“Yeah, sure.”
“Would you be mad if she kissed someone else?”
“Of course.”
“Sounds like dating to me.” Owen looked at Cooper. “What am I missing?”
“He’s just not feeling her, right, Zach?”
“I like her, sure,” Zach said. “But am I real serious about her? After talking with you this afternoon, Dad, I realized I wasn’t.” He put the paper down. “I thought about how I’d feel if we went to UCLA and she broke up with me to date someone else. And I didn’t care all that much.” He shrugged again. “But I like her. I’m not using her or anything. We’ll stay friends when she goes off to California.” He tapped and typed and swiped on his phone. A few minutes later he said, “Done,” and met Owen’s eyes.
“I’m proud of you,” Owen said. “But I still don’t want any girls in your room with the door closed.”
“No girls in boy’s rooms,” Zach said with a smile and Owen pulled him into a hug.
Owen woke the next morning, his first thought that he hadn’t heard from Gina overnight. He’d expected her to call by now, like she’d said she would.
“Surely she’s there.” Owen didn’t have the flight schedules memorized, but he knew Texas was five hours ahead of them, which meant it was almost eleven o’clock there.
He dialed her number, his heartbeat increasing with every ring. She finally said, “Owen, I have about two minutes.”
“Did you make it to Texas?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
He didn’t know what else to say. You said you’d call sounded juvenile and accusatory.
“Okay,” he said. “I just wanted to check and make sure.”
“Okay,” she said.
“So call me when you have more than two minutes.”
“Will do.” The call ended, and Owen wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think he’d ever had a thirteen-second conversation before. Maybe with Zach, that one time when he’d found out his son had been hiding a parakeet in his room.
“Get rid of it,” Owen had said. “Now.”
That was the end of that. Probably five seconds to do that conversation. Zach hadn’t been quite the free-thinker he was now.
Owen sighed as he got out of bed, still tired from yesterday. He wanted to take the day off, but three tour groups were arriving today, and they had to rope off a staging area for their luggage and create a special line just for them to check in.
He was busy, busy, busy, and when he thought about taking a break and heading up to the ninth floor where Gina had been working in the closet, he had to remind himself that she wasn’t there.
She didn’t call either. Not before dinnertime, and not before Owen made it home and found Cooper had made Belgian waffles and sausage.
“Thanks, bud,” he said as he smeared whipped cream on his waffle. “These look way better than last time.”
“Yeah, I didn’t heat the milk too much, so it didn’t kill the yeast.”
He gave everything he had to his job and his sons, and as he collapsed in an armchair and stared at whatever Coop had put on the TV, he wondered if he even had room for Gina in his life.
She took up so much of his mental time and energy, and with it being one o’clock in the morning there now, he couldn’t call her and ask her how things were going with her business.
As always, Owen had a lot of questions for her, but the biggest one was: Why hadn’t she called?
Chapter Seventeen
Gina’s phone had ten percent battery life by ten a.m. and she still had tons of business to do with it. She’d arrived in Dallas the previous morning, but all she’d been able to do was confirm that Toni had indeed not been at the office, or the supply warehouse, or her house since Monday.
Then the jet lag had caught up to Gina, and the migraine that started behind her eyes couldn’t be ignored. Her house in suburban Dallas felt like a tomb, but she managed to remember where the ibuprofen was located and took enough to knock the headache out. Well, that and a whole lot of sleep.
She’d woken at five o’clock and had been on her phone ever since, texting Toni’s friends, getting information about her, the last man she dated, anything she could think of.
No one had seen Toni since Monday night.
Gina’s stomach growled, and she got up to take care of herself. She couldn’t afford to be back in bed this afternoon. So she got ready, went into the city to grab breakfast, and then she went to the office.
She’d asked Sammy to pull all their current clients. Anyone with an open job. Anyone on the schedule. Anyone they’d done business with in the past four years.
Gina had spoken with the accountant and asked for a monthly report from the last forty-eight months, and he’d promised he could have them for her by noon today. She arrived at Classy Closets, the entrance and lobby welcoming and comfortable.
She drew in a deep breath. She’d missed this place, missed Dallas, even if she didn’t have the same friends here as she had in Hawaii. And the funny thing was, she’d only been in Getaway Bay for six months. She’d lived in Dallas for twelve years.
And of course, there was Owen to consider. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, but she couldn’t stop to talk to him either. She had to know if Toni had taken anything with her. She had to know where Toni was.
Her desperation had topped the charts before she’d even boarded the plane in Hawaii. So while she felt at home in this lobby, it didn’t matter if someone had taken what she’d worked so hard to build.
How can this be happening again? she thought, tears springing to her eyes. What did she need to do differently?
Be here. Be present. Do everything. Trust no one.
But that was impossible. She couldn’t do every job. Manage every account. She’d outgrown what she could handle as a single employee within two years of starting Classy Closets. So how did she find the right people to trust? She obviously had no idea how to judge character, and it was no wonder she didn’t have any friends in Texas.
