Page 5 of Dr. Sexypants

“Go where?” Kristy demanded. “Go home and climb the walls while my best friend is missing and there’s nothing I can do about it?”

I gently touched her elbow, prepared to spring back if she took a swing at me. She was so amped up; I wouldn’t put it past her.

Fortunately, she just looked at me with her head tilted in an unspoken question.

I replied, “How about we go to my place and figure out what we can do to help.”

She nodded and took a step toward the kitchen. “Okay, but you’re driving. I don’t think it’d be a good idea for me to get behind the wheel right now.”

“Good call,” Brian said with a laugh as he opened the front door.

Kristy stopped suddenly, turned, and jabbed her finger into Brian’s Kevlar vest.

“You better call me the second you know anything.”

“You’ll be my first call.”

That seemed to appease her because she stepped back with her shoulders slightly drooped. Then her spine stiffened again and she pointed menacingly at him, but at least not jabbing him this time. “I mean it Brian Michael O’Shaughnessy. The second you know anything.”

He held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

She dropped her hand and nodded. “Okay,” then looked at me and said, “Let’s go.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

My dick should not have jumped at her feistiness, especially at a time like this. But it was her spitfire personality that had intrigued me that day in the bakery over a month ago, and I’m afraid it was out of my control.

Fortunately, she was jogging down the stairs to the alley where my Jeep was parked so hopefully she hadn’t noticed.

****

Kristy

“So, what ideas do you have?” I asked once we were driving down Main Street.

“I don’t know,” he replied sheepishly. “I was kind of hoping you had some.”

“Well, my best friend has never gone missing before, so, I don’t have a clue.”

“Mine neither. Or a date, for that matter—or anyone I know. What does Google suggest?”

I opened my phone and muttered, “I can’t believe I’m searching, ‘What to do when your best friend goes missing’. What kind of alternate universe am I in?”

“One thing’s for sure; the people looking for her, love her.”

“What are you saying?” I snapped. “That I don’t love her because I’m not searching? Where do you suggest I look, and I’ll go there right now!”

He took his hands off the wheel briefly to hold them up in front of him. “Whoa! That’s not at all what I meant! I just meant it’s obvious that Brian and Adam care about her, so they’re not going to give up until they find her.”

Embarrassed at my overreaction, I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I just mumbled, “Oh, I see what you’re saying. Sorry—I didn’t mean to snap at you; I’m just kind of freaking out right now.”

“Of course you are. It’s totally understandable.”

He pulled into my neighborhood, and I glanced over at him. “I thought we were going to your place?” Then a thought occurred to me, and I accused, “How do you know where I live?”

His brows drew together. “We are going to my place. I have no idea where you live.”

It took a second for me to process what he was saying, before I finally asked, “You live in Orchard Hill, too?”