“Singles,” we say in unison.
“What can I get ya, Noah?”
I order a New Castle on tap, and Gail leaves us to unwind. I send Tamryn a quick text:
I’m counting the minutes until you’re in my arms. Where are you?
Tamryn
I grab the duffle bags as I call a cab to pick me up. While I wait, I look around the house I’ve shared with Noah for the last five years and catch the tear falling from the corner of my eye. I won’t be back and need to make peace with that fact. My life will be forever different. I’d bought a new cell phone earlier today and had the young man at the cell phone store move my contacts to my new phone. Now, it’s up to me to remove the numbers I don’t want contacting me. Noah’s is the first to go. From my old phone, I quickly send Harold a text:
Something unexpected has come up, and I can’t take the assignment next week. I’ll contact you when I can. I’ve got a new number, so don’t try to call.
When I finish, the phone pings with a text from Noah. I laugh and cry at the same time. You should have held me instead of leaving me alone. You won’t find me. Leaving my old cell phone and house keys laying on the counter, I pick up the duffle bags, lock the door, and walk straight to the waiting cab with my head held high.
I slide in the back seat and give the driver an address in Mid-Town. When we arrived, I ask, “Would you please stay and keep the meter running. I won’t be long.” I pick this particular pawn shop because it’s next door to the bar Noah and his friends always visit on boys’ night. I quickly walk inside, and I’m greeted by a middle-aged woman.
“May I help you?”
I smile even though my pulse pounds and heart hurts for what I’m about to do. “Yes, ma’am. I’d like to sell these.” I pull out all the teal colored boxes.
The woman’s eyes widen. “All of these?”
“Yes, most have never been worn.”
The woman opens the boxes and sees the merchandise in each then looks at me. “Are they real?”
I nod.
The lady narrows her eyes. “Are you Tamryn Carmichael?”
I nod again. “Can we just keep that between us?”
“Of course.” The woman smiles back. “Why would you want to get rid of these beautiful pieces?”
“Don’t have a use for them anymore.”
“You know I can’t give you what they’re worth, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. What can you give me?”
“Twenty thousand for the lot.”
My lips roll inward because I know Noah paid ten times that for all of them. “Can you make sure they’re in that window within the hour?” I point to the front window.
The woman looks at me with a confused look on her face. “Yes. I can leave them there until we close.”
“What time will that be?”
The woman laughs. “Midnight. Some people around here get wasted and need some quick cash to settle their bar tabs, so we stay to help the poor fools out.”
“That’s fine. Do you have that much in cash?”
“Yes, Mrs. Carmichael. Wait right here.”
The woman disappears behind a cage and down a hall. My legs bounce, and I keep looking over my shoulder. I need to get out of here before Noah walks toward the parking garage. A few minutes later, the woman comes back with an envelope in one hand and stacks of cash in the other. She hands the cash to me, and I quickly flip through each stack to make sure they’re all bills.
I watch the woman put the cash in the envelope. Turning to leave, I look at the window then call over my shoulder. “Remember our deal, please.”
I walk out of the pawn shop and hold up a finger to the cab driver to give me one more minute. I walk next door to the edge of the window where I have a view inside of the bar. Noah and the guys are at a table, and he has his arm around a woman who I assume is their waitress by the way she’s standing while they all laugh, but then again, who knows. It doesn’t matter, it just confirms my thoughts. I quickly turn and run to the waiting cab, wiping the tears from my face. “The airport please.”
6
Noah
I walk out of the Watering Hole shortly after nine. I send Tamryn another quick text:
On my way to you.
As I approach the window of the pawn shop next door, I see a woman putting jewelry on display, and the necklace she’s placing in the center of the window causes me to freeze mid-step. I pull the picture Carol sent me the day before of the necklace she picked up for Tamryn—a perfect match.
What the hell?
I glance at the other pieces in the window. There are some pieces I know intimately. Not only have I personally picked them out, but I have visions of making love to Tamryn while she wears them. A rushed breath leaves my body before I’m able to push the door open.
“Excuse me, ma’am.”
“Hey, may I help you?” the woman asks.
“That jewelry…where did you get it?”
“A lady sold it to me about an hour ago,” she replies.
I flip through the pictures on my phone to the most recent picture I have of Tamryn. It’s about a year old, but she hasn’t changed. I show it to the woman. “Was it this lady?”
The woman’s eyes grow wide as she hesitantly nods.
“What did she say to you? Did she tell you why she was getting rid of the jewelry?” My chest begins to tighten, and panic starts to set in. I check my phone. She hasn’t responded to my last two messages.
“She said she didn’t have use for them anymore.”
“Was she alone? Did she seem nervous, like she was in danger?”
“There was a cab waiting outside for her. She did seem nervous and looked over her shoulder like she was making sure no one was coming. Is she in trouble? She asked me not to tell anyone that I knew who she was—that she was Tamryn Carmichael,” the woman ends in a whisper.
“You recognized her?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that all the jewelry she brought in?”
“All but a set of earrings that I kept for myself. Do you want to buy it?”
“No, she’s the only one I’d buy jewelry for. If she doesn’t want it then it’s of no importance to me. Thank you.”
