Page 60

“Well, if they get what they are asking, your home value will go up, so that’s a good thing.”

“So will my taxes,” she gripes, and I sigh.

“Sorry,” a woman calls out, and I turn to the young couple that came in earlier. “Do you mind answering a few questions for us when you’re done?”

“Of course.” I turn to Ashley. “Do you need anything else from me.”

“No.”

“All right, well, it was good seeing you.” She doesn’t reply before I walk away, but I do hear the door close a second later. Thank goodness.

With Ashley gone, I talk to the couple, who are curious if I have any other properties on the market. I give them my card, since they don’t have a Realtor, then get their email and promise to send them a few listings later this afternoon that fit what they are looking for. Twenty minutes later Kolter comes to me and tells me that he wants to bring Anna by to see the house when she gets off work at four o’clock, so I put it in my calendar that I will be giving them a private showing at four thirty. After my brothers leave, a few more people come by and look, and one Realtor with his clients tells me that he thinks they are going to be sending over an offer, something I inform Kolter of over text in case he really does love the house. An hour later I clean up all my stuff but leave the flowers, lock up the house, and send a text to Jessica and Liam letting them know that the open house was a success and hopefully we will have some good news coming in this evening.

After pulling into the parking lot for the grocery store on my way home, I put my car in park, then google easy but delicious dinner recipes. One of the first things to pop up is something called marry-me chicken. The recipe looks a little complicated, but it sounds good, so I copy and paste the shopping list and head into the store with a cart I find in the middle of the lot. As soon as I walk through the sliding glass doors, I’m greeted with a smile and friendly hello from the girl working behind the front desk where you can turn in your lotto tickets or buy new ones. My eyes catch on her name badge, or more accurately, her name: Whit. She’s the woman Tucker is dating, the one JR called fat.

Seriously, JR is an idiot. She is not fat, not that it would matter if she were. She’s just not stick thin—she has the body of a woman, with breasts and hips. She is also really pretty, with thick, curly red hair, almond-shaped eyes, a cute little nose, and full lips. Seeing her, I wonder if Tucker forgave JR for what he said the night he was kicked out of the bar. I hope not, but those guys have been friends forever, so it’s really unlikely that Tucker ended their friendship.

I move into the bakery section and grab a double-chocolate cake so that if dinner sucks I can make up for it with dessert, then pick up the fresh vegetables I need before grabbing the rest of the stuff on the list, along with some breakfast items so that I can save myself a few dollars and avoid the coffee shop in the mornings and have something other than the protein shake that Wyatt makes me now. When I get to the checkout line, I pay and start to head out of the store but notice a “Missing” poster pinned to a corkboard at the exit that catches my attention. The grainy black-and-white image looks a little like the girl I saw over by my house with a backpack not long ago. Stopping, I read the description with my chest feeling strange. It says the girl’s name is Romey Tyson and has the date that she went missing. There is also a phone number to call if you have any information.

I take out my phone, snap a picture of the poster, and send it to Wyatt with a text that says I think I’ve seen her.

Not even twenty seconds later, my cell starts to ring.

“You saw Romey?”

“I don’t know for sure that it was her, but the morning that I went for a jog and hurt my ankle, I’m pretty sure I saw her coming from the house next door to mine.”

“How sure are you?”

“I don’t know.” I look at the poster and rub my lips together. “Eighty percent.”

“And you said she was coming from the house next to you?”

“I . . .” I close my eyes and try to remember our encounter. “I’m not one hundred percent sure. I think . . . I think she was coming from between our houses, but—”

“It’s okay,” he says gently, cutting me off. “I’m going to text you a couple more photos. Maybe one of them will help since they are in color.”

“Okay.” I push my cart out to my car, and as I’m opening the trunk, I hear a text come through.

“Did you get them?”

“Yeah.” I click on the three images he sent, and the moment the first color picture opens, I know it was her that I saw. “It’s her.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, it’s her.” I study the image of a pretty girl with long blond hair I didn’t see because she’d had a hoodie on covering her hair. “Is she a runaway?”

“Now that you said you’ve seen her, I think so,” he says, and my chest gets tight because I know the other option is that she could have been dead somewhere. “Did she say anything when you saw her?”

“No, I introduced myself because I thought she lived next door. She had a backpack and didn’t tell me her name. I remember thinking it was weird. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to ask her foster parents for something of hers and see if Storm can’t track her scent near your house.” The line goes quiet for a moment before he asks, “Where are you?”

“I’m just leaving the grocery store.” I slam the trunk of my car. “I’m going to drop off the stuff I picked up for dinner at my place; then I’m supposed to meet Anna and Kolter for a showing, unless you want me to go with you and Storm?”

“No, baby, you just go about your day, and I’ll see you for dinner.”

“Are you sure?”