Finding Abby: A Romantic Suspense set in the Colorado Mountains (Whispering Pines Mysteries)

by Rhonda Blackhurst

  “You mean my dad?”

  Abby had completely forgotten Cooper was at the table and her heart fell. “No, honey—”

  “Yes, Cooper, your Dad,” Piper interrupted.

  “Piper!” Abby’s voice was sharp.

  Piper got up from the table so abruptly she nearly tipped it over. She threw her napkin down on her plate and left the room, saying over her shoulder, “By the way, Gabriel left for a while. He said he’d be back later to take Cooper fishing. I told him it was okay.”

  The rest of the day Abby kept busy with the business, trying to stay out of everyone’s path. Never had she felt so conflicted and confused. Not to mention at odds with everyone else. Why had she been the last to know such critical information? But she knew the answer. Simply because she was so bull-headed. Her mother hadn’t raised her to be so quick to judge people.

  An overwhelming sense of loss engulfed her and she missed her mother more than ever. She had to call Gabriel to try to make things right. Whether he accepted her apology or not wasn’t in her control. She could only hope. But despite the possible outcome, she had to apologize. She felt the overwhelming urge to talk to him right now. This wasn’t something she wanted to let go, despite his coming back sometime today to take Cooper fishing. What if she didn’t have a chance to talk with him without Cooper around. No, it had to be now.

  The phone rang and rang, and finally, someone picked up on the sixth ring. “Hello. This is Gabriel’s phone.” A woman’s voice.

  Abby sat motionless, afraid to breathe, as though she couldn’t catch her breath. She touched the end-call button.

  She furiously blinked away tears of frustration. Frustration gave way to irritation when she realized how much she’d been fighting tears lately. What was all that about, anyway? She’d never been one to cry but it seemed once the seal was broken, the tears just kept coming. Her life seemed to be changing at breakneck speed and it was spiraling out of control. She never thought she’d be living in the country, or have a dog, or do anything other than teach, or cry so much, or fall in love again, or—” What?! Shock rumbled through her like a freight train as she realized what she’d just thought. Love? Had she fallen in love? But how? And when?

  She thought of the woman’s voice when she’d called Gabe. What did she expect? That he would do nothing but sit and pine for her? That he wouldn’t get on with his life? It’s not like they’d made any sort of commitment to one another. She just hadn’t expected him to find someone quite so soon. But then, she had forfeited any right to expect anything from him at all.

  She went to look for Cooper, finding him by the boathouse with Sam.

  “Hey, Coop. Why don’t I take you fishing? Grandpa isn’t back yet from taking your aunt to the airport and Sam and Victoria can cover for a little bit. I asked them.”

  “You? Fishing?”

  “Don’t look so surprised. I’ve fished a time or two.” He appeared to be weighing his options. “Come on,” she pleaded. “It’ll be fun.”

  “Okay,” he finally relented. “But you’ll have to bait your own hook.”

  “No problem,” she smiled. “I’ll just use one of those fly thingies.”

  “Fly thingies?” He rolled his eyes. “Oh brother,” he muttered. “And you have to get me back to shore when Gabriel gets here to take me.”

  “What’s he got that I don’t? I’m your mother.”

  “Exactly the point, Mom.”

  They had only been out in the boat for an hour when Cooper’s cell phone rang. He looked at the display, his eyes lighting up.

  “Gabriel’s here! We have to go back.”

  “Just a second. I want to catch one first.”

  “Now, Mom. Please?” he begged. “You can catch one another time.”

  “Dissed by my own son,” she said, making a face at him. “Fine. But next time—”

  “Next time I’ll stay with you.”

  Gabe met them at the dock. Abby met his eyes briefly before she looked away.

  “Hey, Coop,” she said, “why don’t you go check in with Victoria and get you and Gabe a bottle of water and something to eat while you’re there.”

  “I don’t need anything, but thank you all the same.” Gabe’s voice sounded distant, yet gentle.

