“I didn’t try to set them up,” Regina insisted. “Not really. I mean, I knew Eve wouldn’t go for Dylan, not when she only has eyes for you. I was just hoping it would spur you into action.”
Lawson had already been spurred by kissing Eve, and his mom and Dylan had interrupted what might have turned into sex against the family room wall. Best not to mention that to his mom, either.
“I said all that about it not being wise,” she went on, “because you like to disagree with me.”
He nearly said I do not, which would have only proved her point. “Reverse psychology,” he muttered. He wasn’t a fan of it, but it had indeed gotten him to consider if he should try to make another go of it with Eve.
Or at least have sex with her.
But then Eve’s secret had come to light and blown that idea to smithereens. He still wanted to have sex with her, but at this point, it would be angry sex.
Darby motioned to him again, so Lawson brushed another kiss on his mom’s cheek. “Get some rest. And get better.”
Regina caught onto his hand as he was leaving. “Will you bring Tessie to see me?” she whispered. “Please.”
Until she added that please, Lawson had been about to say that it might not be possible. But somehow, he would make it happen.
“You’re my favorite child, you know that?” his mom added in a weak whisper.
He looked at her with what he was sure was plenty of skepticism. “You’re going to tell all the others that, too, aren’t you?”
She smiled. And while the smile was just as weak as she looked, it was probably about the best send-off he was going to get, considering the condition she was in.
“Are you okay?” Darby asked when he came out of the room. She walked back with him toward the waiting room, probably so she could escort another one of his siblings in for a visit.
Lawson wasn’t sure if he was fine or not, but he did think it was civil of Darby to ask. “How about you? Are you all right?” No need for him to clarify what he meant. The last time they’d spoken was the day of the raincoat incident. When he’d turned her down flat, Darby had probably been hurt and humiliated.
“I’ll live.” There wasn’t any sarcasm in her voice. “Why does Regina want to see Eve’s daughter?”
He groaned. He definitely hadn’t known that Darby had heard that. “She just wants to meet her.”
If there was an award for half-assed reasons, Lawson would have just won it. Until he said that, there hadn’t been any real suspicion in Darby’s eyes, but it was sure as hellfire there now. Obviously though, Darby hadn’t seen Tessie. If she had, she would have used the invisible gene-pool goggles that everybody but Lawson seemed to have to determine that Tessie was a Granger.
With the suspicion still there, Darby traded off escort duties, taking Lily Rose toward the ICU. Lawson made a beeline to Dylan so he could find out if he knew anything about their mom’s cancer.
However, Lawson didn’t even get to ask the question because his phone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the number on the screen, but when he realized it was an Austin area code, he answered it fast. Good thing, too, because while he hadn’t known the number, he recognized the voice.
“Mr. Granger, this is Dr. Patel,” the caller said. “I just contacted Ms. Cooper, but I thought you should know, too.”
And with just that handful of words, his stomach went to the floor. “Is something wrong with Tessie?”
It didn’t help when the doctor didn’t jump right in to answer. “Maybe. I thought you should know that Tessie just checked herself out of rehab. I strongly advised her against it, but she left anyway. She said I was to tell you and her mother that she was okay, that she just needed some time to be alone. That might be, Mr. Granger, but I think you and Ms. Cooper need to find her right away.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EVE HELD HER BREATH, knocked on Tessie’s door at the sorority house and prayed that this time there’d be an answer.
There wasn’t.
So, Eve went through the routine she’d been following for the past two days since Tessie had checked herself out of rehab and had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth except for a text message to repeat what she’d told Dr. Patel—that she was okay and needed some space. Well, two days was enough space, as far as Eve was concerned, and she needed to see Tessie.
She knocked again. And again. And again. She kept knocking until someone from the room next door yelled out, “Shut up!”
The shouted shut up, which was often accompanied by profanity, was part of the routine now, too, since someone usually started yelling at her when the knocking went on for more than five minutes. On the first day, someone had called the cops. After Eve had explained to the officers why she was there, they’d managed to get a key so they could get inside to have a look around.
No Tessie.
Many of her things were still there, but her laptop and her phone were gone—things that she could have already had with her when she’d gone to rehab. Tessie’s roommate had shown up around the same time that the cops were there, but she was clueless as to where Tessie was. However, she had assured Eve she would call her if Tessie returned.
There’d been no call either from Tessie or the roommate, so Eve had continued to go to the room with the hopes of running into either Tessie or someone who had answers. She’d also left sticky notes outside the door with messages for Tessie to call her ASAP.
Eve added another sticky-note message now, bringing the total to eleven.
Seeing each one of them caused the fear to wash over her again. Her daughter was officially a runaway since she’d had to file a missing person’s report. Eve wasn’t about to sink into a deep enough pit of despair to start looking in ditches and running up and down the street calling out for her. But she had hired two PIs to try to track Tessie down.
Well, actually she’d hired one, and Lawson had hired one, as well. They hadn’t known about the double hiring until they’d been a couple of hours into the search.
She’d also contacted the Austin cops so they could do an Amber Alert. That would mean dealing with the fallout from the publicity, but at this point that seemed minor.
Eve pressed down the sticky note again to make sure it didn’t give way and flutter to the floor, where it might get swept away, and she went back down the stairs. Slowly. Just in case this could be the exact time that Tessie might come running in. And someone came in all right. But it wasn’t Tessie.
It was Lawson.
Their gazes connected, and Eve nearly missed the step that could have sent her sprawling. She righted herself by grabbing on to the railing.
“Anything?” he said. Over the past two days, he’d asked her that a lot. She shook her head.
“I just found out that Tessie texted Clay.” He took out his phone to show her a copy of the message.
“‘I’m okay,’” Eve read. “‘Call off the search. I don’t want to be found because I don’t want to see my mother.’”
That gave Eve both some relief and crushed her heart. “I don’t want the search called off,” she insisted.
“It won’t be. In fact, I hired another PI.”