All of the elation I’d felt earlier has now turned to dread. I walk out of the pawn shop and back into the Watering Hole where Toby and Vince still sit. “What are you doing back here? I thought you’d be long gone by now,” Toby says.
“Tamryn sold all of the jewelry I’ve ever given her to the pawn shop next door.” My mind is racing. Why isn’t she returning my texts? Why did she need to talk to me? Is she in some kind of trouble?
“Have you called her?” Vince asked.
“I’ve sent her two texts, and she hasn’t responded. I need to go home, but I’m afraid of what I’ll find. God, what if something’s happened to her?”
“There’s only one way to find out. Call me when you get home and let me know what’s happening.” Toby walks me to the door of the tavern.
I jog to my Range Rover and call Tamryn’s phone as soon as the Bluetooth connects. After the fourth ring, her voicemail picks up. Her phone is still on, so maybe she dropped it somewhere. Has she been attacked? Kidnapped? Calm down, she probably left her phone on the seat of the car. She’ll either be home waiting on you or still out with the girls, and all this worry will be for nothing. But why would she sell her jewelry? I weave in and out of traffic and make it home in record time. I pull into the garage before the door completely makes it to the top, and Tamryn’s convertible is parked in its spot.
Fuck! The lady said she saw a cab.
I run inside. “Tamryn!”
The house is perfectly clean. The bed is made. Nothing seems amiss. As I walk back through the house, I see them on the kitchen counter. Her cell and keys. What the fuck is going on? I walk back to our bedroom and go through our closet, dresser, chest of drawers, and bathroom. I don’t see anything missing, but I don’t know all the stuff she has.
Son-of-a-bitch!
I hit Toby’s speed dial.
“Hey, man.”
“She’s gone. I don’t know who, or how, or why, but she’s not here.”
“Like you think someone took her?”
“Fuck, I don’t know. Her car is in the garage, her phone, and keys are on the counter. I don’t know if any of her stuff is missing out of our room. God, Toby, I don’t know what to do!”
“Okay, man. We’re on our way.”
I pace the living room floor. Do I call the cops? Who would she tell if she were going somewhere? Did she leave early for the photo shoot Harold emailed her about? I stomp over to the counter and pick up her phone. I swipe to the right. It’s password protected.
Shit!
It should be in the spreadsheet we keep of our logins and passwords, so I walk to our home office and bring the laptop out of sleep mode. I’m writing down Tamryn’s password when I notice an email that had come in hours ago confirming a flight. I open the email to see a seat booked on a flight to Columbia, South Carolina, leaving at eleven o’clock. Looking at my watch, I see it’s five after eleven. Was this her photo shoot?
By the time I walk back to her phone, the front doorbell is ringing. I open it to find Toby and Vince with faces as white as sheets, much like mine was earlier. “Have you found her?” Toby asks with panic in his voice.
Now, all I feel is heat in mine. “She’s gone to South Carolina.”
“How do you know?” Toby runs his hand through his hair.
“Why?” Vince asks at the same time as Toby.
“I saw an email that came in confirming her seat on the plane.” I hold up the piece of paper where I wrote her password. “I’m going to see if there’s anything on her phone.”
I type in the password to unlock her phone and see my last text still unread, but the previous one, she’d seen. My unease increasing. I see the text she sent Harold:
Something unexpected has come up, and I can’t take the assignment next week. I’ll contact you when I can. I’ve got a new number, so don’t try to call.
I flip the phone around to show the two sets of eyes staring at me.
“Toby, are you still friends with Sarah?”
“Yeah.”
“Call her to see if she has Tamryn’s new number and if she knows why she went to South Carolina.”
“Vince, go through her contacts and call a girl named Heather Rawls. See if she’s part of this photoshoot Harold contacted Tams about. If not, she may know if there’s another shoot in South Carolina.”
I walk to our bedroom for some privacy to call Tamryn’s parents.
“Hello?” a scratchy voice comes through the phone.
“Earl, it’s Noah.”
“Hey, Noah. It’s mighty late for you to call. Is everything all right?”
“I don’t know. Have you or Shirley spoken with Tamryn?”
“I haven’t. Let me ask her.”
I hear them speaking away from the receiver. A few seconds later my father-in-law is on the phone. “No, son, we haven’t spoken with her. Shirley says she’s on an assignment.”
“Yes, sir, she was. She came home early to surprise me, but I had several meetings already lined up this week. The short of it is, I haven’t had time to see her much. We both had an engagement tonight, but when I got home, she wasn’t here.”
“Well, maybe she just hasn’t gotten home yet.”
“No, sir. Her car, phone, and keys are here, and she’s booked a flight to Columbia. I was hoping she just decided on a quick trip home for a visit.”
“Sorry, Noah. To our knowledge, she wasn’t coming here.”
“Thank you. If Tamryn shows up there, would you please have her call me? I’m a little worried.”
“Sure, son. I’m sure she just got called to a last-minute photoshoot. You know how those photographers are.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you.”