  “I would like a minute of your time before you go out if that’s okay.” She said, looking into his eyes once again. She saw raw pain there and it killed her.

  “Give us a few minutes, Coop,” he said. “A bottle of water and a bag of BBQ chips sound good.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Cooper looked at Abby, shooting arrows with his eyes. “Don’t mess it up, Mom.”

  “Mess what up?”

  “You know what.”

  “Go!” She ordered. “You’re ten, not sixteen.”

  “Good kid,” Gabe said.

  “I think the two of you are in on this together.”

  “In on what together?”

  She saw the shadow return, dimming the spark of life that had been there just a moment ago. “I was just kidding,” she said quickly. “Trying to get myself out of this very awkward situation.” She looked down, kicked at a pinecone, sending it several feet. “I owe you an apology.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” She tried to say more but the words stuck in her throat like peanut butter.

  “Is it that hard? Trusting me?”

  “Yes,” she said, startled that it came out so quick and with no effort. The second before she wanted to say something so badly but couldn’t get anything to come out.

  Gabe rested his foot on the edge of the boat and looked out over the water. He reached slowly for her hand, folding it in his. He rubbed his thumb lightly on the back of her hand.

  “I’m not Hunter.”

  He turned and looked deep into her eyes. She desperately wanted to take a step forward and lean into him. To feel his warmth, to smell the fresh crispness of the soap she’d come to know as his.

  “I know that,” she whispered. “But everything was pointing to you.”

  “Was it? Or is that what you wanted to see?”

  She heard the pain in his voice despite the sting of his words.

  “That’s not fair.”

  “No?”

  “Your torn shirt, the lighter …”

  “You should have asked me, Abby. Given me the chance to defend myself.”

  “I did that too many times.”

  “Not with me. You had me tried, convicted and hung without as much as a hearing.”

  She wanted to be mad. To defend herself. But she couldn’t. He was right, and she knew it.

  He pulled her into his arms and she shivered.

  “Cold?”

  “Not anymore,” she whispered against his chest wanting to stay there forever.

  He kissed the top of her head, then whispered in her ear, his breath sending a tingling sensation to the tips of her toes.

  “I’m glad you took Cooper’s advice.”

  She pulled back and saw the twinkle in his eyes.

  “There’s something else,” she said. He looked at her intently. “I called you.”

  “When?”

  “Earlier today. While you were gone.”

  “I didn’t get your message.” He frowned.

  “I didn’t leave one. A woman answered.”

  He tipped his head back, exhaled long, and slow, ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Gillian.”

  Her heart thumped out of control while she waited for him to continue.

  “She was the one,” he said, his words hanging like a noose around her neck. “The one I told you about.”

  The one?” She felt the air go out of her.

  “Yes.”

  Abby took a couple of steps back, just out of his reach. She wrapped her arms around herself.

  “You don’t owe me an explanation.” Those darn tears again! She turned away from him and wiped her eyes with her sleeve that she had pulled over her hand.

&n
bsp; “It’s not what you think.”

  “Isn’t it?” What’s taking Cooper so dang long?

  “No, it isn’t. She called and asked if we could meet for coffee. She had something she needed to talk to me about. She sounded really upset so I agreed to meet her.”

  “Always the rescuer, aren’t you?” She sniffed, her nose plugged from holding in tears.

  “She doesn’t need rescuing from anyone but herself. And I didn’t meet her to rescue her.”

  “Do you still love her?” He looked at her, incredulous. “It’s a fair question, Gabe. I won’t be mad if you say you do. We can’t help who we fall in love with, only what we do with it. That love.”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “No. I don’t love her. I haven’t for a long time. I care about her, yes. I want her to be happy, yes. But not with me. The fact that she answered my phone reflects her character and the fact that she hasn’t changed. She was always insanely jealous. Ironic that she’s the one who ended up being unfaithful.”

