The Ultimate Romance Box (6 Bestselling Romance Novels)

by Eckhart, Lorhainne

“I can’t go into all this. We’re wasting time. Have you checked at the dance studio to see if he’s there?”

  “Casey would call if he showed up. But I did leave my number on her school’s tape. Didn’t want to say anymore. It would embarrass both Josh and me if others at the school heard about this.”

  “That’s the least of our worries.” Drew ran a hand through his hair. “Tell me everywhere you searched so far.”

  Heather named the friends she had contacted and then listed the streets, the parks, movie theaters, video game parlors and shopping malls she’d checked and mentioned to the police. “I don’t know what else to do.”

  “I’ve got a few ideas.” Drew turned for the door.

  Heather stood. “I’ll go with you.”

  “No. You should stay here in case he comes back or decides to call somehow.”

  “Or, God forbid, we get a call from his abductors.”

  “Let’s not go there.”

  Drew hurried down the front walk. Normally the August sun wouldn’t set till around eight. It was only 5:12, but a heavy summer storm made it look like dusk. By the time he slipped into his Range Rover his shirt and hair were wet.

  Banking on his guess that Josh ran away because of his anger over having to move, Drew barreled down Route 48 to North Cove, racing to get to the dance studio while Casey was still there. He knew on Fridays she only had one class that ended at five-thirty. Heather was right; Casey would call them if Josh showed up. But that wasn’t enough for Drew. He needed to tell her face-to-face, to see the concern in her eyes. He craved her soothing warmth to help him get through this.

  And he hated himself for that. Would she see this as him crawling back to her? How ruthless was it for Casey to dump him for Taz Ravage and the studio that rock star weasel gave her?

  I don’t care. I need her.

  And something in him believed she could help him find his son. He wasn’t sure why he thought this. Maybe because he saw her as a kind of bridge to Josh. Someone who’d reached the boy in a way that neither he nor Heather could.

  He drove through the pouring rain, scanning the streets, wracking his mind for where his nine-year-old might go in weather like this. And prayed his little boy wasn’t in the hands of some evil bastard.

  When Drew reached North Cove he parked on the street outside the dance academy and stepped into the lobby. A lump formed in his throat when he saw Casey standing near the mirrors in front of her class, moving her arms and legs around as she gave instructions to the group of twelve girls and one boy.

  The sight of her tight muscled body in a purple unitard definitely made his groin react. But that wasn’t what gave her this strange power over him. It was the thing that always happened when he was near Casey. She filled an emptiness inside him that no one else ever had. He cursed himself for being such a needy sap.

  Too bad. Time to put pride aside. Because he had a hunch that if anyone could guess where Josh might have gone it would be Casey.

  ***

  Casey felt someone watching her and glanced at the tall figure near the door of the studio. Drew. What was he doing here? Did he think he could sweet-talk her into believing his lies again?

  When she glanced at him, trying not to let his magnificent face and frame take her breath away, another surprise hit her. The look of raw pain in his eyes.

  She refused to be taken in by it. He’d put her through a crying jag that still wasn’t completely over. So now he was hurt because his throwaway girl-toy told him she wasn’t available to be played with anymore? Too bad. She frowned at Drew and turned to her students, hoping he would just leave.

  But he didn’t. In fact, as soon as class ended, he pushed through the milling students and marched right to her. “Casey, have you seen or heard from Josh? He’s been gone since this morning and can’t be found.”

  Her hands flew to her mouth. She recovered quickly and called to her students. “Before you go I need to know if any of you have seen Josh Byrne today? Or maybe gotten a phone call or text from him?”

  None had. Casey quickly checked her studio phone, her cell, and talked with Jiao. Nothing.

  “Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been kidnapped. Especially since the police are leaning toward the runaway theory.” Drew explained about Nate Wentoff’s transfer to Germany and how Heather had handled it.

  Casey thought her heart would break for the boy. “Poor Josh. Dancing on Got Moves meant so much to him. He’s worked so hard for it.”

