“What are you doing?” I asked. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack! I can’t traumatize him on the eve of his birthday.”
He came back to me and grasped my face in his hands. “Ellie. For me and him, going slow has been the best thing. I want to make sure I don’t fuck it up. I’ll be back tomorrow morning for his brunch, which is not exactly something I want to show up for having rolled right out of your bed.”
He had a point. “I guess,” I said, though I was still pouting.
“Sweetheart, soon I’m not going to ever go away again, okay? Maybe I can take you out for dinner before your mom goes home this week and we can make more solid plans. I want everything we talked about. You’re my dream girl, and this is my dream life, okay?”
I nodded, overcome with love for this man. “Okay,” I whispered. I swallowed, then I was brave, and said, “I love you.”
“Baby, I love you, too,” he whispered. “To the moon and back.” He kissed me, then he was gone.
“Come back to me, soon, Sam,” I whispered into the dark.
CHAPTER 41
Lost
SAM
Iprobably shouldn’t have driven home that night. I was so blissed out I was surprised I didn’t roll off the road. This was it. The rest of my life.
It didn’t help that I looked at my phone for the first time after sending my version of a goodbye text to Ellie and had seen the message from her mom.
She’d sent me a photo of a house for sale. It was dusk—they must have walked by it on their way to the fireworks. But she’d done exactly what I asked—sending me, on the last few days of her trip, photos of any houses for sale.
I didn’t open it up to look at it properly—I could do that tomorrow. For now, I needed to get home, to get some sleep so I could be fresh for Tommy’s day tomorrow.
I was nearly back to Greenville when my phone buzzed with a call. I would have ignored it, but I worried it was Ellie. What if she needed something? Even if it was just for me to tell her goodnight I was going to give it to her. I couldn’t make her wait.
I pulled off the road, fishing the phone out of mypocket.
My smile fell when I saw it was my mom. Worry instantly streaked through me. It was a quarter to eleven at night.
My mother went to bed at nine, if not earlier.
I picked up just before it went to voicemail. “Mom?”
“Sam, I’m so sorry to bother you.”
“You’re not bothering me. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
A pause. Then, “No.”
The single word—in a high-pitched tone—was enough to make my stomach turn to ice. “Mom, what is it?”
“It’s your father. He went for one of his hikes today and… well it’s getting late now and he never came home.”
Alarm shot through me. “Gettinglate? Mom it’s—” I cut myself off. And one of his hikes? What was she talking about? He went on walks in town. Where he was supposed to. Like the doctor ordered.
I suddenly remembered Mrs. Patel that day in the square.My cousin fell on his health walk. Cracked his head open like a melon.
Adrenaline coursed through me. “Mom, where did he go?”
“Well, I think at that last family dinner when you were talking about that trail, he got inspired, because that’s where he said he was going. I’m pretty sure.”
The ice spread, spreading through my veins.
