His expression grew somber, as if he were suddenly realizing the gravity of the situation. His shoulders sagged a bit. “She likes all the spots we used to read, but her favorite one is with the boulders. We only read there once, but sometimes Annabeth says she goes there by herself when she wants to be alone.”
For a moment, Lexi couldn’t get her bearings. “The boulders…” Standing, she glanced around trying to remember the spot. “Oh! Down by the path past the gazebo, right?”
He nodded.
It was all the way on the other side of the lodge, but there was a path along the lake they could take. Cursing how out of shape she was, she straightened and let out a long breath. “Okay, let’s go! You lead the way, Jonah!”
“Yay!” he said as they took off, and Lexi did her best to keep up.
The ground was uneven, and she considered pulling out her phone and calling Slater to tell him to position the drone near the gazebo, but she wasn’t coordinated enough to do it without tripping and hurting herself. There were rocks, sand, gravel…every kind of terrain as they made their way along the path. Some of it wasn’t an actual path, but it was worn enough from people cutting through the brush areas over the years.
Stray branches slashed at her arms, and one particularly aggressive one hit her in the face, but she kept going.
“We’re almost there, Mom!”
Thank God. With any luck, this would be the place they’d find her.
The trail curved and opened up the way she preferred. There were soft pine needles underfoot, and it was a little easier to navigate. She used to know every twist and turn by heart when she was a kid, almost like her son seemed to now. The one time she brought the kids here to read, she remembered hanging out here during some of her childhood summers. But it was so far out of the way that they only came here once because of time constraints.
The spot was just past the next bend—a hollow between two massive old trees where the ground dipped down and the air smelled like moss. There were three boulders, and they had laughed because it meant a seat for each of them. They had read and shared cookies, and Annabeth had said it felt like a magical spot from one of her favorite books.
She sat there now, hugging her backpack.
Jonah had come to a stop without saying a word, but Lexi had already spotted Annabeth through the trees.
She said a quick prayer of thanks before squeezing her son’s shoulder and whispering, “Stay right here, okay?”
He nodded, and she pulled out her phone and typed a quick text to the group.
Lexi: I found her! We’re on the path past the gazebo!
It would take too long to describe beyond that, but she needed to get to Annabeth before everyone else did. As if sensing her, the little girl turned her head, and the look of utter sadness broke Lexi’s heart.
“You found me.”
Nodding, she gingerly climbed down the small incline and sat on one of the other boulders. Jonah silently followed even though she asked him to stay put.
“Are you mad at me?” Annabeth asked quietly, her voice quivering.
“Oh, sweetie, no! Of course not. Why would I be?”
“Because I ran away.”
“Well, I’m not going to lie, you scared us all.” Pausing, Lexi took in how tired she looked. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Annabeth shrugged.
“I get it, you know,” Lexi began tentatively. “Sometimes things happen, and I would think that I just wanted to run away from it all.”
“And did you?”
“Some people might say I ran away by coming here to the resort. I left everything I had known to move me and Jonah here.” Another pause. “But everyone knew where I was going and that I was going to be with my friends and people who cared about me.”
She could hear faint voices in the distance. Connor’s. The way he called her name—half scared, half hopeful—made her chest tighten. “Your dad’s very worried, Annabeth.”
Without responding, Annabeth pressed her face into her knees, her small shoulders shaking.
“It’s going to be okay,” Lexi promised. “Whatever’s going on, your dad isn’t going to let anything bad happen.”
