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“You too, Ives.” He hesitates before adding, “I miss you.”
Tears prick the corner of my eyes. “I miss you, too.” It’s true: I miss my friend, and this phone call has made me feel like maybe we can finally start to move forward.
“Talk soon?” Lachy asks, hopeful.
“That’d be great.”
I hang up the phone, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly. I’m still worried about Harley, but talking to Lachy has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.
When I make my way back out into the living room, all three faces look at me. I hold my phone up. “Lachy hasn’t heard from him,” I say with a shake of my head. Tom’s head drops back into his hands.
Wren gets up and walks over to me, wrapping her arm around my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“Surprisingly, yes.” I offer a small smile and she plants a kiss on my cheek. “What was that for?”
“Because I love you.”
My smile widens and I pull her in for a tight hug. “I love you, too.”
“I know,” she smirks.
Tom’s phone rings and we all look at him expectantly, hearts dropping when he shakes his head. “It’s Dad.” He declines the call.
Brady curses and stands, pacing in front of the breakfast bar. “I can’t sit here anymore. I feel like I’m going to go crazy. There’s got to be something we can do. Some way to find him.”
“There’s nothing we can do if he doesn’t want to be found,” Tom says.
Brady slumps against the breakfast bar, his head in his hands. “I hate this.”
* * *
BY THE TIME I get home, I’m completely drained. No one’s been able to reach Harley. I let myself in the back door, bypassing Mum and Alec in the living room. I don’t stop moving until I collapse onto my bed.
I’ve just closed my eyes when Mum calls my name. “I’m sleeping,” I groan.
“You have a visitor.”
Curiosity is what makes me drag my ass out of bed. I head down the hallway to the front door, stopping in my tracks when I see Conrad nervously standing behind Mum. My lips tug up involuntarily and my cheeks flush as Mum gives me a sly wink before making her way back into the living room.
“Sorry,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I shouldn’t have just rocked up here unannounced. I was just on my way back to Dave’s, and I saw your car so I just–” I launch myself into his arms, sending him staggering backwards into the doorframe. “I wasn’t sure you’d want me here.”
Despite knowing Mum and Alec are in the other room, I pull his face down to meet mine in a bruising kiss. “Why wouldn’t I?” I ask, looking up at him as I take a small step back, hating the look of uncertainty in his eyes.
He shrugs, running his thumb over my swollen bottom lip. “I wasn’t sure if you were regretting this weekend.”
“Conrad, in case I didn’t make it perfectly clear, I am one hundred per cent in on this,” I say, gesturing between the two of us.
“Drama and all?”
“Drama and all.”I take his hand and lead him down the hallway to my bedroom. After closing the door for privacy, I perch next to him on the edge of my bed. “How did everything go with Ellie and your parents?”
He grimaces. “I don’t want anything to do with Bill, and I told Mum that.”
“How did she take it?”
“She was upset, but she understood.” He shakes his head. “I still don’t understand why, but at least she’s not going to push me to move back.”
“You’re moving out?”
