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I was taken aback by his words, physically rearing back. “Wait, what?”

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out,” Oliver mused as he dialed a new number and held it to his ear while it rang. “You’re happy being River’s dad and with our family. But I do think there’s more going on than you’re willing to admit. Maybe even to yourself.”

I shot Oliver a glare, but only because I couldn’t help but wonder if he was right. Was River picking up on my feelings of being a failure? I looked back at him again. He was lying on his stomach in the middle of the floor, his little feet swinging back and forth, his tongue out while he concentrated.

When I turned back to Oliver, I saw the apprehension in his gaze as he hung up the phone after being sent to voicemail. “What are you doing?”

“Tracking down the boss,” he explained. “Goldie hasn’t come in yet today, and Jackie already dropped by her house and didn’t see her or her car there.”

I had noticed she wasn’t in when I got here, but I took it as luck because it meant she didn’t know I was late. She had been avoiding me lately, too; I wouldn’t have been shocked if that was the case today.

“Is she at Fai’s?” I asked.

Oliver shook his head. “He was the first person I called. He’s making his own set of phone calls now.”

If she wasn’t at Fai’s—her father figure—and not at Oliver’s or Jackie’s… well, that didn’t leave much else. Damn, I hadn’t meant to drive her so far away.

“What did you do?” Oliver asked, his gaze now directly trained on me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered.

Oliver slammed down his phone with more force than necessary. “Lex, do you know why she’s not here?”

I groaned. “I’m not positive, but I may have something to do with it.”

“Man, what did you do?” he said with a sigh, clearly exasperated.

“I, well, I just kind of kissed her a little, again, and she’s been avoiding me ever since. That could be why she’s not here today… and why she hasn’t been around a lot for the last couple of weeks,” I finally explained.

Oliver’s gaze turned into a glare, and then the dick threw his pencil at me. I managed to swat it away. “What the hell? You seriously kissed her, again? When?”

“You know when you told me about the first time I kissed her?”

“And forgot about it?” he challenged. “Yes.” He closed his eyes when he put it together. “You mean that night when I watched your son so you could go and apologize for kissing her the first time, you kissed her again?”

“I have never once claimed to make the best decisions,” I defended.

“Lexington, I’m going to fucking kill you,” he groaned, but was cut off by the phone ringing.

He sighed and picked it up. “Fibonacci Files, Oliver speaking. How can I help you?” He glanced at me, his angry gaze turning confused. “He’s right here.” Oliver switched the phone to speaker and set it in the center of the desk.

“Lexington?” I recognized Detective Ransom’s voice.

“It’s me. What can I do for you?” I asked.

There was a pause. “Do you know where Goldie is, by chance?”

Oliver’s brows raised, and my hackles rose. “Actually, we don’t. We’ve been trying to track her down all morning,” Oliver interjected.

“Shit,” Detective Ransom muttered over the receiver. “I had hoped it was fucking over.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, leaning closer to the desk.

“You need to come down here,” he explained. “She was here last Friday. I watched her get into her car to leave… but I should have kept an eye on her until she was gone. Made sure she got on the road, called when she was supposed to get home,” he rambled. “I’ve already talked to everyone else who was here, and no one saw her actually leave the building. It was raining too hard anyway; the visibility was shit.”

“Detective Ransom,” I interrupted, “what’s going on?”

It was silent again for just a moment, and then he took a breath. “Her vehicle was found in the high school parking lot this morning. The door was open, and there was some blood found on the steering wheel. But no Goldie in sight.”