Since You've Been Gone

by Samantha Chase

  “Why are you defending him?” he yelled, finally snapping. “Look around, Austin! This is where he was supposedly staying and no one lives here! Even if by some small chance he did use a bogus address, it still doesn’t explain where he is or why he’s not answering his phone!”

  Ryder jogged back over to them. “Yeah, I talked to the neighbor lady and she said she saw Cash moving out this morning. She called the landlord, who’s a friend of hers, because he was taking some stuff that wasn’t his.”

  “Great. He’s a thief, too. Awesome,” Austin said with disgust.

  “Look, I don’t think we’re going to get any answers tonight, but I can certainly get someone working on this. The same guy who did the background check could dig around into where Cash went.” Ryder stared at the two of them. “I wish I could stop payment on the money, but it was a cashier’s check and I’m sure he’s already deposited it somewhere.”

  No one moved for several minutes. The sun was starting to go down and Ryder finally suggested they head back to Magnolia.

  “Do you think we can talk to the landlord?” Garrett asked.

  “To what end, G?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he knows something, or maybe after finding out that Cash was essentially robbing the place, he called the cops on him. It can’t hurt to talk to him.”

  With a small huff, Ryder decided to handle it. “I’ll go talk to Judy…I mean, Mrs. Robinson and see if I can charm the phone number out of her.”

  “Judy? Really?”

  Ryder nodded and grinned. “She told me I was cute.” He winked. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Why would he do this?” Austin wondered out loud. “I mean, why go through the whole charade of giving a damn and wanting to help us if he was simply going to take the money and run?” He muttered a curse. “And now I’m even wondering if he was really as sick as he said he was.”

  “Oh, he’s sick,” Garrett replied. “And twisted, and the sorriest excuse for a human being in the world.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand, and I’m mad at myself for believing him. I struggled with it all this time, but when he suggested I talk to Doc about buying the practice and how much he wanted that for me, I started to let my guard down. I’m so screwed, Austin.” His head fell forward into his hands as he blew out a long breath. “This not only ruins my plans for buying the clinic, but it ruins everything with Emma.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  Sadly, he looked up. “She’s already dealing with getting financially screwed by her ex-husband and is paying off the mountains of debt he left her with. How can I possibly stay here with her when I have no job?”

  “Garrett, it’s not…”

  “There are no jobs around here for me,” he said firmly. “None. You don’t think I’ve been looking? You know I always have a plan and a backup plan and even a backup for the backup. And you know what I have now? Nothing!” Raking a hand through his hair, he gently banged his head against the house. “I can’t mooch off of her and now I’m going to have to take one of those crappy job offers that I turned down–if they’ll still hire me.”

  “I’m sure you don’t…”

  “No, someone will hire me. They’ll all use me for their stupid Hot Doc calendars and charity auctions and I’ll be a fucking joke. And as if that’s not bad enough, I won’t have Emma. She won’t leave Magnolia and her family, and I don’t want to even ask that of her.”

  “Wow. That’s a lot of brand-new information.” He stared at Garrett for a long moment. “I didn’t realize all the fuss about the videos bothered you that much. We joked about it and I thought it was cool with you.”

  “Yeah, well…not so much,” he admitted. “Turns out all those job offers? They didn’t want me because I was smart or good at my job. They wanted me for promotional purposes.” Closing his eyes, he braced himself for more teasing.

  But it never came.

  “I’m sorry, G. Had I known…well…” Austin let out a small chuckle. “Well, I probably would have still teased you a bit, but I would have felt bad.” He paused. “And all of them…?”

  He nodded. “All of them. I had a total of twenty-two job offers in the last three months, and every one of them presented me with their marketing plan and how they were going to utilize my online celebrity. It was insulting and ridiculous.”

  “I don’t even know what to say, man. I had no idea.”

  “Being able to buy Doc MacEntyre’s practice was like an answer to a prayer. It killed me that Cash was the one making it happen, but once I got over that, I knew it was a blessing. Now I’m back to square one, and…I don’t know how to come back from this, Austin. I worked so damn hard in school, and I learned to do it on my own after struggling so much, and where did it get me, huh? Nowhere. I don’t even know how I’m going to explain this to Emma.”

  “Yeah, let’s talk about that now. I had no idea the ex-husband left her with so much baggage. Why hasn’t anyone forced him to pay this crap off and take the burden off of her?”

  As much as Garrett hated sharing something so personal with his brother, it was too late to take any of it back. “No one can find him, apparently. The guy seems to stay one step ahead of the people looking for him. Plus, I think she’s got a lazy attorney handling the case because it doesn’t seem possible that this guy’s been skating by for three years without being detected. I knew Steven back in high school. He wasn’t that smart.”

  “Damn.”

  Ryder came walking back over, talking on the phone. He gave them both a thumbs-up, but Garrett had no idea what exactly that could mean.

  “If anyone can get information, it’s Ryder,” Austin quietly commented.

  “It must be nice to have that kind of power. Maybe we should have talked to him before letting Cash back into our lives.”