  Abby sniffed. “Wow, we’re just batting a thousand here, aren’t we?”

  “Think of it as getting it all out of the way so we can move past it.”

  “We should be way past it by now, no?” She gave him a lopsided smile and he reached out and gently pulled her toward him.

  “Mom!” Cooper’s voice startled her back to the moment.

  “Yeah?”

  “You left your phone in the store,” he told her, his hand extended toward her as he stepped onto the dock. “It was my dad,” he said breathlessly.

  Abby felt like she’d been sucker punched and felt the color drain from her face. “Your—your dad?”

  “He can’t hurt you anymore, Abby,” Gabe said quietly.

  “That’s what you think.” She looked at her phone then back at Gabe. “He can hurt me in the worst way possible. By getting to Cooper.”

  “Mom?” Cooper asked, fear in his voice. His eyes were wide. “What do you mean?”

  “Has your dad still been calling you, Cooper?”

  “Once more. But after you and Grandpa told me what he did, I told him I can’t talk to him.”

  “So he stopped? Just like that?”

  “Yeah.”

  Abby looked at Gabe and shivered. “He’s up to something.”

  She left the dock as soon as Cooper and Gabe hopped in the boat. Knowing her son was in good hands, she was free to report for the second time in less than a month, Hunter violating his protection order. The only problem was, he knew how to evade the law. He’d had years of getting ideas from the criminals he dealt with as a police officer. He knew they didn’t have the manpower to hunt down everyone with a warrant, that they would arrest him if he was stopped for something else. She knew him well enough to know he was smarter than to get caught doing anything wrong, being a model citizen, if it meant getting what he wanted. To him, the ends justified the means.

  She jogged up to the store. Victoria met her outside by the store door, handing her the landline phone.

  “You’re a popular lady today,” Victoria said, white teeth glistening against her golden tan. Her sun-bleached hair was tied in a loose ponytail.

  Anxiety reared its ugly head again. Abby snatched the phone with irritation and put it to her ear.

  “Just a moment please,” she said, her voice curt. She took the phone away from her ear and covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “Thanks, Victoria. Apparently, my less-than-human ex is set on tormenting me, so he can kindly wait.” Until I can take a breath or two to keep myself together. “Anyone check out yet?”

  “Cabins two, three, five, and six all checked out. About half of the campers did, too.”

  “I can see that.” She looked around her. “Is my dad back?”

  “Yup. He’s out by your studio. Must be nice to have such a handyman for a father. My dad can’t even fix a clogged sink.”

  “Yeah. He’s a good guy.” She felt like she had overdosed on caffeine, her stomach in knots. She took a slow, deep breath and put the phone up to her ear.

  “This is Abby.”

  “Putting me on hold isn’t going to make me go away.”

  “I can always hope. What do you want, Hunter?”

  “You can’t keep my boy away from me.”

  “The law says I can.”

  “You won’t get away with this.”

  “With what? Keeping Cooper safe?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t you think you’re being a little melodramatic? But then, that was always the way you were, wasn’t it? Sending me to prison for something you started. If you’d just listened—”

  “I did nothing wrong. And you are not getting near my son.”

  “I’m his father,” he spat.

  “No, Hunter. Father’s don’t hurt their children. You’re nothing but a menace.”

  He laughed an evil sound, chilling her to the bone. She knew better than to intentionally say something like that. She knew the consequences all too well of speaking up for oneself to this monster. But she wanted—no needed—him to know that he had not crushed her. That she was stronger than ever. And that need for validating herself, to herself, was stronger than playing it safe right now.

  “You cannot intimidate me, Hunter. Not anymore.”

  “You are going to let me see my boy, Abby. So help me God, if it’s the last thing you do.”

  “No!” she exploded startling Victoria. “If you so much as show your face within a hundred mile radius of here, it will be the last thing you do.”

  “Challenge accepted.”

