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But my mind kept shooting to worst-case scenarios.
I was being absurd and couldn’t stop.
I closed my eyes in an effort to concentrate. No likely and reasonable possibilities came into my head.
It was too late to take food to the staff. She hadn’t gone to the desk to speak to someone. She wasn’t in the bathroom . . . or the bed.
And she wasn’t next to Penelope.
I was officially out of options.
Where was my phone?
I’d send out a search party for her . . . except I had no idea where to start other than searching this facility top to bottom.
I patted my pants pockets again. No phone.
I searched the bedroom. No phone.
I wish you’d have at least left a note.
There were all these distractions when our focus should’ve been Penelope’s health. I didn’t have the energy for anything else.
“Finally.” I swiped my phone off the coffee table and shrugged off my annoyance that the thing had been right there in front of me the entire time.
When I brought the screen to life, my blood went cold.
There was an unread text message.
See you soon.
Frantically, I read the short thread. I shoved the phone in my pocket, gave Penelope an apologetic look, and raced out the door.
“Stay with her,” I said to the nurse on duty as I hustled past.
She immediately stood, but I kept going to the elevator.
Once the doors slid open, I jabbed the lobby button in rapid succession.
According to the time stamp of the messages, I wasn’t too far behind JoJo. I just had to figure out where “the ship” was.
I tapped out a text to Elliott who immediately responded. Less than a minute later, another message came in. I stared at the phone, uncertain I’d read it right.
“What are you up to, Barn?”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
JOJO
My father loved the sea.
Sometimes as a kid, I wondered if it hadn’t been for his family would he have preferred to captain one of his ships instead of running the company that operated them.
Had we held him back?
He’d certainly never made us feel that way, but sometimes supporting other people meant sacrificing our own dreams.
“I need you, Daddy,” I whispered as I approached the familiar place.
