Chapter 46
Bennett
I pulled up in front of Lucas and Fanny’s house a few minutes early and checked my phone for the tenth time since last night.
Still nothing.
I’d texted Annalise to see how her presentation went and never heard back. Even if she’d gotten home early and went to bed, she’d definitely be up by now. Most days she was in the office by seven.
I’d had a fucked-up, anxious feeling all night after I didn’t hear back. But that was probably more due to the shit going on with Lucas and having to say goodbye for three weeks after what went down last weekend.
I shoved my phone back into my pocket, looked up at Fanny and Lucas’s house, and took a deep breath before getting out of the car.
Fanny opened the door with her usual sunny disposition.
“He could use some spending money for his vacation.”
I shook my head. Yeah? So give him some. “Fine. Is he ready?”
She slammed the door in my face, and I heard her shriek, “Lucas! Get your butt moving!”
My heart started beating erratically when I heard his big feet clomping down the stairs. I had no idea what I’d do if this kid didn’t come around. The palms of my hands started to sweat.
The door swung open, and Lucas stepped out, putting on his backpack.
I treaded lightly, keeping my hands in my pockets. “Hey.”
He lifted his chin to me. “Hey.”
It’s a start.
“You ready?”
He nodded, and we got into my car. I turned on the ignition and tried to make small talk. “You excited for your trip to Minnetonka?”
Lucas wrinkled his face like he’d smelled something sour. “Would you be?”
He had a point. “Go in the glove compartment. Take out the tan envelope. I printed you out some information on local lakes last night. There’re a few within walking distance of where you’re going that sound like they have good fishing. There’s some cash in there, too, so you can get bait and lures and stuff.”
He took the envelope and stuffed it into his backpack. “Thanks.”
We made some more small talk on the short drive to his school, but it was stilted conversation and basically consisted of me talking and him saying yeah, no, or thanks.
It could have been a lot worse, I supposed.
When we reached the front of his school, we were still a few minutes early, so I pulled to the curb and put the car in park.
“Listen, buddy…” I cleared my throat. “…about what I told you last week.”
He looked down, but didn’t make an attempt to get out of the car at least.
So I continued. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry the accident happened. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you until now. But that was never why I spent time with you.” I dragged my fingers through my hair. “I’m not going anywhere. Take some time if you need it. Be mad at me for the accident. Be mad at me for taking too long to talk to you. Hell, I’m mad at myself for everything. But I’ll be here every other week after you get back just like I’ve always been because I love you—and while I feel guilty about a lot of things, that guilt has nothing to do with the time we spend together.”
Lucas glanced over at me, and our eyes met for a brief second. Then he reached down and lifted his backpack. He opened the car door and started to climb out, but paused to grumble, “Same.”
I waited until he walked into school to pull away. I’d been dreading telling him for so many years, but we were going to get through it. It would be slow going to win back his trust, but we were going to do it together.
And it was the first time I believed maybe, just maybe, I might get through it, too.
***
Where the fuck is she?
I walked straight to Annalise’s office to tell her about Lucas, but her door was closed. Her light was off, too. I dialed her number again on my way to ask Marina if she’d heard from her today.
She hadn’t, and my call went to voicemail again.
By eleven o’clock, I was worried. It was one thing for her to blow me off, but to not show up or call the office? Something wasn’t right. I went by Jonas’s office, but he was in a meeting, so I asked his assistant to have him give me a call as soon as he got out. I must’ve hit redial fifty more times between then and when Jonas finally got out of the conference room.
He walked into my office without knocking and tossed an envelope on my desk. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” He was pissed.
“What are you talking about?”
“I confided in you that the board was going to keep you here. And you just couldn’t wait to rub it in Annalise’s face, could you?”
I held up both my hands. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t tell Annalise anything.”
“Then what is that letter about?” His eyes pointed down to the envelope.
I opened it and read.
Dear Jonas,
Please accept this as my letter of resignation and two weeks’ notice that I will be leaving the position of Creative Director for Foster, Burnett and Wren. While I have enjoyed my time working for you and appreciate the opportunity you afforded me, I have decided to remain in the San Francisco area and pursue other opportunities.
Thank you.
Annalise O’Neil
I held the paper out to him. “What the hell is this?”
“Seems to me like a resignation.”
“When did she give this to you? Why would she resign?”
Jonas put his hands on his hips. “I assume she resigned because she wants to remain in the San Francisco area—like she wrote in her letter. But no one except the two of us knew she was the one who’d be relocated. She had to have found out that information somehow.”