  “Hindsight and all…”

  They tried listening to the one-sided conversation, but Ryder was pacing and it was hard to follow along. It took a solid five minutes for him to finish up, and then he held up a finger to them again before making another call.

  This one he walked farther away to talk.

  “That’s not a good sign, is it?” Garrett asked.

  “Maybe it had nothing to do with us and it was business-related. You can’t blame the guy for wanting privacy.”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m going to call Mia and give her an update,” he said, pulling out his phone.

  “What are you going to tell her? We don’t know anything.”

  “We know Dad’s not here,” he huffed with annoyance. “Why don’t you call Emma? Maybe the sound of her voice will help you relax.”

  It was tempting, but he shook his head. “Mia can tell her what’s going on. I think I’d just freak her out.”

  “Suit yourself.” Austin rose and stepped down from the porch and walked around to the side of the house, leaving Garrett by himself.

  He did his best to try to relax; otherwise, he’d throw himself into a full-throttle panic attack. He was about to start counting backward from one hundred when he saw Ryder walking back toward him, sliding his phone into his pocket.

  “Where’d Austin go?”

  “He went to call Mia. Any news?”

  Ryder looked toward where Austin was and shrugged. “The landlord managed to stop Cash before he left town. He said he literally pulled up beside him at a gas station and blocked him in.”

  “O-kay…”

  “Cash played on the guy’s sympathy. He claimed he was going to pawn the stuff because he needed money to get home.” He shook his head with a snort of disbelief. “The guy just made over two million dollars and he’s going to hock some silver candlesticks and a few paintings? Who the hell does that?”

  While that definitely was bizarre, Garrett was only focused on one thing. “Did he call the cops? Is he possibly in jail someplace local? Is that why we can’t get a hold of him?”

  “Cash convinced him not to press charges and gave him t
he stuff back.”

  And the hits keep coming…

  “But when he was giving the landlord the sob story, did he mention where he was going? Where home was that he needed money to get back to?”

  “All he said was he was heading back home for a family emergency.” With a shrug, Ryder added, “I honestly don’t even know what to say to that, Garrett. I’m sorry.”

  Austin came walking around the side of the house and spotted them. “Well?”

  “He’s gone,” Garrett said, coming to his feet. “Told the landlord he was going home for a family emergency. We know home isn’t Magnolia, but who the hell knows where he was heading. All we can say is that the only emergency was that he wanted to leave as fast as possible before he had to part with any of the big money.”

  “Son of a bitch…”

  “Guys, we can stand here all day calling him every name in the book. Let’s get back in the car and head home. Obviously, we’re not going to be celebrating, but maybe we can just have a nice dinner and try to move on from this.”

  “You don’t understand, Ryder,” Austin began as they walked to the car. And then, to Garrett’s shame, his brother repeated everything he had told him only minutes ago. All of it. He was mortified that even more people knew what a shitshow his life was and how it was only going to get worse.

  They were on the road when Ryder looked at him in the rearview mirror. “Damn. Sorry, Garrett. Is there any way this vet guy will work with you on the purchase of the clinic?”

  He shook his head. “He needs the cash so he can move near his grandkids. Retirement is his only goal, and if he can’t sell the practice, he’ll sell the building and property and take the money from that. He just wants out.”

  Ryder nodded. “And the debt that Emma’s dealing with? What’s happening with that?”

  Garrett groaned. “I really don’t think Emma would appreciate us talking about this. It’s kind of private.”

  Holding up a hand, Ryder assured him, “No worries. Just was curious, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, well…Austin could have left that part out of the story.”

  His brother turned and glared at him. “It’s an important part of the story and adding to the stress you’ve got going on right now.”

  They drove in silence for several minutes before Ryder spoke again. “So what’s going to happen when we get back to your place? I know I mentioned dinner, but it seems to me like maybe I should just go. This is a family situation, and just like Garrett mentioned how his stuff with Emma is private, I’m sure your mom would probably feel the same way.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” Austin replied. “Considering you know as much as the rest of us, it’s not exactly private, but it will be awkward and probably boring for you to sit and listen to us hashing things out.”

  “What’s to hash out?” Garrett asked wearily. “I’m screwed, my future with Emma is gone, Mom’s going to feel like a fool for trusting Cash again, and you’re in no different of a situation than you were before he arrived. Your share of the money was going to be a bit of a perk, but you didn’t need it. Not like I did…”

  He was busy staring out the side window that he didn’t see Austin and Ryder exchange glances.

  Once they were back at Austin’s, Ryder said goodbye to them and seemed more than a little anxious to leave, and Garrett couldn’t blame him.

  Together, he and Austin stood in the driveway and stared up at the house. “I really don’t want to go in there,” his brother said. “I feel completely helpless and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it. You’re devastated, Mom’s going to be devastated, and knowing that you’re going to go home and try to break things off with Emma…I can’t. I can’t freaking do it.”

  “We really don’t have a choice,” he mumbled, walking up the front steps. “There’s no point putting it off. Might as well go and get it all out there and just…move on. Again.”

