by Jessica Kate
His expression turned to steel. “I’m asking to not get phone calls like this.” He headed for the car.
She scrambled after him. She’d expected fear, some anger, but not this reaction. “It was one mistake.”
He buckled Olly in, straightened, and spoke to her over the roof. “It’s a pattern. You seem to be the only one who can’t see it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her voice squeaked.
He got into the car and she followed suit. “You’re obsessed with getting something you don’t even really want. And now it’s affecting Olly.”
Natalie’s mouth fell open. “And who are you to tell me what I want?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m someone with my eyes open!”
Unbelievable. “Are you just jealous of all the time I spend with Sam?”
Jem flashed her an incredulous look. “I can’t believe you would even say that.”
She pinched her forefinger and thumb. “I am this close, Jem. I let go of what was important once before. I was so distracted with you and the wedding, and then my chance to work with Dad was over before I knew it.”
A call came over the car’s Bluetooth. Natalie glanced at the phone’s screen. Mike. Jem hit the Reject button. “So Olly staying conscious isn’t what’s important?”
Natalie clenched her jaw. “Stop twisting my words. I feel like I’ve been in the wilderness for seven years, and this job has given me a purpose again. It’s not a just a job. It’s who I am.”
Jem shook his head. “I can’t argue with that.”
Her ire calmed a fraction. “Thank you.”
Jem barked a laugh. “I mean I can’t argue with such a ludicrous statement. You are not a job.”
“Easy for you to say!” Natalie rifled through the console for a tissue. “You have your career, education. You have options. You weren’t here. You don’t know what it was like.” She couldn’t go back to that. The unending sensation of being forgotten. Left behind. Not only by Jem but by God too.
No tissues. She gave a disgusted huff and slammed the console shut. “What kind of parent doesn’t have tissues in his car?”
Jem stopped at an intersection and glared at her. “I’m not forcing you out of Wildfire. Change your hours, reduce them, find a different job. There’s options.”
She gaped at him. He made it sound so easy. He had no idea.
He set his jaw. “I might not be a good enough parent to have unending supplies of tissues, but this is my line in the sand.” He rolled through the intersection and pulled into his apartment complex’s parking lot.
She crossed her arms. “I can’t believe you’re not supporting me on this.”
“I’m doing what’s best for my kid. If you’re too caught up trying to impress your dad and Steph to see that, then we have a serious problem.”
“Well, if you can’t support my dreams, then we have a serious problem.” The words flew out without forethought.
Jem turned the car off and faced her, a frown carved into his forehead. “Wait—What are you saying?”
She stared back, unable to wrap her brain around the words they’d just said. Was that how he really felt? How she really felt? “What are you saying?” She gulped. Strike first. “I’m saying this is a deal-breaker.” She’d been distracted from her calling by Jem once before, and look what that had gotten her.
Never again.
Besides, he’d cave. He’d see how unreasonable he was being and give in. He had to.
Jem stared at her. “An ultimatum, Nat? Really? I didn’t tell you to quit Wildfire. I just asked you to change your hours. And you threaten to break up with me.” His voice was quietly furious.
She matched his level of indignation. “You might as well have, and you know it. It’s not possible. Kimberly’s already got a major advantage over me.”
Jem threw his hands up. “Maybe that’s because she’s the better one for the job.”
Natalie flinched. The comment hung between them for a long moment.
He didn’t believe she could do this. He didn’t believe in her dream.
He didn’t believe in her.
She got out of the car and slammed the door.
Oliver cried.
She stomped toward where she’d chained her—Oh. Her bicycle. They’d left it at Wildfire.
Whatever. She’d walk.
Behind her a car door opened. “That’s it, Nat? You’re going to run away?”
She snapped over her shoulder at him. “Guess it’s my turn.”
“If you think this tantrum’s going to change my mind, you’re wrong.”
