I wouldn’t be kissing him today. Or possibly ever.
He was two thousand miles away.
A bright blue pin sat right over the bottom border of Wyoming.
Silas had gone back to his life out west. Back to Laramie.
Back to Christy?
thirty-two
CLEMENTINE
It looked like I wouldn’t get a lick of sleep before my red-eye flight.
I’d taken so long deciding what to bring that by the time I fell asleep, it would be time to get up again. My carry-on refused to zip. Clearly I’d over-packed. But taking a trip to a place you’ve never been, not knowing how long you’re staying, calls for a selection of outfits. Peyton and Crystal vowed to cover all classes until I returned, whenever that might be. And Knox, who was turning out to be a champion of my small business, promised that he and the guys would make sure the studio was tidied and locked up every evening.
The beach disaster and miscarriage had been in my rear view for seventeen days. Three days ago, I’d pulled a Christy and bought a one-way ticket to Laramie. Thankfully, I’d googled and found Silas’s address. His location pin had disappeared altogether after the one time I saw he was in Laramie again. No one close to the Duprees knew what I was doing, except Momma. And she vowed not to say a word. I was honoring my best friend’s last wish and, as Silas would say, going whole hog. Making the grand gesture. I’d thought oftelling Anna. Had even seen her for a few minutes when she got Jenny to stop by the studio long enough to give me a hug a couple of evenings ago. I hadn’t given up on getting Anna back. Not at all. ButifI could fix things with Silas and get him back to Seddledowne before the court date, even better. But I didn’t want to get Anna’s hopes up in case the trip came to nothing.
I leaned all my weight onto the bag, finally getting the zipper around the corner. My body should’ve been exhausted, but the anxiety of the unknown was pulsing through me, a steady stream of adrenaline. Which was a good thing since I still needed to stop by the studio on my way out of town. The app clients used to sign up for classes had gone haywire this evening—because of course it had. You would think clients would be ok to struggle through till I got back, but I’d lost more than one client in the past to janky apps. People, I’d learned, liked things to be smooth and easy or they went somewhere else.
At twelve-thirteen a.m. my cell rang. It was Jenny. In my entire life, I’d never seen her stay up past ten. Even when her kids were younger and out for the evening, Bo handled all the waiting up. And the only contact I’d had with a Dupree since the beach was Anna. I’d called Jenny a few times to see if I could pick Anna up to go to McDonald’s and she’d ignored and never returned my calls. So Jenny calling me now was unusual, to say the least.
“Hello?”
“Lemon.” Her voice was distraught and weary. “Sorry to bother you so late—” An all too familiar shriek cut her off.
My chest tightened. “Anna’s having night terrors again?”
“Yeah. It started at the beach and it’s happened every night since. Bo and I are at our wits’ end.” Her tone was defeated. She hated that she was calling me. That she, Anna’sgrandmother, way older and wiser than little old Lemon, needed my help, desperately.
“You’re letting her sleep with Huck?”
“Mhmm. Every night. But when the screaming starts, he scampers onto the floor and hides under the bed.”
From the sound of hysteria currently happening, I couldn’t blame him. And from Jenny’s voice, it sounded like she wished she could do the same. “I know it’s the change of not having you and Silas nearby.” It sounded like it killed her to admit that. “Could you possibly come over and see if you can get her calmed down?”
I pulled the bag behind me as I came down the hall, turning off lights as I went. “I really wish I could, but I’m headed out of town as we speak.”
“At this time of night?” It sounded like someone had made a fist around her vocal cords.
“Yes. Right now.”
“You can’t leave right now.” Her voice was panicky and annoyed with a touch of desperation, like she might come over and try to stop me.
“I’m really sorry, but I’m on a flight in a couple of hours. I have some things I need to take care of.” Like making up with your son. “It took Silas and me a bit to figure it out, too. I know you must be exhausted. The hardest part is patiently waiting it out—when you just want to wake her up and stop it. It’s the opposite of what your instincts tell you to do. But it’s the only thing that works.”
There was an uncomfortable pause. I was about to say goodbye when she asked, “When will you be back?”
I grabbed the truck keys off the hook by the door. “I’m not sure.”
Silence. You know, other than Anna screaming bloody murder in the background.
“Hey,” I said gently. “Do whatever you have to for now?Sleep next to her, or let her sleep between you and Bo. She feels safe tucked in between, like a cocoon.” Letting kids sleep in her bed went against everything Jenny stood for. Allowing Huck on the bed had probably been a huge concession already. “Her first therapy appointment is next week, which will help. And when I get back, if it’s still happening, I’ll come help out. Just hang in there.”
“Yeah. Okay. Be safe.”
“Will do.”