  The thing was, they’d gone through this before–Austin, Garrett, Jackson, and Grace. They’d been left behind before and they’d survived and Garrett knew he would too. But this time, it felt far more personal, and the loss was going to be that much greater.

  And when he opened the front door, he braced himself. Maybe they’d have a family dinner and maybe they’d all do their best to encourage one another. But by the end of the night, Garrett knew the life he’d been dreaming of was going to be over.

  14

  Sunday morning, Emma watched with tears in her eyes as Garrett put the last of his stuff in his suitcase. She knew this moment was coming, yet a part of her felt like it was all a bad dream and she would wake up from it any minute.

  She’d pinched herself until she was black and blue and she knew she was awake and this was her crappy reality.

  “I think that’s everything,” he said quietly as he glanced around the bedroom.

  After he and Austin got back on Friday night, they’d all sat and talked until well after midnight. Grace had cried and begged her sons’ forgiveness and they all cried with her. By the time she and Garrett arrived back at her place, they were both mentally exhausted and decided they needed to sleep more than they needed to talk.

  Now she wished they had stayed awake because sleep robbed them of time together–time they could have spent trying to come up with a way for things to work out. She hated how he was heading back to Norfolk alone and going through his list of previous job offers and accepting the first one that still wanted him. She hated how he was degrading himself because he felt like he didn’t have a choice. He swore he was doing it for her–for them–and that did nothing to make her feel any better.

  If anything, it made her feel guilty.

  If her own life hadn’t been such a mess, she’d be packing up with him and following him wherever it was that he landed. But she had her own debts to pay and couldn’t afford to be out of a job either, and it made her want to curse Steven that much more. Like it wasn’t bad enough that he’d already robbed so many years of her life - first on a crappy marriage and then a divorce. And as if that wasn’t enough, the last three years of making her pay for it all financially, but he was robbing her of her future; she wanted to scream out at the universe and demand to know why.

  Not that she’d get an answer.

  She never did.

  So now she had to sit and watch the man she loved leave her.

  They talked about the long-distance relationship thing, but neither could afford to fly back and forth if he took a job anywhere north of Virginia. She had thought it would be plausible, but somehow the cost of flying a short distance almost cost more than flying cross-country.

  Just another way the universe clearly hated her.

  “Please tell your mom and Ed that I said goodbye,” he said, zipping the suitcase closed. “I know I should have gone over to see them myself, but…there just isn’t enough time.”

  She nodded. They’d discussed this as well, and she knew he was just struggling for something to say because neither of them wanted to say goodbye.

  “Are you going to stop and see your mother on your way out of town?”

  Shaking his head, Garrett walked out of the bedroom and put the bag by the front door. “I’ll call her when I get home. Hopefully she’s working on patching things up with Dominic.”

  Emma stood in the bedroom doorway and watched him wander around the tiny condo looking for…something. “Do you think she’s going to?”

  “I hope she does. He seems like a pretty understanding guy, and this was just an incredibly awkward situation.”

  Small talk was fine and well, but it wasn’t what she wanted. They’d made love all through the night–each time more urgent than the one before–and yet she still wanted more. Walking over, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

  Deep and wet and full of promise.

  He kissed her back with the same passion, but as she tried to maneuver them back toward the bedroom, he broke the kiss. With his forehead resting on hers, he took
a moment to catch his breath. “I have to go.”

  Tears streamed freely down her face as she shook her head. “No. Don’t go. We can find a way for this to work, Garrett. I know we can. We’ve had less than two days to really think it through. With a little more time…”

  He placed a finger over her lips. “Em, the longer I’m not working, the worse things get. I need to go back home and sort through everything, and I’m going to start making calls in the morning. We’ll talk every day, and hopefully, in time, things will work out. But for now, this is what I have to do.”

  “I love you,” she said fiercely, holding his face in her hands. “I love you so much and I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner. I should have said it right back to you the night you said it to me, but…I don’t even have a good reason.” She met his gaze. “I love you, Garrett Coleman, and it doesn’t matter if you have a job or not. I don’t care if you have to do those silly videos or if you have to wear a disguise so no one recognizes you from them. I just love you. Don’t go. Don’t do this.”

  For a minute, she thought she had him.

  Then he kissed her softly and took one step back and then another.

  “I’ll call you when I get home, beautiful girl,” he whispered before turning and walking toward the door. Picking up his suitcase, he opened the door and looked at her one last time. “I love you.”

  And then he was gone.

  Emma stood exactly where he’d left her for countless minutes and when she finally moved, it wasn’t to throw herself down on the bed or couch to cry; it was to grab her purse and keys because she refused to accept this fate. She’d been a victim long enough and she was over it. On her way out the door, she took out her phone and called her mother first.

  “Hey, Em! What’s up, sweetie?”

  “I need to hold a meeting at your place in an hour. Will you and Ed be able to be there with me?”

  “A meeting? A meeting for what?”

  Closing and locking the door behind her, she replied, “I can’t get into it right now. I just need to know that you and Ed will be available.”