He chewed his cheek, typing and deleting his text several times before he hit send.You looked like you were friends. I just wondered.He debated sending a smiling emoji. If he sent one, then he might look like he was trying too hard to be casual. If he didn’t send it, she might think he was being pushy. She responded before he finished his internalargument.
It’s called acting.She added the emoji with his tongue stuckout.
He let his shoulders drop in relief. Somewhere in the precinct, a phone rang. A tall officer in uniform crossed in front of the door, his face buried in afile.
We’re friends now. Good friends. I might spend Christmas withhim.
Shoulders back up. He searched for the devil emoji with fire coming out of its head. He had to scroll through several pages to find the right one. When he finally found it, he pounded the stupid red face with his thumb five times and hitsend.
She replied with five laughing-so-hard-they-criedemojis.
You are not,he inserted a barking laugh emoji. There—he could emoji with the best ofthem.
No, really. His wife invited me for theholidays.
He pushed the air out of his lungs. She was toying with him. He kind of liked it.That’s like—forever away. Do people make Christmas plans when the beaches areopen?
All thetime.
Really?
Yeah, how do you think Hawaiians prepare for St. Nick?Except she didn’t spell out Santa; she used a Santaemoji.
“I didn’t even know they had Santa,” London muttered.What’s up next on the Princess Maia tour?He smirked, knowing the princess comment would irk her. He suspected part of the reason she didn’t like the nickname was her desire to feel normal in her private life. Well, as normal as life could be when she had a group of people attached to her every moment like a—well, like a real-life princess. The only character missing from her traveling circus was a bodyguard. She said she wasn’t important enough to need one, but he begged todiffer.
New York and the Ed SullivanTheater.
His chest caved in with disappointment.Sooooo faraway.
There was a pause that lasted long enough he glanced up from the screen and watched two officers escort a man past the open door. How messed up was his life that he wished the man in handcuffs was hisfather?
There are these things with wings called airplanes,Maia texted.They go all over the world. Even from Dallas to NewYork.
He grinned like a big dope. She’d been away for five days and not once had she come close to saying she missed him. The words on his phone didn’t exactly say she pined for him, but they implied it. He’d take that any day of the week.A date in Times Square sounds perfect. Airplanes? Who knew,right?
Before a reply came through, Officer Bullon came back in the room. “Sorry aboutthat.”
“No problem.” London tucked his phone away. “I can’t tell if that’s him or not.” He pointed to thetelevision.
Officer Bullon spun a pen around his thumb. “It was a long shot, but I wanted to follow the lead.” The pen stilled. “Listen, I think you should stay intown.”
“What?” London scooted forward on the rickety chair. Seriously, couldn’t they afford a chair that didn’t feel like it was going to collapse underneath him at any moment? “Why?”
“The vandalism to your mom’s business happened while you were out of town.” He tapped the pen on the frayed folder in front of him. “And when she reported the man in her bushes, you were in Mexico. And the postal dates on the anonymous, threatening letters all correspond with Titan awaygames.”
“You think he waits until I leave town to go after Mom?” The idea made him sick. His dad was acoward.
Bullon’s heavy jowls jiggled. “He’s manifesting typical behavior of a rejectedstalker.”
“Doesn’t everyone reject theirstalkers?”
“No, the name is based on what triggers the stalking behavior. In this case, it was thedivorce.”
“So, Mom rejected him and he wants to get, what?Revenge?”
“In many cases, I’d say yes. But in this case, I believe the subject of his revenge isyou.”
“Me?”
