Casey's eyes narrowed slightly.
Noah shifted his feet from behind her.
Time for a distraction.
"Are any of you cold? Noah reminded me that there's a hot chocolate stand on the other side of the park. If we walk briskly, we'll keep warm, and we can be there in a few minutes."
Lindsey and PJ exclaimed their approval of her plan, while Casey and Noah remained quiet.
When she would've bumped Noah's shoulder with hers while they were walking, she found him a few inches further away than she expected.
Of course, with the children now clamoring around them, there was no time or privacy to discuss what seemed like the sudden distance he was putting between them.
The kids wereup to something.
They'd arrived home after dropping Noah at his house. Lindsey had gone to bed without protesting, but the boys had disappeared quickly into their room and had been all whispers ever since.
Right now, she was standing at the bottom landing of the stairs. The upstairs lights were off, and she was debating whether she should go upstairs for the third time because she could still hear whispered voices from the boys' room.
From the kitchen, her cell phone rang.That'swhere she must've left it during all the chaos of getting the kids in bed.
She hurried to the kitchen and frowned at it when she saw it was Aiden.
"If this is one of Noah's jokes, I don't really have time to deal with it." The words had a snap that she immediately felt guilty about, but the kids had school tomorrow, and she needed them to go to sleep. It was stressing her out that they were up to something. Couldn't she just have one night of peace? Had she done the wrong thing in taking them out for a special night, when Lindsey had been in trouble at school earlier? On a school night?
"It's not a joke," Aiden said. "Noah didn't ask me to call."
“Oh no. What happened?”
"He can't find his cat."
Honey Bear? Oh no.
"He said she was there when you dropped him off at home."
Yes. The kitten had twined herself between Jilly's legs, almost tripping her as she'd ushered the kids out Noah's door.
"Now he can't find her anywhere. He hasn't opened any outside doors, but maybe she got out when you guys were leaving. He's scoured the house pretty good. Checked all her favorite hiding places. He put me on video on his cell phone and basically showed me every inch of the house."
Jilly's heart swooped low. Even after they'd left the park, the temperature had continued to drop, and snow was starting to fall. Honey Bear wasn't that old. If she got lost outside, she could freeze.
"I know it's a lot to ask, but could you go over there? Playing hide-and-seek from a phone's video camera isn't the same as being there in person."
She understood. If Noah had the camera pointed in the wrong direction, there was a chance Aiden would've missed Honey.
Or, if it was the worst case scenario and the cat was outside, Noah shouldn't be searching for her himself.
She moved into the front hallway and picked up one of her boots, ready to go to Noah's rescue. But she could still hear whispers coming from upstairs.
She stood there trying to decide. "Why didn't Noah call me?"
The words popped out before she had a chance to think them through. But now that she’d said them aloud, the emotion behind them hit her right in the gut. She'd been in Noah's arms tonight. Kissed him. She'd thought he was opening up to her, starting to trust her.
But he hadn't called. And he hadn't asked Aiden to call.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
But, he needed help. Even if he wasn't going to ask for it, she was a bigger person than that.
