“Never around you though,” Callan says.
The blush on Reed’s face is beyond adorable. I wonder if Callan realizes his boss may harbor a crush, although I’m not sure the big guy is gay. He seems totally oblivious to the way Reed looks at him.
Reed looks at me when Callan goes over to their van. “I know, I know. You don’t need to tell me. Crushing on a coworker isn’t a good idea, especially when he’s not even gay.”
“You can still look though. That ass…” I wink.
“Hey,” he warns, and I raise my hands in apology.
I hear my name and turn to find Harrison running toward me. “Have you seen the kids?”
“Yeah, they’ve been at the pet tent all afternoon. Ray is looking after them.”
“They’re not there, Fletch. I checked with Ray. He was helping someone pack up. He says he didn’t even leave the tent. He thought they came over to Bittersweet for cake.”
Every word out of Harrison’s mouth is a shot straight to my heart. The worst thing that could ever happen. The thing I’ve feared the most in George’s short life is happening.
He’s missing. And it seems Megan is too.
“We’ll help you look for them,” Reed says.
“Megan is about four foot, brown hair—”
“Don’t worry,” Reed says, interrupting. “I remember her from Tate’s wedding, and she was here with George earlier.”
“Thank you, Reed.” I turn to Harrison. “When was the last time you saw them?”
“I don’t know, about an hour ago when Stella came over to Bittersweet. We got busy after that.”
I run my hands over my face. “Same here. Where do we start?”
“How about the classroom? Maybe they went inside the building. It’s open so people can use the restrooms.”
We run inside the building, but the classroom door is locked.
“Let me call Ellis,” he says.
I try to open other doors and check the restrooms while Harrison gets in touch with Ellis.
“Nothing,” I say.
“Ellis says the classrooms were locked yesterday to stop people from wandering in. He’s putting a team of parents together to help search for them.”
My lungs feel suddenly tight and I’m lightheaded.
“Hey…Fletcher…look at me.” Harrison’s voice is an anchor, but I’m not sure it’s enough to stop me from drifting into despair if we can’t find the kids. “They’re probably playing somewhere and haven’t noticed the time. We’ll find them.”
“What if we don’t?”
“That’s not an option. Let’s go outside and join the search group.”
By the time we join the others, a group has already left to search the school grounds.
“Harrison.” Stella comes over, wrapping her arms around him. “Our baby.”
He closes his eyes over Stella’s head, and I squeeze his arm lightly. We’re all in this together.
Ellis comes over to us. “We’ve made a list of places I know the kids have mentioned before. A few parents are heading over to Main Street toward Birchcraft and others are going to the park.”