I disconnect the call, but the knot in my gut says that isn’t it at all, so I walk into the office again. I flip through some business cards in the desk and pull the one I need. If Toby and Vince don’t have any answers, I’ll call the one person I know can find her.
With my cell phone in one hand and the business card in the other, I walk toward the kitchen to find Toby and Vince going through Tamryn’s phone with blank expressions on their faces.
Toby looks at me with pity in his eyes. “Sarah said she hasn’t talked to Tamryn. She never showed for girls’ night.”
I rub my hand down my face. It’s starting to feel more like she left me than something has happened to her. Why wouldn’t she talk to me? When I look at Vince, his expression isn’t much better.
“Heather said the shoot in South Carolina isn’t until October. She’s unaware of another one.”
I sit on the sofa with my head bent between my knees. I can’t catch my breath, and I’m afraid I’ll hyperventilate.
“Breathe deep, man,” Toby says while he walks toward the living room. He sits down and picks up the magazine on the table next to the sofa. “Have you seen this?”
I raise my head. “Yeah, it was here last night. I figured she wanted a copy since she’s on the front cover.”
“Have you ever known Tamryn to buy a magazine because she’s on the cover?”
I’m shaking my head before he even completes the sentence. “She says it feels weird to see herself on them.”
“Then why is it here?” Vince saunters toward us and takes the magazine from Toby. “Didn’t you say that you’ve been busy this week and haven’t spent time with her since she’s been home?”
“Yeah, but she knows that’s the way our lives can be at times. I’d rescheduled all of my appointments for this week so I could be with her next week when she’s supposed to be home. She surprised me by coming in early, but I couldn’t reschedule with these people again.” I roll my eyes and take a deep breath. “Dammit. Why didn’t she check with Carol before she did this?” I rub the back of my neck to try to loosen the tight muscles and figure out what my wife is thinking.
“Well, there are two articles on this cover that may help. Have y’all been talking about starting a family?” The smile on Vince’s face is full of mischief as he wiggles his brows up and down.
I tilt my head to a side as I lift a shoulder. “No, but I’ve thought about it if she was serious about taking some time off. Why?”
“Well, it’s either that or the one about clues to know if your man is cheating. I don’t think she needs the ten steps for a beach body.”
“What? Let me see that.” I reach my hand out for the magazine and flip to the article, reading the bolded lines beside each large colorful number. With each one I read, my heart hurts more. Oh shit, she thinks I’m cheating. I look up at my oldest friend. “Toby, she thinks I’m cheating.” Even I hear the defeat in my tone. Was this what she wanted to talk about?
Toby grabs the magazine out of my hands. “You’ve done these things? What the hell, dude?”
“Shit happens, Toby, but I’ve never cheated. Not once. Why the hell would I cheat? I’ve got enough material in the spank bank to hold me over.” I hold up my hands.
“Dude, have you seen your lifestyles? Y’all are apart more than you’re together. Obviously, she misses you, or she wouldn’t have come home early. Noah, she’s lonely, and you’ve been out every night since she’s been home.” Toby holds up a finger. “And, if you’ve done this shit, no damn wonder she thinks you’re cheating. I’d leave your sorry ass, too.”
Vince takes the magazine from Toby, closes it, and drops it back in my hands. “I’ve seen your wife, have you? Look at her, Noah. She’s gorgeous, sensual, and sexy as hell. She has needs like every other woman in the world. Do you think maybe she’s found someone who’ll give her the attention she craves?”
He holds my stare then points to the magazine. “If it gets out that she’s not at home with her husband or on a photoshoot, the line to take your place will start quickly. Hell, if I weren’t you
r friend I’d be the first damn person in it.”
What the hell? I quickly back Vince to the wall with my forearm under his chin. “That’s the second time tonight you’ve alluded to being with my wife. Is there something you need to tell me, Vince?”
Vince holds his hands up in surrender. My gaze bounces between his until I finally back off. “Fuck you! I’m just telling you what every red-blooded male on this planet who’s not batting for the other team is thinking.”
Tears sting my eyes, and I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Dammit, I love her more than life itself, I can’t lose her. I can’t.”
“What are you gonna do?” Toby asks.
I hold up the business card I brought from the office. “He’s the best damn PI I know. He’s caught more of my clients in compromising situations than I care to think about. If she’s on this continent, he’ll find her.” I dial the number on the card. The call goes to voicemail, so I leave a message and make sure to say it’s urgent.
7
Tamryn
My flight is delayed which only makes me more nervous. I hate takeoffs, so I usually sit with someone who lets me squeeze their hand. This time I’m on my own. I can’t remember ever leaving Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on time. With my headphones on and eyes closed, I try to convince myself this is just another flight, but the knot in my stomach tells me something different. My only hope is that I make it without needing the vomit bag.
After white-knuckling the arm-rests on my seat during the landing, I need a second for my legs to stop bouncing. With only a carry-on bag, I quickly make it to the rental counter. It’s after midnight, so there’s only one person working the desk.
“Hi, I’m supposed to have a car waiting for me, under Carmichael.” I’m not good at using false names, so I don’t even try. Most people don’t know my married name, so as long as I don’t have to use my first name, I should be safe.
Crossroads of the Heart Page 3
