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They held eye contact for a long moment. Then Lori nodded approvingly and turned to face her house.
“We’ll keep Ruby till Sunday. I’ll touch base with Gabe about pick up,” she said, her back to Hope, as she walked off.
With this new insight, Hope got into the Bronco and fumbled for her phone. She had promised to call Gabe before she left Lori’s, and she now understood how absolutely important that would be for him, but when she clicked open her phone, her battery was down to one percent.
How had that happened? She could’ve sworn it was at thirty percent when she’d called him from the school. Or maybe it was at thirty percent this morning.
A slight panic swelled in her chest as her fingers flew to type out a text to Gabe, in case the blasted thing died on her while she tried to call him.
Hope:Just dropped Ruby off at Lori’s. All is well. On my way home.
She pressed send, then she hit dial on his number and sent up a silent prayer that her battery would last.
“Hel—” was all she got of Gabe’s voice before her phone went silent. And dark.
Quickly, she searched the Bronco to see if there was a charger she could use. Of course, she didn’t find one. Murphy’s-freaking-Law.
Ooookay, well, at least she got the text off. He’d know Ruby was safe at Lori’s. He could call Lori if he wanted to double-check.
Easing out of Lori’s driveway, she had a renewed appreciation for the car. It made total sense now why he’d drive a vehicle like this. It was basically Fort Knox on wheels.
She drove for a while, feeling humbled that he trusted her enough to drive Ruby. Maybe if they could build on that trust, they could work toward bridging the gap that had grown between them during the last week.
Because she wanted to. She wanted to fill in the gaps that still existed between them and create something special. If he could trust her with the most important thing in his life, she would do her best to be worthy of that trust, and maybe she could trust him too.
She only wished she’d taken the time to charge her darn phone.
“Well, it’s too late now,” she muttered to herself and turned onto the highway. She’d be home soon enough, anyway.
But ten minutes later, a loud bang pierced her ears, and killed her hope ofsoon enough.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Where the fuck was she?
Gabe paced his office like a caged animal, trying his best not to lose his shit. Apparently, wearing a path in his office floor wasn’t helping.
It had been over two hours since he’d got her text. Over two hours since he’d answered her call and got cut off before he could even say hello.
He’d called back about eighty times, and got her voice mail every single time. He’d called Lori and, sure enough, Hope had dropped Ruby off around 3:30. No one had heard from or seen her since. It was going on six now. His bar was filling up with the Friday night crowd. The plumber had fixed the dishwasher disaster. He should be out there running his bar.
Instead, he’d put Carter in charge, and gone out looking for her. He’d borrowed Sean’s car and driven to his sister’s house, re-tracing the few routes he thought she might have taken. There had been no sign of a vehicle collision, any extraordinary traffic delays, or Hope. After a while he’d had nowhere left to go but back to the bar, where he was now locked in his office trying, unsuccessfully, to rein in his panic.
This couldn’t be happening again. Fate wouldn’t be so fucking cruel.
Would it?
He tried to be logical. When he’d been out searching for her there’d been nothing to indicate the worst had happened, and yet… the anxiety building in the pit of his stomach seemed to have a direct link to the negative thoughts in his head. Every possible dark outcome played itself out in vivid detail in his mind.
He scanned his office for something he could punch or destroy. His gaze fell on a beer bottle sitting on the edge of his desk. In a desperate attempt to let off some steam, he hurled it against the far wall and watched it shatter.
He shouldn’t have sent Hope. He could’ve left Harvey in charge of the kitchen disaster. He could’ve called Lori and asked her to get Ruby. He could’ve done a thousand different things to spare Hope from the curse that was his fucking life.
If something happened to her because of him—
Hunching over his desk, he gripped the edge ferociously, bowed his head, shut his eyes, and gritted teeth. All the anger, and pain, and injustice of his lifetime culminated in this one gut-wrenching moment of reckoning. All the hurt from the losses he’d endured burned a path through his core and emerged in a guttural roar that echoed through his very soul.
When had she become so vital to him?