She spun and planted her hands on her hips. “If you think I’m quitting Wildfire, you’re insane.”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
So, this was how it ended. In a fireball.
Natalie kept walking, if only to keep Jem from seeing her cry.
Behind her, Jem’s phone rang again.
Jem: “What?”
Mike’s voice came over the car’s stereo system, reached her through Jem’s open door. “Have you found Lili yet?”
Lili. Natalie stopped and looked up to Jem’s apartment window.
Dark.
She changed directions. She’d make sure Lili was okay.
Then she’d officially break up with Jem.
* * *
Jem punched in Nick’s number and paced the living room while Natalie phoned the school administrator’s home number from the kitchen. Tense lines formed around her pursed lips. He pulled his eyes from her and forced his mind to focus on the ringing phone. One problem at a time.
The phone sounded its fourth ring.
Come on, pick up.
He’d already tried Steph, Dad, and the school. Lili had better be with Nick, or Natalie would get a front-row seat to his full parental panic mode.
“Hello?” Indistinct chatter sounded in the background.
Jem pressed the phone closer to his ear, even though it was already on full volume. “Nick, it’s Lili’s uncle Jem. Is Lili with you?”
“No, sorry. I’m with Aunt Trish at Wildfire. For my scholarship interview. Well, I’m waiting to go in. They got delayed.”
Jem pressed a hand to his forehead. Worry clawed his insides. “Okay. You don’t know where she is?”
“I saw her at school earlier, but I haven’t seen her since.”
The kid’s voice sounded uncertain. Weird. Was there something he wasn’t saying?
He waited a moment, in case Nick volunteered anything.
Silence.
Jem sighed. “Alright. Let me know if you hear from her.”
He pulled the phone from his ear.
A faint sound came from the speaker. He jammed the phone back against his head. “Sorry?”
“I just had to walk a few steps from my aunt. Do you know . . . I mean, has Lili told you . . . Did she talk about what’s going on?” he asked.
Knew it.
“Do you know?” Jem’s voice was urgent.
“There’s stuff going on with her parents. She’s pretty torn up about it.” Nick kept his words hushed.
Jem’s mind spun with scenarios. “I know they’ve been fighting, but this sounds more serious.”
“It is.”
So something had been happening for a while. But there must’ve been some kind of trigger—“Did something happen today?”
“Yeah.” Nick’s tone indicated that was all he would say on the matter.
Jem went for another tactic. “Do you know where I can find her?”
“No. She just said she wasn’t going home. Actually, she said she didn’t live at your house anymore.”
What? Where had that come from?
Across the room, Natalie caught his expression and lifted an eyebrow. But he had no answers. Yet.
He plugged his spare ear and turned away from her. “That doesn’t make any sense.” But it didn’t sound like he’d get more from the kid. Did Mike know something? “Either w
ay, I’d better keep looking. Good luck, Nick.”
“Wait.” Nick jumped in before Jem could hang up. “I’ll put off this interview and come to your apartment. There’s a bit of a story. I think you need to hear it.”
“What is it, Nick?” Jem channeled Dad’s captain voice for that one.
Nick’s voice dropped quieter again. “Her mom wouldn’t let her say anything, but . . . her father’s been having an affair. With my aunt. And today we found out my aunt’s pregnant.”
Jem almost dropped the phone. Mike. Responsible, older-brother, church-pastor Mike.
Had gotten a woman other than his wife pregnant.
That explained his bad mood.
“Thanks for telling me.” Jem choked the words out.
A female voice sounded in the background. “You’re Nick, Lili’s friend.”
Steph.
Uh-oh.
Nick’s voice, wary. “Yes, ma’am.”
Steph’s voice grew a little fainter, like she’d turned away from the phone. “And you’re Lili’s teacher. You’re . . .” Her voice trailed off.
The phone beeped. Call ended.
Bad. Very bad.
Jem grabbed his keys and dialed Dad’s number.
