After a brief click, the muzak started up and Nicole waited, chewing on her lower lip and circling her kitchen, sometimes walking heel to toe, sometimes on her tiptoes. She was thrumming with energy, nervous, trying to allow herself some hope even though she knew this was a long shot at best.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Jeb picked up the line. “Nicole, what’s happened? Is my brother okay?”
Instantly, she felt horrible for saying it was an emergency and frightening him.
“I think so,” she said. “I don’t know for sure.”
“Tell me what’s happened.”
“Well, you know that he got fired from his company and then he sort of disappeared on everyone.”
Jeb sighed heavily into the phone. “I know. I haven’t heard from him either.”
Nicole’s heart sank. “The thing is, I really need to talk to him. It’s something very, very important that he’d want to know about. But I can’t find a way to reach him.”
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?”
“The same morning you left. He sent me away and that was it.” She tried to hold back her tears but they were about to break through. Especially now that it looked just as hopeless as ever for her to get in touch with him.
“Well, he certainly hasn’t been in contact with me. As you saw, we didn’t leave things on the best of terms.”
“I know. I’m sorry about that, Jeb.”
“Is there something I can help with, Nicole? Are you okay?”
She let out a shake exhalation. She so badly wanted to share her news with someone, and Jeb was a doctor, he’d understand. But she couldn’t tell Jeb before his brother even knew. “I’m okay. But I do need to find him. Is there anywhere he might be, anything you can think of—someone I can call?”
“Nobody I know personally. Red has always played it close to the vest. There’s no one I can think of to call that would know where Red is. You’d have been the one that came to mind, but clearly he’s treated you badly as well.”
“I just…I wonder if there’s a place that he might retreat to. Maybe somewhere away from the media,” she said. “Some people say he’s on a tropical island with a new face, drinking and fishing and living like a beach bum.” Nicole tried to laugh.
“You know, there is a place, come to think of it.”
Nicole’s face lit up. “There is?”
“I have no idea if he still even owns it, so take this for what it’s worth.”
“Anything, anything!” She cried, grabbing a pen and piece of paper. “Tell me.”
“A few years back, he took me for a weekend getaway to this tiny little ramshackle cabin out in the middle of nowhere.”
She felt the shorthairs on the back of her neck stand up as he said it—knew that this must be the place. “Where exactly was it?”
“Somewhere in Vermont. Let me think…” he hummed. “I think the town was Bristol. Bristol, Vermont.”
“If you were me, how would you find the cabin again?” she asked him. “Do you know what road its on?”
“God, it was so long ago.” He thought for a while. “It was way off the beaten track, but I do remember that there was a beautiful lake close by, and a little farm that had apple picking and that sort of thing. It was called Beaumont Farms, I believe.”
Nicole wrote everything down as fast as she could. “There can’t be too many cabins in that area, right?”
“Right.” He didn’t sound as excited as her. “Nicole, please don’t take this the wrong way.”
“I won’t,” she said, anxious now.
“Just be careful with your expectations. Like I said, I don’t even know if Red still owns that cabin. And even if he does, that’s just one place he happened to bring me years ago. He’s a very wealthy man who could just as easily have flown to Australia and be doing a walkabout right now.”
She nodded. “I know, I know.”
“If you’re lucky enough to find him, the chances are low that he’ll greet you with the kind of reception you’re hoping for. I know my brother, and if he’s trying to get away from all his pressures and disappointments—then I imagine you might be the very last person he wants to see right now.”
Nicole nodded but couldn’t bring herself to respond to his comments. They hurt. She was scared, pregnant and alone. And now one of the people who knew Red best was telling her that this was a fool’s errand.
“If you need to call me for anything,” Jeb said, “just let me know.” And then he gave her his personal cell number, once again asking her to call him for anything, at any time.
Grateful for his kindness, Nicole thanked him profusely before they got off the phone.
Once she’d hung up, Nicole studied the piece of paper with her chicken scratches on it. It looked like pure desperation; nothing on that paper would lead her to Red.
Vermont. Beaumont Farms. Cabin near a lake.
This was all she had, her only hopes of finding the man she loved, the man who’d left her, a rich man who had the ability to fly anywhere in the world on a whim. What were the chances he’d gone to this one place—this silly shack stuck out in the middle of nowhere?
Nicole decided she was going to find out.