“I haven’t seen Seph since breakfast.”
Payton frowned. “No one has. He’s not answering his phone either.”
Which was weird, because Seph was pretty much glued to his phone. “Has anyone found his phone? Maybe he’s gone out for a walk or something.” I glanced out of the window. The snowfall had eased since Christmas Day, but another few inches were forecast in the next couple of days before Callum and Wren had their wedding ceremony in their barn.
“He’d have asked at least four of us if we wanted to go with him first, and then made Mum make him a packed lunch.” Payton looked around the room. “You set for the move?”
I put down the eye contour brush and looked for the remover. This wasn’t working. “Pretty much. I’m due to sign a contract on the property next month and then we have a provisional completion date mid-Feb. That’s if my new neighbour doesn’t manage to wangle the place.”
Payton grinned. “I heard about him. In fact, I think I met him once when we went to visit Vanessa's gran. Cute, blonde hair, looks like a surfer?”
I nodded and took a long inhalation of breath. A cleansing breath, because I needed it where Jake Maynard was concerned. “That’s the one.”
“At least you’ll have something pretty to look at.”
“I’m not interested in anything pretty to look at. I want to get my stables up and running and the therapy centre, not have to deal with half-witted country boys who think they have a god-given-right to every farm in the area.” I felt the tension rip through my shoulders. Severton was the perfect place for me; the back end of beyond in a beautiful part of the world, where I could hopefully become part of the fabric of the place.
My sisters and Shay preferred the city; I wanted to remain where it was quieter, where I didn’t need to see people too much and strangers were someone I chose to interact with because I could help.
I was definitely not on the market for a man.
Payton shrugged. “That’s exactly what I said before I met Owen.” She pulled out her phone from her jeans pocket. “I should have Seph’s whereabouts on this app. Hang on…”
I wiped off the eye make-up and remoisturised, watching what Payton was doing through the mirror.
“His phone’s still in the house.” She shook her head. “This is really not like my brother. He hates being on his own.”
“Have you checked with the others?”
“Max and Vic are in London for their doctor’s appointment and I think they’re going to spend the night at home before coming back for Callum’s ceremony thing. I haven’t seen Claire or Killian since breakfast – they’ve taken Eliza out somewhere with Nick. Ava hasn’t seen him. Shay was still in his sweats and T-shirt playing some computer game and just grunted at me when I asked, so he could’ve seen Seph.” Payton put a hand on her belly.
“I’ll go and speak to Shay. Could Seph be playing the same game from a different room?” I knew exactly what my brother was like when he had a few days off from work with no women to take back to his room: an overgrown man child. He reverted straight back to being thirteen.
“Maybe. I thought I’d looked everywhere but he could’ve been moving around. I’m going to grab Owen and walk over to Callum’s. He might be over there.” She gave her stomach another pat and walked out of the room, looking determined.
I reapplied my eye make-up, doing a much better job the second time round. As much as I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, I loved girly things. Make-up, clothes, styling my hair. If my parents had allowed me to get away with it, I’d have become a make-up artist or stylist, but that wasn’t on the list of acceptable careers, especially after Maven had decided to pursue a degree in creative writing.
I closed my bedroom door behind me and headed out to find my brother, hoping he’d showered, because if he hadn’t we were likely to have to declare a major environmental incident. The idea of him and Seph rooming together was one I hadn’t got my head around: they were too similar and their ability to look after themselves did worry me.
And I was trying not to worry any more.
Shay was in the media room, his games console linked up to the huge screen down there. I stood for about three minutes before he actually realised that I was there.
“Fuck, Laine. I hate it when you sneak up.” He paused his game.
I should’ve been bowled over by the complement. However, I really hadn’t tried to make him jump.
There was no use explaining that though.
“Have you seen Seph today?”
Shay looked thoughtful. “I saw him this morning, about eight. He woke me up when he left the cabin.”
“Did he say what he was doing today?”
Shay held out his arms, controller in one hand. “Don’t know, I wasn’t listening to him.”
“No one’s seen him since breakfast.”
