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He nods. “When you meet a woman as wonderful as your mother, you’ll understand.”
“We have, sir.”
Theo looks at his wife and back at us. Confusion is etched all over his face.
“The night we got to Peach Bottom Valley, we went out for drinks. There was a woman there. She stole our hearts. It was love at first sight for all of us.”
He nods. Mom sobs louder.
“None of us can explain how three brothers can fall in love with the same woman, but we did. And we spent all day yesterday getting to know her, falling in love with her more and more by the second.”
“Yesterday?” His confusion shifts to realization, then his mouth drops open.
Mom says, “And there’s a picture on the internet of themgetting to know each other.”
There is? Shit. Panic plows through me. A picture would devastate Aria. And while I don’t expect everything I do to meet my mother’s approval, the intense disappointment hurts.
Confusion flickers over Theo’s expression too then his spine jerks straight. “A picture of you three and my daughter?”
We wait for mom to confirm.
Is he going to have us arrested? Can mayors do that? It’s not like we’ve done anything illegal. Or will he just kill us for defiling his perfect daughter?
Sebastian jumps in. “If someone took a picture without our permission and used it to hurt Aria, we’ll get to the bottom of it. We love her. We’d never put her in harm’s way.”
“Where is she?” Theo asks.
Mom pulls herself together. “She left.”
I say, “As much as I would love to stand here and sort things out, I have to go find her.”
Klayton says, “She’s not answering her phone.”
Her dad won’t give us her address but leads the way to where she lives. I don’t have time for the warm, fuzzy feelings about being in her space, even if just on her doorstep. She’s not here, so we have to move on.
We try the hospital, no luck.
Mom asks Theo, “Can you reach out to her friends?”
It hurts that I can’t rattle off a list of her friends, but it doesn’t diminish my feelings. I intend to keep learning about her until I know her better than I know myself.
Theo rakes a hand through his hair. “I don’t know who she hangs out with. She’s always been dedicated to school and work.” He closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths. “That might be my fault, pressing her to do extra schooling and get a job, which is important, but her success has been part of my image. I never let her be herself.”
“Oh Theo, I’m sure you were a great dad,” Mom says.
“I’ve got it.” My brothers light up, and Aria’s location hits all of us at the same time.
It’s touching that her dad is having his revelation and that my mom wants to comfort him, but Aria’s hurt, and we’re not by her side. That has to be fixed.
“How can you know where she is?” Theo looks at each of us brothers in turn.
“Because the night we met Aria, she was hiding.”
“Where?”
“At The Bottom Bar.”
“The biker bar?”
