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Glad to have an excuse to leave, Mia jumped out of her chair leaving her meal behind. “No. I’ll look around.”
Immediately, she headed upstairs to check the bathrooms and the sanctuary. Both were empty; no Mandy. Then she checked the pastor’s office and a few meeting rooms around the church, but still no Mandy. Coming back to the entryway, she poked her head out into the sunny, freezing parking lot. Nothing.
Turning around, she decided to check the room they had met in before the service, though it was right in the middle of the crowd now eating, so maybe she hadn’t managed to go in there. But before she could make it too far, she saw Tess and Hazel coming up the stairs.
Shaking her head at them, she bit her lip to stop the tears. Mandy was gone, and Mia was pretty sure what was happening. And she couldn’t tell anyone.
“Where could she be?” Hazel asked as Natalie and Ruth came up the stairs toward them.
“It doesn’t matter,” Tess stated to the group. “I asked her to be there for this one event. She promised she would. I guess I shouldn’t have taken her word for it.”
With that, Tess turned and stormed back into the basement. Mia knew that the two of them were close, especially now that Tess was dating Mandy’s brother. Trying to stop her tears, she hoped Mandy would one day tell Tess the reason for her vanishing act.
“I would be just as mad if it were me,” Ruth added, watching Tess leave.
“I think I’ll go check her apartment. Maybe I can get her to come back if she’s there,” Mia left the group to get her jacket. Needing to find her cousin, and try to be the friend she was supposed to be.
All three of the others insisted they should go instead of Mia, who was a relative, but Mia assured them she was the best to talk to her cousin if she happened to be at her apartment, muttering something about them being related. But in truth, she owed it to her cousin to be there for her now. When she hadn’t in the past.
With a quick goodbye, she headed out to her Jeep and drove the cold car the four blocks to her apartment. Parking behind Mandy’s car, she knew she couldn’t have gotten too far. Her Jeep said it was fifteen below, so she couldn’t be outside.
Quickly, she headed up the stairs to Mandy’s apartment, and her heart sank when she got there. The silence in the apartment had Mia more scared than she had been at the church. She had been so sure her cousin would be hiding here.
Sinking into Mandy’s couch, she tried to come up with another location her cousin would’ve gone. Maybe the clinic downstairs? But Mia couldn’t get in there if Mandy had locked the door.
Pulling out her phone, she sent Mandy a text, asking her to call or text so she knew she was okay. But even as she typed it, she knew her cousin wouldn’t reach out until it was all over. And she probably wouldn’t then, either.
After texting Ruth that Mandy wasn’t at her apartment, Mia stayed there. She would wait for her to return. No matter what was happening, Mandy would come home eventually, and Mia was going to be there when she did.
CHAPTER24
It was almostfour in the afternoon. when Rafferty gave up on Mia coming over and called her, but she didn’t answer. By five, he was worried enough to go out in the freezing cold to look for her. As he waited for his car to warm up, he called her again and sent a text in hopes that she would respond. But there was no answer, and the text went unanswered before he got into his car and drove to the church.
But when he got there, the parking lot was completely empty with no Jeep in the lot, or any other vehicle either. Next, he drove past her apartment, and that was where he found her Jeep parked just down the block. It was the same place it had been parked most of the week.
Parking his truck closer to her building, he went up to her place, which was unlocked. But her apartment was dark and empty. No signs of her at all. Not even her car keys were in the bowl she usually kept them in.
Trying not to panic, he wanted to text her friends, but did any of them even know they were seeing each other? He didn’t think so. This morning she didn’t seem too interested in telling anyone, and since she wasn’t telling, neither was he. So far, he hadn’t even told Anderson, who in the last year had turned into one of his closest friends.
He still couldn’t believe she was in his bed on New Year’s Eve. Nor could he believe that she was still in his bed two weeks later. And not only was she in his bed but also in his life every day. He loved coming home to her cooking in his kitchen. She had even rearranged it, which made him laugh since she was the one who put all his stuff away in the first place.
In the evenings, he loved to watch movies with her on the couch—he hadn’t moved it since she had said it needed to be facing the fireplace. Each night, she usually fell asleep watching the movie but woke up to go upstairs to bed. At that point, they would make love and fall asleep in each other’s arms. Then the next day, they would do it all over again.
The biggest issue he had with the entire setup was that she didn’t seem to want to tell anyone what was going on. They hadn’t talked about it, but when Anderson didn’t say anything at work after book club, he knew she hadn’t told her friends.
He hated that she didn’t want anyone to know. Why didn’t she want anyone to know? The marriage thing was okay to keep secret, but they were dating. What was wrong with them dating?
With her apartment empty, he drove through the streets, aimlessly looking for her. But he didn’t even know what he was looking for since her Jeep was on Main Street. Torn between angry and worried, he kept calling her, kept texting her.
Circling back to Main Street, he parked in front of her building to wait. Once again, he texted her and called her, but there was still no response to either one. Sitting in his pickup, he saw lights on at Ruth and Anderson’s apartment, but not Mia’s. Next door, the TV was on at her cousin Mandy’s place next to Mia’s, and though the lights were out, he could see the flickering of the TV in the window.
He tried telling himself that she was just visiting someone and not looking at her phone. But it had been close to three hours since he had first texted her. Three of the longest hours of his life.
It was full dark now, and his truck was getting cold, but he didn’t want to attract attention by letting it run. Every once in a while, he would leave and drive past his place to see if she showed up. She never did.
At close to eight, he looked from one occupied apartment to the other. Ruth and Anderson or Mandy? Deciding that since it was Mandy’s apartment and Mia had been so concerned about on New Year’s, he would see if she knew where Mia was.
Getting out of his truck, he went up the stairs and knocked on Mandy Nordskov’s door. He knew the nurse, but he didn’t know her very well since she was years older than him, and she had only recently returned to town. As far as he could remember, they had only had a conversation or two since then. And he knew trying to explain why he was looking for Mia would be awkward.
