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He got up, searching the house and calling her name.
She was gone.
Chapter 26
On Friday morning, Kelly tapped her pencil onto her desk, the steady beat strangely comforting. She hadn’t been able to keep any part of her body still, especially her brain, after last night.
She still couldn’t believe that she’d told Chris she loved him. Like, really loved him, and he hadn’t realized it. He’d just mumbled, “I know,” and a few moments later had been passed out snoring. She could have ignored it, and pretended it was no big deal, but in the end, she’d called Rylie and asked her to come get her. The last thing she’d wanted was to take off with Chris’s truck after ditching him.
Her phone beeped, and she pressed the intercom button. “Yes?”
“Ms. Barrow, your mother is on line one.”
Kelly was a little surprised her mother was calling on her work phone instead of her cell, but pressed line one with a smile.
“Hi Mom, how’s the desert treating you?”
“Hot as the blazes, but that’s why God made air conditioning.”
Kelly knew her parents loved Arizona, no matter how they complained about the heat. They’d followed Kelly’s uncle and his wife there when they’d retired and had become quite the social butterflies. Kelly had been upset when they’d told her they were moving, but as they pointed out, they saw her more now than when they lived five minutes away from her.
“Pretty sure air conditioning is manmade.”
“God can take credit for all of man’s accomplishment,” her mother admonished.
“Yes, you’re right. So, what’s going on, Mom? You called my work phone in the middle of the day, so something has to be up.”
“Well, I’m so glad you asked.” Why did she sound so cheerful? “I wanted to tell you that your father and I have decided to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary ren
ewing our vows. In Hawaii.”
Kelly’s eyebrows shot up. “But…your anniversary is in three weeks.”
“Yep.”
Kelly groaned, cupping her forehead in her hands. “Mom, you can’t plan something like that in so short a time.”
“Actually, we’ve been planning this for a while, this is just the first time I’m telling you about it.”
Oh, God, why is she doing this to me? “But why? Why wouldn’t you tell me, so I could be there? I mean, I have a business and I have to prepare for these things.”
“Well…”
“And I could have helped you! How long are you planning on being gone?”
“We’re going to do five days with friends and family and then ten days just the two of us. Like a second honeymoon.”
Kelly could feel a headache starting behind her forehead. “All right, well, I guess I’ll have to see if I can get a flight and hotel room in...” Kelly looked at the calendar and groaned. “The first week of July that won’t bankrupt me.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it, honey! That’s taken care of, as is your schedule. I called Veronica months ago and she promised me she’d keep your schedule clear.”
Kelly stared at the phone, wondering if she could telepathically choke her mother. “You…conspired…with my assistant?”
“Yes, and I have to say, she is a lovely girl. I think you should promote her to a consultant. Smart as a whip, that one.”
Kelly was going to have to have a companywide meeting about her employees being in cahoots with her mother. And how that was a bad thing.
“Oh, and Marcy and Keith are coming.”