“Where’s my granddaughter?” The voice barked from the phone so loud that Jem had to pull it away. He scooped up Olly in one arm, made eye contact with Natalie, and jerked his head toward the door. Braced himself for the reaction he was about to get.
“You need to get Mike and meet us at Wildfire. I think Lili’s run away.”
38
Natalie wrung her hands and sneaked looks at Jem’s stony profile as they zipped toward Wildfire in the evening traffic. The words he’d spoken still wouldn’t compute.
Mike, a cheater.
Steph, a liar.
Lili, alone through it all.
How could she have missed the signs?
Natalie replayed every conversation she’d had with Lili in the past three weeks. The girl had seemed off, sure, but that was easy to put down to her fight with Nick.
But the whole time her family had been falling apart, with Lili forbidden from saying a word about it.
Natalie scrubbed a hand across her face. “That day your dad said she was drunk . . .”
“I know.” Jem’s voice was tight.
He’d barely looked at her since he passed on Nick’s message. Resentment rolled from him in waves. Not that he seemed to blame her for the Lili situation, though she’d clearly misread it.
No, with the Lili situation, he was just worried. But he was mad about Olly—and her reaction.
She folded her arms and slouched in the seat.
Jem swung into the parking lot, his wheels over the painted line. He yanked the keys from the ignition without bothering to correct.
She touched his arm as he twisted in the seat to unbuckle Olly. “She’s going to be okay.”
He brushed her hand aside. “Let’s go.”
She sat still as he exited the car, a hollow ache blooming in her chest.
Jem poked his head back inside. “Are you coming?” He shut the door before she could respond.
Scrambling out, she peered over to the five people staring one another down in the parking lot. What was Lili’s teacher doing there, and why was Nick standing between her and Steph?
Realization hit. She was Lili’s teacher. She was Nick’s aunt. She’d probably come with him to Wildfire for the scholarship interview.
And she was the mistress.
Oh no.” She dashed to catch up with Jem, who’d reached his father’s side.
As she arrived, Mike was telling Jem the story of his encounter with Lili that afternoon. “We planned to talk to you tomorrow,” he finished.
Jem turned to Nick. “And you saw her afterward?”
“She was in front of the school.”
“And she’d just found out about the pregnancy?”
Steph’s face twitched at the word.
Natalie winced.
Nick nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Did she say anything about where she was going?”
“She just said she wasn’t going home. That was it.”
Natalie glared at Mike. What had he done?
“We’re going to search in pairs,” Jem said. “Whoever finds her, call us.” He pointed to his father. “You take Steph. Natalie, Mike. Nick, you’re with me.” He gave each pair a zone of Charlottesville to tackle. “Go to malls, cinemas, and fast-food places first. And any place to do with art.”
“I’ve got the force looking too,” John said, nodding to a police car cruising past.
“Good. Let’s go.” Jem stepped away from Natalie’s side.
She shivered. No reassuring touch to the arm. He just went.
She walked on wooden legs toward Mike. Red scratches stretched across his cheek. She could only imagine what Steph’s reaction had been. “You’re despicable.”
“I know.” He looked at his wife, then Trish.
Natalie followed his gaze. Trish stood alone among the pairs, her arms wrapped around her middle.
Nick hugged his aunt. Natalie was close enough to hear his low words.
“Go home, Trish.”
She mumbled something in response.
“It’s going to be okay. I’m going to be a great cousin for this baby.”
She nodded against his shoulder, sniffed, and left.
Natalie’s stomach turned. Nick, Lili, even the baby, had nothing to do with this mess. But they would suffer for it, nonetheless.
When Trish’s Fiat pulled away from the curb, Mike unlocked his car.
Natalie climbed in, and they headed toward the downtown mall. Silence reigned during the drive and the first part of the search. They checked the Paramount Theater, Splendora’s, the children’s museum, and the Freedom of Speech Wall. Nada.
