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Oh, no. “Why?”
“He’s not himself.”
“In what way?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from sounding frantic.
“I don’t know, exactly. He’s been distant.”
“You both went through something unimaginable.”
“True. It seems like more. I probably shouldn’t say anything, but on the plane ride from Columbia home, he mentioned there was someone in his life. A woman he wasn’t sure felt the same way about him as he felt for her.”
“Oh. Wow,” I said, even though inside I was screaming. What in the ever-loving fuck? There was a woman in his life, and yet, he’d had sex with me? On his way back from the airport, no less. Worked in a booty call with me so he didn’t jump the bones of the woman who wasn’t a sure thing. The asshole. There was my answer. That’s why I ran. Somewhere deep inside, I knew I didn’t mean anything to him. It wasn’t just that I didn’t mean as much to him as he meant to me; it was that I didn’t mean jack shit. God, I was as much of an idiot as he was pond scum.
My brother was still talking, but I’d stopped listening. “Sloane?”
“What?”
“You haven’t seen him around town with anyone, have you?”
“Sorry, I don’t keep tabs on your friends, Knox.”
He cocked his head.
“Sorry,” I repeated. “No, I haven’t seen him at all, let alone with someone.”
“Right.” He stood. “I just can’t believe the guy who’s been my best friend all these years didn’t tell me he was dating someone.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
He nodded. “We should probably get down there before Mom comes looking for us.”
“It’s you she won’t let out of her sight. I’m part of the woodwork.”
Knox rolled his eyes and messed my hair again. “The peanut gallery feeling sorry for herself?”
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind disappearing for a while.”
Knox’s eyes hooded. “Don’t joke about that, Sloane.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“That reminds me, there’s a job I’m taking on after the holidays.”
“You are? Have you lost your mind? Do not tell Mom, especially today.”
“It’s not a mission. Not really. Missing person.”
“Oh.”
“She’s a friend of the wives of a couple of the guys I work with.”
“I hope she turns up.”
He walked over to the window and looked outside. “Me too.” He turned back to me. “He didn’t even come inside to say hello,” he mumbled as he walked out of my bedroom.
I followed him downstairs and into the kitchen when I heard our mother barking orders at him about what she needed help with.
“Go relax. I can do this,” I told him.
