levi asked, gaze intense and piercing.
I shook my head, as if to say,It’s not about Kaylee, but I’m sure he took it asNo, I’m not okay.
“I smell a fire,” I whispered as if being quiet would help me smell better.
“What?” Claire gasped and looked around.
The smell was very subtle, so it couldn’t be nearby.
And just as I was wondering if the guys at the station had it handled, my phone vibrated in my hand.
It was a call, not a text from Sophie, like I’d hoped.
“Hello?” I said, as my heart sank.
22
Sophie
Why wasn’t he here?I wasn’t that late.
I stood twisting my hands, stretching up on my toes to look all around the town square for him as my racing anxiety threatened to sweep me away into worst-case scenarios. When trying to get out the door, I had been delayed by putting on a fake mustache. But once I finally got it on, it felt too sticky on my skin and kept tickling my nose. I carefully removed it and lost a solid ten minutes. I ended up borrowing Grandma’s hybrid SUV. I hated driving it and parallel parking. It took me several tries, more than I wanted to admit, until I was actually in a spot. It would have been faster for me to walk.
Now, as I stood all alone, looking for him, I wondered if I’d messed up. He’d brought up his costume a lot in the last week or so. Had he wanted me to dress as Jane? I had thought about it, but he insisted that he wasn’t Tarzan, and if he wanted to coordinate costumes, he would have just asked. He didn’t overthink everything like I did. Was it possible that he saw my costume and it was so silly that he ran in the other direction?
No. He wouldn’t. I knew him better than that. These last few weeks all we’d done was grow closer. Yes, he was inexplicably helping me out of the kindness of his heart, like some weirdo, but also, I’d like to think that we’d become friends.
I called him again.
His phone went straight to voicemail. We’d been texting only minutes ago.
This wasn’t typical.
I had thought that being acquaintances with Pace would entail him carving out tiny slices of his overbooked social life for me from the frothing masses. And he was a busy guy; every day he had some neighbor he agreed to help, or some guy from the firehouse who was providing pizza in exchange for extra hands moving. A neighbor who wanted some stuff taken to the dumpster. A niece’s recital or a poker game. But those were all superficial figures in his life. I had imagined that he would have his main person. He had Levi, but Levi was an introspective artist and newly engaged, so Pace and he rarely saw each other despite checking in most days.
When I was with Pace, he had this way of making me feel like I was the only person in town who he wanted to spend his time with.
It was a very dangerous way to feel because I had no doubt he made every person feel that way.
Regardless, it wasn’t in his character to stand me up. And maybe that was why the low-level dread in my stomach began to twist into something serious.
