“Go with him!” Lexi urged. “Slater and I will start out here!”
He murmured a thank you before taking off after Walker.
“Okay, so what are you thinking?” she asked Slater as they walked quickly down toward the boathouse.
“I honestly don’t know. We have over fifteen hundred acres here. She could be hiding anywhere,” he said distractedly. They were both scanning the path as they walked. “The drones can do a lot of the work for us, but I wish I knew where to even begin.”
“Is Annabeth hiding?” Jonah asked as he jogged to keep up.
Oh God…
That’s when an idea hit her. “Slater? Hang back for a second!” Crouching down in front of her son, she said, “Annabeth is hiding. Do you know any of her favorite hiding spots?”
He studied her for a moment and then glanced up at Slater. “They’re secret,” he whispered loudly.
“Sweetheart, it’s okay to share this secret. It’s very important. Annabeth’s hiding, but it’s not a game,” she gently urged. “Connor’s very sad because he doesn’t know where she is, and everyone’s very worried.”
He stole another glance at Slater.
“It’s okay, buddy,” he said, mimicking Lexi’s pose. “I swear I won’t tell Annabeth that you told us.”
He seemed to consider that for a moment before he reluctantly grumbled, “Okay.”
“Where is her favorite spot?” Lexi asked as she grasped his shoulders. “Please, Jonah.”
“We sometimes hide behind the woodshed where you get the wood for the s’mores. We like the way it smells.”
Okay, that one was close by, so they ran there first. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there.
“It’s alright,” she assured them. “It was only the first spot we checked. Where else does she like to go?”
“Um…there’s a small dock where we had that picnic that time. It’s where you said I could learn to fish, but then we never did. It’s smaller than the dock I fished with Walker, Axel, and Slater. But I wanted to fish with you.”
Hugging him, she said, “And we will one day soon, I promise!” Then she looked at Slater. “It’s the spot down by our cabins and past Axel’s storage building.”
“Maybe I should get the drone,” Slater suggested.
“Good idea. We’ll meet up at some point.” She and Jonah took off in one direction while Slater went in the other. In the distance, Lexi saw the lights of a patrol car, but she ran after Jonah, who was leading the way.
Note to self…use the resort gym more…
Passing the cabins, she began shouting Annabeth’s name, and so did Jonah, but there was no response. They rounded the far corner, passed Axel’s shed, and continued down the path to the dock. Guests didn’t come down this way, but it was a quiet spot the owners and their families knew about—including her. They had picnicked here a few times with snacks while they read in the afternoon and sometimes on a Saturday when Connor was working and she was hanging out with the kids.
“Come on, Annabeth,” she whispered. “Please be on the dock.”
Jonah reached the area first and called out, “She’s not here!”
Shit.
Now what?
Frustration and overall helplessness had her by the throat. Every minute they didn’t find her meant something could have seriously happened to her. She had truly hoped her son was going to know exactly where to find Annabeth, but she realized now that she was asking a lot of a four-year-old.
Hanging her head, she took a moment to catch her breath. Jonah came up beside her and put his little hand in hers. “We’ll find her,” he said confidently. “Whenever we play hide and seek, I always find her.”
Crouching down again, she looked at his sweet little face before pulling him into a fierce hug because she needed to. Tears streamed down her face because she was so scared and didn’t want to think the worst, but right now, she almost couldn’t help it.
When she felt like she could compose herself, she slowly pulled back and forced herself to smile. “Okay. Sorry. I just…I’m worried about Annabeth.”