  “And frankly your dance academy gave him a sense of belonging that I don’t think he ever felt anywhere else.” His jaw tightened. “I’m going to find Josh. And once I do, I’m going to arrange to keep him here in the States as long as possible.”

  Between the sincerity in Drew’s voice and the secret she hadn’t yet told — that her school would be closing at the end of the month — guilt assailed her. Casey pictured Josh’s sad and angry face when he’d told her that his father always cancelled on him, letting him down. And now I’ll be doing it, too. “How can I help?”

  “The police are already working on this thing. But I’m going out now to search as many places as I can. You know this area better than I do. Come with me.”

  She resisted that magnetic pull he had over her. “I’ll take my own car and go looking.”

  “I need you with me, Casey.”

  She’d longed to hear him say those words, but certainly not for this upsetting reason. She wanted so badly to wrap her arms around him, to assure him they’d find Josh tonight. But as much as she cared about the boy, Casey wasn’t about to let Drew wreak havoc on her heart again.

  He read her mind. “Don’t worry. We won’t talk about us.”

  “Let’s not. We’ll just look for Josh.”

  Casey sped up the stairs and changed into jeans and sneakers. She didn’t bother fixing her lipstick or hair. Just raced back down, hustled the last student out the door, grabbed her flashlight, mace, a rain poncho and the studio’s first aid kit. “Should I bring a blanket in case he’s stuck outdoors somewhere?”

  “Got one in my SUV. Along with a few other supplies.”

  As they drove through lightning, thunder and rain so heavy the car’s roof sounded like a drum overhead, Drew filled Casey in on what possibilities had already been covered. “I just hope he didn’t sneak into Arshamonaque Preserve. There’s a swampy lake there that…”

  “Did you ask the police about that?”

  “They said someone from the forest service would take a look. How thorough on a night like tonight…” He shook his head. “So much of the land up here is either farms or open woods. He could be anywhere.”

  Casey had never seen him so upset. “So let’s pull over every few miles or so and look.”

  “It seems so random.”

  “Worth a try.”

  They stopped here and there, and trudged through wet trees, branches waving in the harsh winds, mucky foliage beneath their feet. They called Josh’s name, the beams of their flashlights skimming the shadows. On the road they visited every pizza parlor or drug store that was open, showing Josh’s picture. They wandered through parking lots and checked a couple abandoned buildings.

  Casey could feel Drew’s eyes lingering on her. She pushed away the urge to turn to him and kiss away his pain. Or to scream at him and demand an explanation of why he’d led her on while he was involved with another woman. She forced herself just to focus on dear little Josh and the emergency at hand. “Could he have taken the train to New York City?”

  “God, I hope not. But Heather said the police did send scanned photos of him to the missing children departments in the city.”

  “Let’s try the beaches.”

  “Beaches? Where is there to go except the restrooms?”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised. I work with an animal rescue group and we find cats and dogs living in — wait a sec. I remember talking to Josh about places around Kenney’s Beach and Peconic Dunes where animals t
ake refuge in small cove-like spaces formed in the rocks and grasses.”

  “Gotta be pretty small.”

  “Most are, but Josh isn’t exactly a big kid. And he’s thin and flexible.”

  Drew gave her a skeptical look. “Sounds really uncomfortable.”

  “Hey, I know it’s a long shot, but so is everything else. And I distinctly remember Josh saying he thought it sounded like a great place to hide out.”

  “He said that?”

  She nodded.

  “We’re on our way. And now that you mention it, I think he went to camp at Peconic a couple years ago. So he’d know how to get there.”

  On the way, Casey noticed a market along the road, one of those old country stores that looked more like a house. “That looks open. How about we make a pit stop? We can show Josh’s photo, and I can grab a takeout coffee to warm my bones.” The rain hadn’t let up, and she was soaked and shivering.

  Once inside, Casey felt how really cold and wet she was, her hair and poncho dripping, her sneakers waterlogged. She wrapped her shaky, stiff hands around the warm paper coffee cup. When she reached the counter she saw a slightly balding middle-aged man nodding at the photo Drew gave him.