“Well, it wasn’t from me. She gave this to you this morning?”
“I found it in her drawer when I went in to look for the files I needed to cover the meeting she didn’t show up for today.”
Something wasn’t right. Annalise wouldn’t just quit. Even if she were pissed, she wouldn’t not show up for a scheduled client meeting. She took pride in the way she handled herself, always fair and professional. And why wouldn’t she talk to me about something like this?
I re-read the letter one more time and then dropped it on my desk and grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair. “I gotta go.”
I was at the door to my office before Jonas could object. “Where are you going?” he yelled after me.
“To figure out what the hell is going on.”
***
“Annalise?” I banged on her door again, even though I was pretty sure she wasn’t home. I’d rung every bell until someone buzzed me in the front door and then bolted to her apartment before I got kicked out. Her car wasn’t parked on the block, and no sound came from inside. Yet I banged louder.
Eventually, the neighbor across the hall opened his door. He cradled a cat in his arms the way most people would cradle a baby. “I don’t think she came home last night.”
“Oh?”
He scratched at the cat’s belly, and the thing purred loudly. “She was supposed to feed Frick and Frack for me last night. I left the cans on the table, but they’re still there.” He looked down at the cat and spoke to it, rather than me. “Mr. Frick here has forgiven me, but Mr. Frack won’t even come out of his room. I’m lucky my flight this morning wasn’t delayed or my babies would have starved.”
Starved? I shook my head. Whatever. “When was the last time you spoke to her?”
“Yesterday morning when I gave her my key.”
I turned and started back toward the stairs without saying another word. The cat freak yelled after me.
“When you see her, tell her she owes Frick and Frack an apology.”
Yeah. That’ll be the first thing we discuss.
I sat in my car outside of her apartment building double-parked, trying to figure out what the hell had happened. She hadn’t come home last night and had quit without ever even discussing it with me?
Actually, she had mentioned work the other night. Well, sort of. She’d asked if I thought we’d be together next year if one of us weren’t forced to relocate to Texas. And I’d said no. I knew I’d hurt her, but was she so upset with me that she’d up and quit without even letting me know?
I hadn’t thought so.
Although…
She had been quiet the other night. I’d even asked her a few times if everything was okay. She’d said she was just nervous about her Pet Supplies presentation. My gut thought something more was bothering her. Now that I thought about it, she’d been quiet ever since that call from her mother. I hadn’t pushed.
Was it a coincidence that she’d had dinner with her ex’s sister last night? Maybe it reminded her that all men were assholes.
Even so, she would have at least come home last night.
Unless…
I shook my head. No, she wouldn’t go there. She sees what a douche that guy is now.
Doesn’t she?
But where the fuck did she sleep last night?
I started my car and dug my phone out of my pocket. No missed calls. No missed texts. Frustrated, I hit redial again before heading back to the office. Maybe she’d shown up at work while I was gone. We’d probably passed each other on the highway. She’d crashed at Lauren and Trent’s house last night and her cell phone had died. It had been raining pretty hard, and she didn’t like to drive to begin with. It made sense.
Yeah, that’s what happened.
Deciding that had to be it, I tossed my phone on the passenger seat and put my car in drive, forgetting I’d already hit re-dial. Which was why I was confused when a man’s voice came through the speakers of my car.
“Hello?”
I furrowed my brow, waiting for the rest of the commercial on the radio.
“Hello?” the voice said again.
The illuminated cell phone on the seat next to me caught my attention. Shit. My cell had connected through my Bluetooth and was coming through my car. But who the hell did I accidentally call?
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Andrew. Who is this?”
I froze. What the fuck? Lifting the cell phone to look at it, I confirmed Annalise’s name on the screen, and the call timer underneath was ticking away the seconds.
“Where’s Annalise?”
“She’s in bed. Sleeping. Can I help you with something?”
The blood in my veins started to boil. “Yeah. Put Annalise on the goddamn phone!”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Put Annalise on the phone.”
Click.
“Hello?”
Silence.
I screamed louder. “Hello?”
The asshole had hung up on me.
Fuck.
Fuck.
“Fuuuuuck.”
I hit redial. The phone didn’t even ring this time, just went right to voicemail. So I hit redial again.
Then again.
Then again.
I called over and over. But it kept going straight to voicemail. The fucker was either hitting reject call, or he’d turned her phone off. Either way, he was keeping me from talking to Annalise.