Emmaline hurried to the door and pulled back the curtain.
“Ethan?” She yanked open the door.
He looked confused. And wet. The rain really came down now.
“Come inside.” She reached for him and shooed him inside the door. He’d changed clothes, now in jogger pants and a T-shirt, both soaked beyond belief.
“Where’s Annie?” Em asked, glancing behind him.
No one waited there.
He held a sopping note in his hand out to Emmaline. “I don’t know.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
ETHAN
Annie was seton getting herself a mum. Ethan was ready to tear his hair out.
Her note was brief and said basically that she’d run away. If she actually hadn’t left, that note would’ve been a ripper to show her when she was older.
As it was? Not cute at all. She’d taken things too far.
In the last few days, he’d sort of started to question if the girls were pushing him and Em together. But it was all innocent, so he hadn’t minded. Ignored it, even.
“Fiona’s not in her room.” Em rushed down the stairs. “She’s gone, too.”
Ethan’s headache pounded and his chest felt like someone had dropped a boulder on it.
Fiona’s note was the same as Annie’s: they’d decided to run off and be sisters together.
“We can’t just wait them out,” Ethan said, fussing with the note. “Hoping they’ll be back.” They’d get hungry and tired and eventually come home, sure. But they couldn’t wait for it to happen.
He gulped. It was a big world out there and two little girls could be genuinely hurt before they made their way back where they were loved.
“Ethan,” Em said, shaking her head. “I think we need to look for them. I don’t think Fiona’s bluffing.”
The urgency of Em’s worry broke him out of his own head.
They called for help. While Ethan and Em figured out what the girls were wearing, and all the things a parent never wanted to have to think about, Barbie had reached out to all of Em’s firefighter brothers. Then her dad. Even her odd Uncle Jerry, who also worked on the force. Then Lauren and Cress. Jack and April. Everyone.
Because there was absolutely no evidence the girls had been taken, this was definitely a relief. Though there had been some hard questions about it from Em’s dad, given Ethan’s celebrity status. Everyone in the neighborhood combed through Ethan’s backyard and home. Em’s too.
With Ethan’s help, and James’s talent for strategizing, they created a neighborhood grid to comb through. As they were all heading out to search, Ethan was not about to be left behind. But it was pointed out that he needed to stay put for when they came back. Also, he couldn’t leave Em. Not like this.
He stayed behind.
“I never believed I was a witch. Not since I was five and James convinced me I was part paranormal,” Em said, crossing her arms around herself. “But I’m melting a little more every moment that goes by.”
“They’re gonna be fine.” Ethan said this to himself, also to Em.
She still wore her flimsy dress from the wedding.
“Kids do this all the time. They’re just confused,” Em agreed.
Ethan had a headache brewing at full force. “It’s my fault. The whole charade was my idea. This is my fault.”
Em shook her head. “No, I agreed. I kissed your cheek. I played along. I get the blame.”