As they hiked back to the car, Mike’s phone buzzed in his hand. He hit the answer button and set it to speakerphone. “Jem?”
“Nick had a brainwave.” Jem shot the words out rapid fire.
Natalie perked up. They’d found her?
“We tracked her through her phone, same as she did to you,” Jem said.
Mike winced, and Natalie deflated. Jem didn’t sound excited that he’d found Lili’s location, so it mustn’t be good.
“Where is she?” she asked.
“I just sent a screenshot of the map to Mike’s phone. That’s where she was ten minutes ago. We lost her signal—she must have switched her phone off.”
Mike pulled up the image.
“Where is she going?” Natalie studied the pinpoint on the map, at least a hundred miles from Charlottesville.
“She’s on the interstate to Raleigh,” Mike said. “Grace lives there.”
“Things haven’t gone well with Grace’s dad, and her grandmother in Washington has cancer.” Nick’s voice came over the phone. “Grace and her mom have gone to take care of her for a couple months. Grace mentioned it to me the other day. But I don’t think Lili knows that.”
* * *
They were losing time.
Natalie folded her arms against the icy chill of the November night wind as she leaned against Jem’s car, the heater inside still humming to warm Olly. They’d regrouped at the parking lot of Jem’s apartment.
Across from her, Jem and Nick leaned over Jem’s phone. Both had loosened ties and frustrated expressions. They’d been trying to pick up Lili’s signal again.
“This isn’t working,” Jem lowered the phone. “Mike and Steph, are you sure Raleigh is where Lili would be heading?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Steph shivered as she spoke.
Mike offered his coat to her.
The look she gave him could have frozen an Eskimo.
Mike shrugged his jacket back on. “She doesn’t know anyone else in that direction.”
“I can contact the bus station and find out if she bought a ticket,” John said. He wore only shirtsl
eeves but seemed unaffected by the plummeting temperature.
Jem nodded. “But for now, we’re running out of time. If she is on the bus, the schedule says she should arrive a bit after 9:00 p.m. And she doesn’t know that Grace has moved. If Lili isn’t able to contact Grace for some reason, she could be stranded.”
“You’ll never beat her to the bus station.” Natalie studied the map on her phone.
“The bus could’ve been delayed. They often are.”
“We can take a squad car,” John said. “Faster.”
“I’ll follow in the Bimmer,” Steph said. Her gaze cut to Mike. “You can ride with your father.”
“I’ll go shotgun with Steph,” Jem said.
“Whoa.” Natalie took a step forward. “Is everyone going? Won’t that be overwhelming? She might just stay on the bus.”
“We can’t take Oliver. One of us will have to stay home.” Jem’s face shuttered as he spoke. His expression wiped every time he was forced to speak to her.
“You’re her uncle. You should go,” she murmured. Then, louder, “But I don’t think all of you can show up and expect things to go well.” She stared down Mike. “Especially you.”
Steph stood straighter. “I’m her mother—I need to be there.”
“She’s angry with both of you.” Jem spoke at the same time.
“Just put her in the police car and don’t give her a choice.” John started toward his car.
Natalie put two fingers in her mouth and whistled.
Everybody stopped.
“Lili hasn’t been able to be honest with any of us lately. Except Nick. I think we should ask what he thinks.”
The boy’s eyes widened.
Steph pursed her lips but nodded.
Nick scratched his head. “I understand Mrs. Walters wanting to be there. You, too, Mr. Walters. And if you stay home, she might think you don’t care.”
Steph flashed a triumphant look toward John.
“But I also don’t think she’ll come quietly if you show up at the bus station. She’s still pretty raw.” His eyes landed on Jem. “You’ve got the best shot.”
Natalie nodded. “Mike and Steph, you guys could go, but get a couple of motel rooms and stay there while Jem talks to Lili. That way she has the option of seeing you and knows you care. But if she can’t handle it, Jem can just drive her straight home or stay in a different room.”
