I circled my finger on the smooth table. My mom had lost her parents when she was ten, and my dad’s parents never came around much—especially after he split. “Are Wes and Maizy yours, or—”
“Yes, they’re ours. Maizy is the spitting image of your great-grandma from the childhood pictures I’ve seen, and Wes looked just like Grandpa Knight. Oh, God,” she whispered, covering her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“Mommy?”
Maizy wandered into the room and worry filled her blue eyes. Mom discreetly wiped a tear away from her smooth cheek and smiled. “Mommy has allergies. Do you need something, sweetie pie?”
My sister might be a child, but she knew something was wrong. Mom held out her arm and Maizy walked forward until Mom hugged her tightly and kissed her on the cheek. In fact, she started kissing Maizy all over her face and it switched on her gigglebox.
“Go in the other room, Maze,” I told her. “I’ll be in there in a minute and we can watch the best part together.” I knew which part was coming up because I could hear the song playing and practically had that movie memorized. Maizy skipped out of the room and I rubbed my eyes.
“I need to get a hold of Dad. Do you know where he is?”
She shook her head adamantly. “I have no idea, honey. A friend of mine even tried searching for him on the Internet. He just… disappeared.”
“Then I’m going to find a way to make him reappear, because he has the missing piece to my puzzle.”
Chapter 10
The next day at work, I kept popping jellybeans into my mouth. Normally I stayed away from the candy, but I deserved a few extra pounds after my unforgettable week. Instead of eating my sack lunch, I walked down the street to the deli and ordered a chef salad. While staring at the glazed sugar cookies in the display, a familiar voice called out from behind.
“Alexia Knight, is that you?”
These are the curses of living in the same town you grew up in. Either your old classmates still lived there, or they eventually returned to visit family. I was always running into someone from my past and it felt weird, like you weren’t supposed to know what happened to everyone when they grew up.
I recalled some of the most turbulent times of childhood. I got in a fight at school with a girl who called me Flatass, my brother and Austin took me to prom because no guy had asked me, and a couple of my besties either slept with my boyfriends or ended up going to college and never called me again. While I’d been avoiding class reunions, they didn’t seem to be avoiding me.
I turned around and laid eyes on Josh Holden. He now worked as a manager at a gas station. I’d run into him a few times when I lived with Beckett because the station was on my way home. Usually I just paid at the pump, but a couple of times Beckett wanted me to go in and pick up some lottery tickets.
When I was fifteen, Josh had tried to get me a little more experienced with older boys than I was ready for, but chalk it up to teenage hormones. Up to that point, my version of dating was handholding and a few French kisses. I’d never had a real boyfriend or done anything sexual. Then Josh took me out on a date and couldn’t keep his hands off me.
“Haven’t seen you in a few months,” he said. “Your hair looks different.”
“So does your face. What happened?” It was bruised up and his left cheek was green.
“Uh, got jumped by some psycho,” he said, scratching the side of his nose. Josh was once a buff guy on the football team, but time had worn away all that brawn. Now he stood around five feet ten inches and had a potbelly. His reddish-blond hair was shaved close to his head, and his once golden skin was now mottled and freckled in places.
“Sorry to hear that,” I said. “Robbery at the gas station?”
“Nah. I was driving around and, I don’t know. So how you been? You still seeing that big dude with the pythons?”
By pythons, he meant Beckett’s arms.
“No, we split up.”
“That’s too bad. I just broke up with some chick I met online. Stay away from those dating services.”
“Why’s that?”
He nodded at the man behind the counter. “Ham and cheese to go. And a pickle.” Josh put his hand on the counter and scoped out a blonde who walked inside carrying a small dog under her right arm. “Most of them use pictures they took ten years and two babies ago.”
What a pig. “You don’t have kids?”
“Hell no. At least, none that I know about.”
I impatiently glared at the manager. He was putting the last toppings on the salad and I suddenly wished I had ordered my lunch to go. Please do not let Josh get the bright idea to join me.
“I love kids,” I declared in a bright voice. “Can’t wait to have a bunch of them.”
His brows popped up.
“Miss, here’s your salad.”