Rob held my gaze for a long moment, then grinned, warmth filling the dark eyes he shared with his sister. “Excellent.”
And that was that.
We made our way through the store, Rob pausing here and there to jot down measurements in a little notepad he kept inhis back pocket. When I described what Eden and I discussed the night before, a slow smile crept across his face.
“That’s Eden for you.” His tone was full of affection. “Show me the wall. I’ll see what we can do.”
While Rob poked around in the storage closet, which was barely big enough for two people—if you didn’t count the time I’d dragged Eden in there for a brief makeout session while Carter finished his math homework—I stood in the hallway feeling useless.
“I’ll need to take a look at the other side, but this should work,” Rob called over his shoulder.
At his words, I sent a silent note of gratitude out into the universe—not for the spare room I might be able to add to my store, but for Eden first coming into my life, then saving it. My existence before I met her had been fine, but now?
It was so beautiful I had to pinch myself at times to be sure it was real.
Rob tucked his notebook away and we headed out the front door toward Garden of Delights. I blinked in surprise at a little blue sedan that was parked where Eden’s SUV had been when I arrived. The forecasted snow was falling heavily now, coating the sidewalk, but I took a minute to glance in either direction down the street before following Rob into the shop.
Adelaide was alone behind the counter.
“Hey sis,” Rob said, tipping an imaginary hat at her. “Where’s Eden?”
“I have no idea. She said she was just running out for a minute, but that was half an hour ago. I texted her twice about picking up coffee on her way back, but she didn’t answer.”
My heart plummeted straight through the floor. “I’ll see if I can reach her.”
Addie shot us a worried look as she turned to help the next customer, but Eden’s phone went straight to voicemail when I called. I let Rob usher me into the back of the shop, though whether he wanted to get me away from the prying eyes of customers or prevent me from freaking his sister out even further, I wasn’t sure.
I paused outside of the breakroom as I tried for a third time to get through to Eden. There on the table was her laptop, still open as if she’d rushed out of there in the middle of something, though the screen had gone blank. It was Rob who broke the silence as we both stared at it.
“I’ll look, if you want plausible deniability.”
Invading her privacy wasn’t something Iwantedto do, but I wasn’t sure it made a difference which of us did the deed. I shook my head, pocketed my phone, and hit the touchpad to activate the laptop screen.
When a map of the area popped up, I frowned, sinking into the chair Eden had abandoned. The search bar showed she was looking for a warehouse along Route 104. Two results were marked with red dots on the map.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
“Look,” Rob said, pointing to a second tab open in the browser.
I clicked on it and found the website for the Church of Eternal Light in Cortland. Air rushed from my lungs as I realized she hadn’t rushed out to go on some cutesy errand like finding wine to bring to my parents’ house tomorrow.
Eden was trying to find the woman who attacked me.
“Shit. We need to go after her,” I hissed.
“Snow’s getting worse, but my truck has four-wheel drive. She’s gotta be heading to one of those locations, right?” Rob snapped a photo of the screen and zoomed in on the two dots.
I rubbed my forehead, wincing when I hit the edge of the remaining bruise. “I would think so.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” he demanded.
Nothing, apparently. Maybe the injury had left my decision-making skills sluggish, but at Rob’s question, conviction flooded my veins.
We had to find her before she rushed headlong into danger.
I closed the laptop and followed him back out to the shop, where he gave Adelaide some bullshit excuse as we hurried past the front counter—we didn’t have time to go into detail, not if we were going to catch up to Eden. Addie didn’t look like she believed him for a second, but we somehow managed to get out onto the sidewalk without fully explaining the situation.
“You’ll have to teach me that trick,” I said under my breath.
