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Stomach tight and chest aching, I turned around and drove back the way I’d come.With Thanksgiving two days away, I could guess where he’d gone.Cell service came through a good twenty minutes later, but rather than calling him, I headed into Nodhead Falls, wanting a face-to-face conversation for everything I had to say to that man.
I pulled into the Roberts’ driveway, my car’s headlights flashing over bright white siding that looked cold as ice in the frigid air.
Kellen’s SUV wasn’t sitting out front.
My heart dropped, and I cursed a blue streak.
Putting my car into park, I decided I didn’t have a choice on the whole talking in person plan.I grabbed my cell from the dash’s holder, ready to swipe it to life, but the house’s front porch light flicked on.
The window covering moved, revealing a gray-haired woman.
Kellen’s mom, most likely.
“Fuck.”I rubbed my hand over my mouth.No way I could sit there, a stranger in someone’s driveway, having a phone conversation that wouldn’t be short.
I turned off my car, climbed out, and hurried toward the house, cursing the cold air biting at uncovered skin.
I’d expected Kellen’s mom to answer to my knock, but an older man with wide shoulders pulled it open, and I couldn’t help my grin.He was the image of what Kellen would be in thirty-some years with the same eyes, his dark hair and scruff more than peppered with sexy silver.Bring.It.On.
“James Jenner,” I introduced myself, and the door suddenly flung inward.
Kellen’s mom had grasped it from her husband’s hold and yanked, revealing herself from where she’d been behind the door.“You.”Her gaze narrowed enough that I lifted my hands.
At least she didn’t hold a shotgun—things couldn’t be as bad as I had started to assume.
“I’m looking for Kellen.”
She huffed and glanced up at her husband.They shared a silent moment, then both stepped back as though of one mind.
“Come on in,” Mr.Roberts stated gruffly, eyeing me before glancing past my shoulder to my car.“No bag?”
“Is that an invite to stick around?”I joked, only half serious in my usual pushiness.
“Depends on what you have to say for yourself,” he stated sternly, the papa bear to Kellen’s momma.
“Fair enough.”I nodded, moving off to the side so he could shut the door and keep the cold out.
“You just caught us,” Sharon said, motioning toward the living room on the left.“We were about to head upstairs to go to bed.Big day of meal prep and pie-making tomorrow.”
“Where’s your son?”I asked, not having any patience for small talk.
“He’s in Boston.”
My breath kicked from my lungs at Kellen’s mom’s answer.“What?”I rasped, my shoulders sagging.
“He went down there—for you.”Lips tight, she sat on the couch.Her husband took the recliner, and I remained standing, my mind racing a mile a minute.
“When?”
“He drove through the storm on Monday night.He told me over the phone earlier today that he’d planned to talk to you tonight after you got off work—but then he saw the news.”
Alex’s arrest.
He figured I hadn’t gotten in touch with him because I’d gone to Alex’s side once again.In his mind, I’d chosen someone else.
Goddamnit all to fucking hell!
I pulled at my hair, barely suppressing the scream wanting to rip from my lips.