Pushing her thoughts away so she could focus on the task at hand, she straightened her shoulders and went through the door on the right. Her office had been mostly untouched since she left. The cleaners had obviously been in regularly, but nothing much had changed besides that.
At least that she could see. After Ian had taken so much and left, Gina had hired a data security specialist to help ensure that nothing like what he’d done could happen again. He’d been in Atlanta when she’d called him yesterday, but they had a meeting for later that night.
Just another reason Gina took another bite of her blueberry muffin and a sip of her coffee. She had to be prepared to work all day and into the night.
Troy knocked and lingered in the doorway. “Are you ready for me?” He carried a single file folder that held quite a lot of paper.
“Yes, come in.” Gina settled behind her desk and prepared herself though her pulse refused to be quieted. “Lay it on me, Troy.”
He took a piece of paper out of the folder and placed it on the desk before sitting across from her. “Good news, ma’am. The accounts are balanced. You’re not missing a single dime.” He nodded to the paper. “That’s the summary. Of course, you can go through it month by month, and that’s what these are.” He set the folder on the edge of the desk.
Gina picked up the paper and studied it, but she’d gone into interior design and professional organization, not accounting or math. She did like it when numbers matched up, and she could tell that from the sheet that they did.
“Thank you, Troy.” She looked up at him. “How long have you been here at Classy Closets?”
“Five years, ma’am.” His eyes held knowledge, and while Gina had known he’d been here when the Ian fiasco had happened, she wasn’t sure how much longer before that.
“So you don’t think Toni’s taken any money from us?”
“No, ma’am.” Troy cocked his head and studied her.
“What is it?” Gina asked.
&nb
sp; “Have we called the police?”
“It’s on my to-do list today,” Gina said. “And the hospitals.” She didn’t want Toni to be in trouble or injured, but at the moment, it was the only explanation that wouldn’t crush her. “I just…she’d just been promoted. I don’t understand.” The fear and desperation crept into her voice, and she hated that she’d let her emotions show, especially in front of her accountant.
Someone knocked on her door again, and she switched her attention to the woman there. A petite blonde, Sammy wore really high heels and way too much makeup. But she seemed to know the Classy Closets systems like the back of her hand, despite only starting a couple of months ago.
“Sorry to interrupt, ma’am.” She clicked her way forward. “I’ve compiled names and phone numbers of everyone you requested here.” She laid what looked like a packet of papers on the desk. “Full client details can be accessed from here.” She placed a thumb drive on the packet. “If you need more than that.”
Gina didn’t dare touch it. Was she really going to call every client and ask them about Toni? “Thank you, Sammy.” Her voice sounded two octaves too low. And she didn’t like the sympathetic looks on their faces, but she did appreciate them.
She felt like she was spinning wildly out of control. Her chest tightened, and she couldn’t get a decent breath. “I’m—” She couldn’t speak. Tears came to her eyes, and she couldn’t call them back.
I’m lost, she thought. Nothing Doctor White had helped her with could help her now, as she didn’t have any control of her thoughts. And Gina hated being out of control.
“Troy, could you go get Miss Jackson some water?”
The man nearly ran from the room, and Sammy followed him, closing the door after he’d left and locking it. Gina wanted her to leave too, but instead, Sammy came around the desk and enveloped her in a tight hug.
“We’ll find her,” she said. “She must’ve been very important to you.”
Gina wanted to correct her, tell her that while yes, she was worried about Toni, she was really wondering how she could expand her business, get back to Hawaii and Owen, and learn to trust someone with what she couldn’t do. She was really crying because she couldn’t control this situation, or another person, or pretty much anything.
But she needed an anchor right now, and none of her friends from Getaway Bay were here. So she clung to Sammy and cried until she found an iota of control and seized onto it.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she pulled back and wiped her face. She hadn’t put on much more than lip gloss, so at least she didn’t have raccoon eyes. “I’m just so tired.” Tired was the perfect way to put it, and not just physically. Physical exhaustion she could cure. This level of tired—her emotional, mental, and spiritual exhaustion—she didn’t know how to fix.
“It’s fine, ma’am.” Sammy looked at her with compassion. “What would you like me to do next?”
“It’s Saturday, Sammy. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
“Not if you need me here.”
Gina looked at the thumb drive. “I think I’m going to start with the police,” she said. “And then call some hospitals. Maybe could you grab your phone and help with that?”
“Sure thing, ma’am. I’ll be right back.” She left the office, and Gina felt the oxygen in the air go with her.
They worked through the afternoon with few results. No unidentified people had been brought into a hospital in the past five days, and a pair of officers came over from the police department and asked dozens of questions, took copies of the financial reports, contacts, and the same list of people Gina had already contacted.
Her data security expert texted to say the flights through Chicago were grounded, and he wouldn’t be able to make it to Dallas, and by the time darkness fell, Gina felt like she’d worked for hours and gotten nowhere.
She went home, but there was nothing for her there. Emptiness. Loneliness. Darkness. Standing in the kitchen, the glow of the clock on the stove the only light, she understood why she’d left to pursue the inkling of a possibility to work on the closets at Stacey’s bed and breakfast.
