“Oh? Now you’re in real danger,” he teased, bumping my elbow. “Once you get her cooking, there is no stopping her.”
I laughed lightly and shrugged, glancing over to her family. It was so big. She had three boys and two girls, each of them having spouses, three of them having their own kids. You could see the love surrounding that family. Feel it. “I don’t mind,” I finally said, turning back to him. If I did have a child with him, would it be anything like that?
I suppose I didn’t really care, so long as it was me and Everett in the end, I didn’t care. Not to mention picturing Everett as a dad? God, that did something illegal to me. Imagining him bottle-feeding our baby, rocking him to sleep,humming? My skin was breaking out in a cool sweat just thinking about it.
His eyes softened. “Good, I’m glad. Looks like Lucy is having fun.”
I nodded, scratching her head again. “She loves this. She’s a real people-oriented dog, so long as they don’t set off any alarms in her head.”
“I’m glad you’re having fun,” he said again, squeezing my arm. “I’m going to head over and help them set everything up, settle in, it’s going to be a really good show. Maybe afterwards we can finally get that drink.”
Before I could respond, he was already gone, heading over to help with the setup. Dammit. How many times would I have to tell him that I wasn’t interested before he got the hint?
I rolled my eyes and shook the thoughts away. I was looking forward to it. The only fireworks I ever participated in were the ones we watched from our living room window when I was a kid. Mom never wanted to go out just in case some embers landed in her hair. When I got older, I realized she just didn’t want to bother going out into a crowd without a perfect script to follow. Too many opportunities to get a bad picture, I guess.
This would be fun. Chaotic and messy and filled with laughter. I was excited to see the kind of fireworks people let off on the streets.
I stood in the crowd and watched as everyone piled up their fireworks on one side of the street, chairs being set up in yards, kids getting sparklers. It had to be nearing midnight, but it didn’t seem like there was any slowing down, and I loved that. I really felt like this was a place I could stay now. A place where I could have a home. A place, perhaps, that I could eventuallyraise a couple of kids.
Those kids would be so welcomed, so loved, by everyone here, I was sure of it.
I kept my hand on Lucy, gently scratching her when Mr. Furough lit off the first fireworks.
She flinched, her ears perking, but after a few more fireworks, she started to relax, watching as the lights lit up the whole block, her tongue hanging out.
God, this was amazing. Everywhere I looked there were happy people, good people. This is what I’ve been missing my entire life.Community. I had been surrounded by people my entire life, but this? I had never known this—
A light ringing sounded in my ear, and I couldn’t help but smile. I tapped it gently. “Hey,” I said, turning away from the fireworks and slowly working my way back through the crowd towards the houses to get away from the noise. Besides, if Everett wanted to talk, I was sure the conversation wouldn’t be suitable for anyone’s ears.
But it wasn’t Everett’s voice that came through the earpiece, it was panicked breathing. “Baily’s missing,” Stella gasped, her panic filling my head.
My smile immediately fell, my heart slamming to a halt. I shoved through the crowd, more deliberate now, trying to wave my apologies as my own panic grew. “What are you talking about?” I asked, breaking through into one of the yards.
Stella was sobbing, panting, things crashing in the background. “She’s not in her room and I can’t find her shoes, but her stuffed giraffe is here on the ground, and I think Steven took her,” she gasped, the sobs cracking through her. “I think he stole my baby! I’m going to kill him, Olivia, I’ll fucking kill him.”
I closed my eyes.Fuck!I glanced back towards the crowd, everyone’s eyes on the fireworks. “Stella, that’s impossible.”
“He ghosted me for weeks and then he came back for mydaughter! I don’t know what to do. Have you heard from him? Have you heard anything at all? Seen him? Maybe you can talk to him. Maybe he’ll tell you where Baily is.”
I shook my head, walking between two houses, trying to get further away from the noise so I could think. Fuck, I forgot to tell her about him. I hadn’t even thought about it in days. “Stella, Steven is dead, it wasn’t him. Did you check the bathroom? Under the bed? Is she scared of fireworks?”
“Dead?” Stella breathed out, her voice thick with tears. “What do you mean ‘he’s dead’? What does that mean?”
“I mean he’s dead,” I said carefully, keeping my voice low. “Is she scared of fireworks?” She had to have been hiding. The sound of the fireworks forcing her into a closet or under the bed. She had to be there.
“I’ve already checked the entire house!” she shouted, the tears clear. “She’s not here! Olivia, if Steven didn’t take her, where is she?Where is my daughter?”
I walked out into the yards of the houses behind the ones on my street, this street silent, not a person in sight. “I don’t know, I don’t…” I slowed, my eyes widening, my heart skipping a beat as a sick realization slammed into me unforgivingly.
“Olivia?” she asked when I didn’t continue. “Olivia!”
“No,” I said, my stomach twisting in horror. “Oh my God,” I whispered, covering my eyes. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t happening.
“What? What is it? What happened?”
I slid my thumbnail between my teeth, taking in the quiet street. I left my phone at my house. I couldn’t call Everett. I couldn’t tell him anything.
I looked down the street. How had I gotten so far away from my house?Fuck!“Stella, you need to hang up on me right now and call the police,” I told her, praying I wouldn’t regret it. “Call them right now.” Everett and Evelyn would deal with that buttelling her not to call them wasn’t an option, not with Baily’s life on the line.
