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“Thanks.” She grabbed the cup, tightening her grip until the plastic top popped off and she had to push it down again.
His gaze traveled from her hands to her face. “I’m sure you’re sorry for the things you said to me, too.”
Not even a little, but it was interesting that he’d skipped from apologizingtoher and decided to apologizeforher instead. As far as she could tell, he didn’t really need her for this conversation.
“She dumped me and it stung.” He shook his head. “Saying it doesn’t make it any easier. It’s still painful.”
She’d bet having a new girlfriend slip right into Abby’s place helped heal his broken heart.
“Well, my point is that I didn’t want any reminders of her or our time together.” He looked at his feet as he shifted his weight back and forth. “I packed up her stuff and put it in storage.”
More unexpected news. “When?”
“The weekend after she left. When I realized leaving amounted to more than the usual argument and she wasn’t coming back.” His voice filled withhow dare sheindignation.
She really wanted to throw the coffee at him. “You only waited days? But she could have come back. You didn’t want to know why she was gone or if something made her leave?”
“The reasons didn’t matter. They still don’t.” He stared at her for a few seconds before spewing again. “Look, she made the choice, not me. Once she did, fine. I was done with her.”
He sounded less mature than Nathan, and she could at least bribe him with a Popsicle most days. “You wrote her off so quickly and never looked back.”
“I don’t want to do this with you today. That’s not why I’m here.” He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a key. It was on a chain and connected to what looked like some sort of security card. “Maybe looking in the storage unit will give you some clue as to where she is. You can contact her, just leave me out of it.”
The key and card dangled in front of her as he gave her permission... as if she needed that. A note with an address and number for the storage unit slowly turned on the end of the chain.
A thought popped into her mind. If he put Abby’s things in storage, then why had he hidden the bag and laptop in his closet, places Abby wouldn’t have kept them? She almost asked. Almost let it slip that she’d been rummaging in there, but no. He was keeping secrets, so could she.
“What she did to me sucked, but leaving you without a word was also shitty.” He shrugged. “I want you to find peace with this. I don’t want it to nag at you or for it to mess up our relationship. I think of you as a sister. Always have. It would be really terrible if Abby destroyed that, too.”
Elisa didn’t have a response to that, so she held out her hand and he dropped the keychain in it.
“Great.” He shot her a megawatt smile. “I need to get back to work, but maybe this weekend we can get together?”
“Maybe,” she said, trying to sound as noncommittal as possible.
“Okay.” He nodded. “Good.”
He clearly thought they’d made up and she’d move on. That she’d shut up and just take his word that her friend abandoned her life for no good reason. Never mind that with one woman in his life dead and another missing, “finding peace” was not really an option.
She waited until he headed for the hall before asking the glaring question he’d ignored. “Why would Abby leave anything at your house if she planned to walk out on you forever? Why not just pack up all of her things and take them with her?”
He slowly turned and faced her again. His expression didn’t give anything away. She thought she saw a hint of anger, but he quickly covered it.
After a few seconds of staring he answered her in a flat voice. “I don’t know, Elisa. You’ll have to ask her.”
“I wish I could.”
Chapter Seven
Elisa managed to spend all of Saturday morning running around without accomplishing much other than picking up the downstairs and cleaning the kitchen. A feat of sorts when living with a husband who liked to kick off his shoes as he walked in the door and a son who left piles of stuff in every room he entered, but not exactly what she had planned for her few hours without either of them in the house.
Still, today was off to a better start than yesterday. She’d held on to that chain with the storage key Josh had given her until it pressed an indentation into her palm. Now it sat safely under a pile of never-worn bracelets in her jewelry box.
The need to read through the rest of the messages on Abby’s laptop pulled at her. She’d gotten through half before life intruded. She would have finished once everyone went to bed, but Nathan picked last night to have sleep issues. Now, those messages and any secrets they held would need to wait. Today was a family day.
She’d promised and she intended to deliver, even if it meant going to a very loud restaurant with an indoor playroom forkids. She loved that Nathan could burn off a lot of energy but dealing with all the shouting and noise was an emotional fight for her. She preferred quiet—always.
Before picking up Nathan and Harris and heading for Nathan’s first choice for eating and drinking, she stopped at hers—The Coffee Café. Harris had texted four times while she stood in line. The texts included increasingly ragged pleas for coffee. Each time he changed the size of his drink until the most recent text where he suggested just getting him two cups. So, that’s how his day was going.