She thought of the women she spent time with on the beach, and she knew they’d be there for her if she called them. They’re busy, was her first thought.
So what? was her second.
She picked up her phone and called the emergency number for Doctor White. “Gina,” she answered on the second ring. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Gina really liked that Doctor White never asked questions. She just wanted to open every conversation with “tell me.”
“My general manager hasn’t been to work in five days,” she said. “I’m freaking out.”
“Okay, take a step back from that panic.”
Gina tried, but she felt like she’d been transported to a foreign land. “I’m in Texas.”
“Okay, Texas is fine, Gina. Tell me where you are.”
“I’m standing in my house in Dallas.”
“Dallas is good. You’ve told me great things about Dallas. Tell me about the weather.”
“It’s nighttime. I think it was sunny today. It’s snowing in Chicago.” Numbness spread through Gina, but at least she wasn’t about to punch the wall.
Doctor White continued to talk to her, and after a few minutes, Gina felt like she could finally say what she’d called to say. “I want to call someone to come help me,” she whispered. “But I don’t trust anyone. I don’t trust myself to know who to call. Life is so much easier when I don’t need help. When I can just rely on myself.” She stopped before she said everything, like how her company had never abandoned her. Never made her go from home to home. Never asked more of her than she wanted to give.
“Everyone needs help,” Doctor White said. “You called me for help. Tell me who you want in your apartment with you, making coffee for you so you can sleep a few more minutes, bringing you something to eat so you don’t forget.”
“Owen.”
“What did he say when you asked him to come?”
Gina couldn’t say anything.
“Tell me you’ve asked him.”
“I haven’t spoken to him yet,” Gina said, her blurting taking center stage. “I said I’d call him, but I haven’t. When he called, I was rushed. I—I don’t know if I have room for him in my life.”
“There’s so much here to unpack,” Doctor White said. “We can deal with it another time. I’m immediately concerned about you being alone. Is there anyone you feel comfortable asking for help?”
Gina said, “My friend, Lexie. She lives in Hawaii. She’d probably come.”
“It’s not about who’ll come, Gina. Owen would come. It’s about who you feel comfortable asking for help. Who you trust.”
“I don’t trust anyone.”
“Again, that’s something we can work on at another time. I don’t want you to be alone tonight. Lexie’s here in Hawaii. Anyone you can get to tonight?”
“No.” Gina’s voice barely left her mouth.
“Then I’ll call you every hour,” Doctor White said. “If you don’t answer, I will call the police.”
Tears streamed down Gina’s face. She nodded, but of course, Doctor White couldn’t see that.
“I need you to verbally agree to have me call you every hour,” Doctor White said, her normally calm voice stern.
“Okay,” Gina said. “I’ll answer.”
“Thank you,” Doctor White said. “I have one more request. Please call Owen. Right now, as soon as you hang up with me.”
“Okay,” Gina said. Their call ended, and she gripped her phone until she felt sure the plastic would crack.
Then she dialed Lexie.
Chapter Eighteen
Owen’s phone rang, but it wasn’t as loud as usual. He searched his desk for the device, not seeing it. “Where is it?” He pushed his chair back and searched the floor. There, a flash of light between the two pieces of his desk unit.
He stretched for it, but
he seemed to be moving in slow motion. He touched the phone right when it stopped ringing, and his fingers scrabbled along the smooth surface, trying to get it to slide out.
Finally, he got it and straightened, a groan leaking out of his mouth. “Gina.”
He jammed his finger on the call button, hoping she’d pick up. Praying.
When she said, “Owen,” in a broken voice, he shot to standing.
“Gina, what’s going on there?” He didn’t care how he sounded. She was in distress, and he hated with everything in him that he’d stayed on the island when he should’ve gone with her to Dallas.
“Nothing’s going on.” She sniffed. “I’ve been here a couple of days, and it feels like we’ve done a lot, with no results.”
“So you haven’t found your general manager?”
“Not yet.”
“What do you need?”
“I’m doing okay.”
“Gina….” She obviously wasn’t okay. He wanted to tell her about the strained couple of days with his kids, but he couldn’t. He wanted to ask her more questions, but he was afraid of driving her away.
“I’m not missing any money,” she said. “No clients. But Toni’s just gone. Poof. Gone.”
“So hire someone else.” Owen regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth.
“It’s not that simple,” Gina said. “Where is Toni? Why did she leave without saying anything? She worked here for years and years. How can I replace her with someone I trust?”
Gina sounded completely out of control, and Owen had no idea what to do. “I’ll come,” he said. “I’ll help you.”
“Lexie is already on her way.”
“What?” The word exploded out of Owen.
“I called Lexie. She has a jet at the airport there. She’ll be in the air within the hour.”
“You called Lexie.” The disbelief in Owen’s voice boomed in his own ears.
“You’re busy.”
“So is Lexie.” Owen had so much more to say. “Besides, that’s what people do for those they care about. They make sacrifices. I would’ve come, Gina.” He still had half a mind to go anyway. He wondered how far away that would drive Gina.
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