  “He was here.”

  Drew practically leaped over the counter. “You’ve seen him?”

  The man nodded again. “About three o’clock he came in.”

  “Did he say anything about where he was going? Tell me everything. Please. It’s very important. He’s a runaway, and I’m his father.”

  “He looks like you,” the man said as he handed Drew the photo. “He didn’t talk. But I remember wondering what a kid would be up to buying himself ten candles.”

  “Candles? He bought candles? What else?”

  “Let me check my log.” He worked some keys on his register. “Here it is. He bought two quarts of orange juice, ten candles, three boxes of matches, a flashlight, and eight bags of potato chips.”

  Casey couldn’t help smiling at Josh’s choice of staple foods. Or noticing how sexy Drew looked with his drenched shirt stuck to his chest and his wet bangs plastered on his forehead.

  “Did you see where he went? He was alone, right? I mean, he didn’t get into anyone’s car, did he?”

  “He was by himself. I did look out the door because he left with three bulky bags and I wondered if someone would come out of their car to help him carry it. But there was no car. He just walked down the road alone.”

  “Which way?”

  The man gestured. Drew thanked him over and over, handed him a fifty-dollar bill, and wrote down his cell number. “Please call me if you see him again. Or if you remember anything else.”

  He also thanked Casey when they returned to the car. “I knew you’d help me find him.”

  “I haven’t done anything.” And there was still no guarantee they’d find Josh. But she didn’t say that aloud, not wanting to dampen Drew’s renewed hope.

  “You got me to come in this direction. Otherwise I’d have been on the other side of town.”

  “Should we notify the police?”

  “Not yet. Better if he just sees us rather than a bunch of cops with flashlights and dogs.”

  They turned down Lighthouse Road to Soundview. The sun had gone down completely now, making it illegal to wander public beaches and parks. Not that it would stop them. They checked Kenney’s Beach with no luck, then moved on to the area near the Peconic Dunes. Casey led the way, as she knew this place better than Drew. But she didn’t mind him catching her waist when her cold, numb feet slipped and stumbled on grasses and sandy pebbles.

  “Josh! Are you here? It’s Daddy.”

  The Long Island Sound whooshed in the dark behind them, its briny moisture competing with the rain that had slowed to a steady drizzle. But the wind was still strong and periodic flickers of lightning continued in the distance along with the dull rumbling of thunder.

  “Josh! Yo, Josh!” Casey remembered one place where a colony of feral cats had been holed up. As they got closer, she thought she heard a muffled voice answering their calls. She took off running toward it, Drew on her heels.

  “Over here.” Casey dropped to her knees near a pile of boulders embedded in the dune grasses. Her flashlight split through the jagged surfaces, wet and blackened by the rain.

  Drew crawled next to her. “Josh? Are you in there?”

  “Dad?”

  “It’s him!” Drew’s voice quaked. He shined the flashlight into a burrow-like space way too small for an adult. “Are you hurt? Can you get yourself out of there?”

  Slowly an arm and then another reached out. Then Josh’s head. His skinny frame followed, inching along the ground. When he got to his feet, he hurled himself into his father’s arms and cried.

  Sobbing out each word, Josh said, “I forgot to buy batteries for the flashlight. I couldn’t even light the candles ‘cause of the wind and, and…”

  Drew chuckled softly and kissed his forehead, clutching him tight.

  Casey wept, too, watching them, wishing she could join, but knowing it wasn’t her place. She was neither wife, nor mother here. And her deep desire to be both made her weep all the harder.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Casey waited in the Range Rover while Drew returned Josh to Heather’s house. Had she brought her own car it would’ve made the earlier search awkward, but not as awkward as the ride home with Drew would be — thanks to Josh inadvertently exposing the eight hundred pound gorilla lurking between Casey and Drew. Only a child could speak his mind with such forthrightness. To hell with the consequences or the embarrassment factor.

