A ghostly smile touched his lips, but disappeared quickly. “Not that.”
Jamie slowly pressed down on the gas pedal to move us forward, but the unease still tightened in my chest. “You don’t have to be wrapped,” I whispered. “We can… unwrap you.”
Jamie startled me by laughing once, and it was asoftsound, not harsh or upset or anything I would’ve guessed.He hadn’t said it like it was a good thing—you have me wrapped around your finger—but his chuckle had come easy. “No, we can’t,” he said simply, but something caught his eye through the windshield. “Why are all your house lights on?”
“They’re not,” I said without even looking through the windshield, because theyshouldn’t be. It was eight minutes til midnight, and everyone in the house should’ve been asleep. Mom’s bedtime was the same as the kids’—nine o’clock sharp. Unless someone accidentally left the stairwell light on, it should’ve all been dark.
Except every single light in the Carmichael house was on.
Even the small little windows set into the garage door were bright. Our garage was more of a storage room than anything else, and there was no way Mom’s car would fit in there anymore.
Which was alarming because her car was not in the driveway.
My stomach dropped to my toes, so sharply that I was certain I was about to be sick. I fumbled for my seatbelt, nearly dropping the stupid slushie as I rushed. My breath started coming fast, the doomsday scenarios even faster.Someone got hurt, and Mom had to rush them to the emergency room. Someone broke in, robbed the place, then stole Mom’s car. Something happened, something happened, something happened.
Jamie pulled into the empty driveway, dodging the pothole. I barely remembered rushing out of his car and across the lawn. My house keys shook in my grip as I triedto shove the wrong one into the lock, and Jamie reached around me and easily plucked them from my hand. As if he’d done it a million times before, he found the correct key for the deadbolt, unlocking that lock first before swapping keys for the knob lock, easily finding that one as well.
When he shoved the door open, I was prepared for all the worst-case scenarios.
I, however, was not prepared for one.
Jamie and I had a straight shot from where we stood to the dining room, where Theo stood barefoot on the table with a bubble wand in his hand. He was in the middle of blowing giant bubbles that immediately popped, splattering soap onto the hardwood floors.
Ivy was on the couch, idly munching on mini marshmallows straight from the bag while she watched Junie play a shooting game on the TV. The volume was up way too loud, and they hadn’t heard the door open.
Red flashed across the TV screen, and, without censoring, Junie yelled, “What the hell!”
A slow buzz had begun building in my head the second the door opened, like bees had started swarming in my ears. Without warning, I slammed the front door shut, hard enough that it shook the picture frames on the walls.
Ivy shrieked at the sudden noise, launching up and sending mini marshmallows everywhere. Junie froze stiff, fingers curled around the controller as if she could use the measly thing as a shield. “Jamie,” she said in a strained voice, as if she was trying to sound excited, but couldn’t manage it. “H-Hi…”
Theo slowly lowered his bubble wand, tucking itbehind his back, but he hadn’t capped it. Soap fell out of the container like a waterfall, pouring all over the wooden table and dripping onto the floors.
A second later, Penn rushed out from around the corner. “What happened? What—” When her gaze locked on mine, her face whitened. “D-Daisy, let me explain?—”
“Explain?” I demanded, still unsure what emotion was vibrating through me. Definitely not the giddy, lightweight excitement from the club. Jamie slid past me to venture deeper in the house, but I didn’t look away from my sister. “Go ahead, Penelope, I’m listening. Explain to me why it’s midnight and no one’s asleep.”
Ivy looked at her little wristwatch. “It’s actually not midnight yet?—”
“Are youkiddingme?” I snapped at her, and she shrank at my tone. “You want to nitpicknow? How old are we, Ivy?”
“Ivy’s eight,” Theo muttered, letting Jamie scoop him up off the tabletop and into his arms.
Penn swallowed hard. “I just went to the bathroom. I swear, he was not on the table two minutes ago?—”
“Two minutes ago, he should’ve been in bed.Two hours ago, he should’ve been in bed! Theyallshould have!” My voice cracked off the living room walls, loud enough to make the girls on the couch wince. “Where the heck is Mom?”
Silence. Penn set her jaw, her hands in fists at her sides. I did see the sneaking peek Junie took at Penn, though, like she knew but didn’t want to say anything.
“Let’s get up to bed, guys.” Jamie set Theo down butkept hold of his hand, and reached his other hand out to the girls. “First one tucked in gets a goodnight story from me.”
Junie shot up, hurrying toward the stairs, but Ivy was slower moving. Rubbing her eye with one fist, she reached for Jamie’s hand. “He’s really good at stories!” Theo told them.
Our eyes locked, and Jamie gave me a small nod.I’ve got this. You take that.
Their footsteps were quiet as they climbed the stairs, leaving Penn and me alone in the thick tension of the living room. Now that it was the two of us, some of her bravado disappeared, her fingers uncurling a little.
“Penn.” My voice was firm. “Where is Mom?”