  The line went dead. Abby held the phone, recoiling as if it were alive. She felt the color drain from her face and her breaths came in short, shallow gasps.

  “Abby?”

  Victoria’s voice sounded miles away.

  “What have I done?” Abby whispered.

  “I’m going to get Jeremiah.”

  “No.” She looked at Victoria. Her eyes were huge with worry. “I’m sorry to worry you, Vic. It’ll be okay.”

  “It doesn’t look like it.”

  “I need to go do something, okay? I’ll be right back.”

  She was out the door before the last word was out of her mouth. She scanned the resort looking for anything suspicious, then glanced at the lake, happy when she spotted Gabe and Cooper in the boat, safe.

  She climbed the steps, two at a time, to her room and closed the door. She punched in Holly’s number. Just when she thought it was going to roll into voicemail, Holly’s voice came on the line.

  “Hello?” She sounded distracted.

  “Hey, Holl. Are you busy?”

  “No. Just a second, okay?”

  Abby heard a child’s voice in the background, then another one, sounding like about two or three years old, screaming. Seconds later Holly was back on the line.

  “Okay, I’m back.”

  “Sounds like you have a houseful. Where are you?”

  “At the airport. I was going to surprise you, but you kind of blew that.”

  Ordinarily, Abby would have been thrilled. But she had more pressing matters to think about right now. “That’s great. That you’re coming out here, I mean. Hey, I was wondering if you could do something for me.”

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “You know how you told me one time that as an initiative to keep the kids from divorced parents safe from non-custodial parents you guys can look up someone’s location by tracking their cell phone?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I was wondering if you could do that for me. Track where Hunter is.” There was dead silence on the other end. “Hello?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. Why, did something happen?”

  “He called me just now and threatened me.”

  “How did he threaten you?”

  “I’ll fill you in when you get here.”

  “Um … yeah, sure. I can do that. I’ll call you right back.”

  “Wait!” she rushed, but it was too lat
e. Holly had already hung up. “I didn’t give you the phone number,” she mumbled. She called Holly back, but it went straight to voicemail. She’s on the other line, she thought. “Weird.”

  Abby sat on the edge of her bed, phone in her hand. She stared at it waiting for Holly to call back. Finally, it rang.

  “You hung up before I had a chance to get you his number.”

  “I called the school and had them get it from Cooper’s file.”

  “They still have his file?”

  “An electronic file, yes.”

  “Oh, I suppose. What’d you find out?”

  “It came back as Oakland.”

  Abby let out a breath, unaware she’d been holding it. “Thank God.”

  “I’ll be there in a couple of hours. Can’t wait to see you.”

  “Me too. What time does your flight come in? I’ll pick you up.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll rent a car.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. I like to be able to come and go as I please.”

  “Okay. And Holly? Thank you a million times over. You just made my day.”

  She trotted back down the stairs and into the store. “Store or cabin cleaning, my dear Victoria? Your choice.”

  “Well, someone looks a lot happier.” Victoria grinned.

  “And feeling a ton lighter.”

  “I’ll stay in the store if I get a choice.”

  “You got it. If you need me, I have my cell phone. I’m going to start in cabin two. I’ll do all but five. I’ll save that one for you.”

  “Aha!” Victoria exclaimed. “So you do believe in ghosts.”

  “Didn’t say that,” she said, throwing her a smile before walking out the door. The truth of the matter was, ghosts had nothing on what she’d already lived through with Hunter. And just because he was in California now, that could change in a matter of a single day. If that.

  As she gathered cleaning supplies, she wondered if she would ever be able to live without fear again with Hunter a free man. Would she ever again not panic whether she locked the door, or not worry about Cooper every moment he was out of her sight? Or even fall asleep at night without worrying that someone was going to get in her house? This wasn’t turning out to be the life she’d wanted for them at all.

  29

  Abby was in the bathroom of cabin four, bent over the tub, scrubbing the bottom. The screen door creaked, and she stood up.