“I can’t find Ollie.” She glanced back and forth with wide, frightened eyes. “He was inside a few minutes ago, and now he’s gone. His skateboard is too. Ollie has a basic phone so he can always reach me, but he left it inside. What if Danny?—”
“Hey, don’t panic,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “Ollie wouldn’t just take off, even if his dad showed up, right? If he’s on his skateboard, he can’t have gone far. You think he’d go somewhere specific? The park?”
She pressed her fingers to her temple. “Maybe Main Street Market? Rosie always gives him candy.”
“You check there. I’ll walk around the block and see if I spot him.”
“I’ll text Rosie and some of the other shopkeepers. We have a group thread.”
“Sounds good.”
“If we don’t find him in five minutes…”
She trailed off, the rest of that sentence implied. She would call the police. Kids probably ran around half-wild in Silver Ridge all the time. Teller and I certainly had as kids, and so had my siblings.
But Piper and her ex had argued just days ago. I understood what she was afraid of.
“Five minutes,” I agreed.
Piper nodded and took off toward the market while I circled around to the side of Piper’s building. The alley was quiet except for the hum of an exhaust fan and the scrape of my boots on pavement.
Then I heard it. Soft whimpers.
I found Ollie beside the back door to Silver Linings, slumped against the wall with his skateboard lying a few feet away.
“Ollie?”
He rubbed his face with his arm, trying to hide his tears. His hands were scraped up, palms raw and bleeding.
He squinted at me. “What areyoudoing here?”
“Just stopped by for a coffee fix, and your mom couldn’t find you.” I pulled out my phone and sent Piper a quick text.
Found Ollie behind the building. He’s okay. Just a few scrapes. I’ll bring him inside
I approached and kneeled beside him. “Rough landing, huh?”
Ollie kept swiping at his face with the back of his wrist. He sniffled and nodded, not meeting my eyes. “I only wanted to skateboard around the building a couple times. I tried a trick and I fell.”
“Was it a cool trick?”
“Huh?” Ollie’s eyes scrunched up like he suspected I was making fun of him.
“I assume it was a cool trick. The ones that make you wipe out usually are.”
“I guess. Yeah, it would’ve been. If I’d made it.”
“Maybe next time. Need help getting up?”
“No.” He squirmed around. “But the back door is locked, and I didn’t wanna go around to the front because my mom would see what happened. Forgot my stupid dumbass phone inside because it’s boring. Doesn’t even have games or the internet.”
I forced myself not to smile at his cursing. “Come on. Time to face the music.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means you need to face your mom even if she might be mad.”
Grumbling, Ollie got to his feet. My fist rapped on the glass just below theSilver Linings Coffeelogo. A familiar face appeared, one of Piper’s employees. Rina, according to her name tag.