  Josh had been curled up on the back seat, swathed in blankets when he came out with an award winning comment from relationship hell. “None of this would’ve happened if you’d married Miss Casey. Then Mom would agree to let me stay here and live with you guys.”

  Casey wanted to crawl out the car window. Especially when she saw the way Drew froze up, shoulders hunched, pretending not to hear. She knew marriage was a dirty word to Drew Byrne. No doubt he hoped as much as she did that this part of Josh’s defensive tirade would just disappear in the jumble of the boy’s histrionics.

  But Josh continued with vehemence. “It’s not too late for you to marry her, Dad. There’s still time. Mom’s not leaving till the end of the month. You wouldn’t mind being my second mom, would you, Miss Casey? I don’t usually do bad stuff like this. But what’s going down is so totally catastrophic! Come on, Dad, you want to marry her, don’t you?”

  That sent Casey reeling. She almost felt sorry for Drew.

  Until he answered in a flat, irritated tone. “I’ll arrange for you to stay with me until you do the performance on TV.”

  Game over. Casey realized Josh had voiced the very wish she’d been carrying around in her sinking heart. And Drew’s reply made it painfully clear her wish was a fool’s errand.

  But what did she expect? Did she really think Drew would say, “Yes, Josh. That’s exactly what I want. Casey, will you marry me?”

  More like: “Hey, Josh, I’d love to have you stay, but Daddy’s got all these babes that need to be pleased…”

  Josh was not happy with Drew’s reply either. “I’m not leaving here, Dad. Ever. And I mean ever. Miss Casey’s school is the only place where I finally made friends. I’m popular there. I even started choreographing my own dance. And all the best kids want to be in it.” His voice cracked, and he broke in to fresh tears.

  Casey felt herself crumbling. She knew so well what it was like to not fit anywhere and to finally find your place. She wanted to take the boy in her arms and tell him it would be all right. She wanted to yell at Drew and tell him to fix it all so his son could be happy. The worst part was that Josh would soon find out the dance school he loved was going to close.

  She’d never felt so powerless.

  Drew made a lame attempt. “Look, Josh, you never know what you’ll find in a new place. So many things can—”

  “I hate y
ou! I hate you and mom both.”

  Casey listened for a seatbelt, fearing Josh would dive out of the car. But he just melted into a sad, resigned heap, tucking his head under the blankets and sobbing.

  When they reached Heather and Nate’s home Drew lifted Josh, blankets and all, and carried him into the house. Casey made no move to go with him. It would only make all parties uncomfortable.

  Now, as Drew came striding down the walk, looking even sexier than usual in his pensive, brooding state, Casey could not bear to look him in the eye. Josh’s words had shattered their artificial state of neutrality. She turned away to face the passenger side window as soon as he opened the car door.

  At first they drove in tense silence shrouded by the sounds of tires on the wet street and the battering rain that had picked up again.

  “You hungry?” he said.

  “No.”

  “It’s nearly ten. You haven’t eaten since before your afternoon class.”

  “What are you, my keeper?”

  “You just did me a huge favor, helping me to—”

  “No problem. Just take me home.”

  Drew’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Oh, so I’m the monster now. What was I supposed to do? Heather has custody.”

  “None of my business. I’m not even sure why you came to the studio and got me involved.”

  “Sorry to have troubled you. I thought you cared about Josh.”

  “I do. Very much. It’s you I can’t stand.” She faced Drew, meeting his eyes with a gaze that reflected the anger building in her from the time she watched him kissing Amber Von Alston, through sleepless nights of tear filled regret, all the way to his insulting reaction when Josh dared to suggest he marry her.

  He returned his focus to the street in front of him and muttered, “Pathetic groupie.”

  “Arrogant slime bag.”

  “Bitch.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Loser.”

  “You’re the loser.”

  “Prove it.”

  “Anytime.”

  He turned a corner, drove two blocks and pulled the car to the curb. Streetlamps illuminated the wet blacktop of a basketball court that seemed to be part of a small playground attached to some building Casey couldn’t identify in the dim light.