Page 38 of Cupcake of the Month (Just Add Peaches #2)

Jordan let the keys dangle from her finger as Josh stared at them. He stood too far away to touch, but close enough for her to read the weariness and despair in his face, even shadowed by his ballcap.

He gave a quick nod and followed her to the car. When they got there, he put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around. She swallowed at his nearness a second before he drew her into his arms and crushed her against him.

“Thank you, Jay,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “He’s all I have. I can’t lose him.”

“I know,” she soothed, lending him her strength. “I know.”

He stayed plastered to her body. Finally he took a shuddering breath and released her. Undisguised pain and hopelessness raked over his face, and she ignored the swipe of his hand across his eyes. “Okay. Let’s get going.”

They got into the car and Jordan pulled onto the road. “You should call the police.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. They’ll take him away from me.”

“You need more help than just me. Let’s at least report it so they can search for him.”

“I said no. I barely got custody of him the first time.” His hand curled into a fist and he pounded it against his knee. “I don’t need to give his caseworker a reason to take him away from me.”

“Josh—”

“Let’s look for him. If we don’t see him, we’ll go.”

The bleakness in his eyes overshadowed her resistance.

They drove in silence, each intent on every pedestrian that they passed, scanning the tree-lined sidewalks for Zach.

Her phone rang, a harsh trill in the thick silence of the car, but she ignored it.

She had left a message for Larry saying she wouldn’t be at court tomorrow due to an emergency.

She didn’t want to talk to him with Josh there.

He took his eyes off his search long enough to glance at her, then focused on the window again.

When they were at the edge of how far Zach could have conceivably traveled on his own in twenty minutes, she pulled into a bowling alley.

She searched for the nearest police station on her phone.

It was only a couple of miles away. She drove there and pulled into the lot shaded by large elm trees.

Josh didn’t move, only stared at the two-story building in front of them.

“Josh,” she prodded.

“I know.” He released a pent-up breath, then reached for the door handle.

Her phone trilled again. She turned off the sound and went to shove it into her purse.

Josh put his hand on her arm, stilling her movement. “Answer it. I don’t want things to get worse for you because of me.”

“I’m not leaving you. This can wait.”

He took the phone from her hand, pressed the green button, and handed it back. “You need to do this.” He placed a soft kiss on her forehead and unfolded his body out of the car.

She infused brightness into her voice. “Hi, Larry!”

“Don’t you ‘Hi Larry’ me,” he snapped back.

“You don’t leave vague messages for your lawyer on the eve of your trial.

Your message said you weren’t going to be in court tomorrow, Jordan.

You’re going to lose your business if you don’t show up.

You know, that inconsequential thing we’ve been fighting for all summer. What the hell is wrong with you?”

***

Josh left the police station, trying to ignore the ache that had settled in his stomach.

The police officer taking Zach’s information had been helpful, notifying her counterparts around the state and in Florida about his possible destination and including a picture of Zach from Josh’s phone.

She had called Beau and the bus station to confirm Josh’s story.

There wasn’t much else she could do, since Zach wasn’t in any known danger of being harmed.

The sun had started its descent into afternoon. Trees in the lot provided shade as he and Jordan stood outside the building. The agony inside him ripped him apart and he sank onto a metal bench.

“I don’t know what to do now,” he said.

“We keep looking,” Jordan said.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he fished it out. Berry’s name flashed on the screen. “Not him.”

“I did what you asked,” the man said when Josh answered the phone. “Didn’t feel right snooping around your apartment, but I found a few letters stuffed way in the back of your container cabinet.”

When had Zach gotten so sneaky? “From his mom and dad.”

“Yep. No return address and postmarked from different locations, though it seems like they were heading south. Seems they told him he should get to the Jax airport.”

Unbridled anger swept through Josh’s blood and clouded his vision.

Didn’t Marian and Clint realize they were destroying Zach’s steady family in their eagerness to reunite with their kid?

Their kid that they had abandoned without a second thought.

He gripped the seat of the bench as his face grew hot. “To where? What airline?”

“Doesn’t say. Maybe he took that letter with him. They do go on an awful lot about how much they miss him and blame you for keeping them separated.”

Of course. Because they were never at fault for anything, and Josh was a convenient scapegoat. “I appreciate it, Berry.”

“The police also came by and did a check of your apartment to confirm Zach wasn’t there. I gave them the letters,” Berry said. “You’ll get him, Josh. Keep your eyes open.”

“I will. Thanks.”

Jordan took his hand. He held it within both of his, letting her warmth sooth the anger that was as much a constant to him as the depth of his feelings for the woman by his side.

“I have to update the police.” Josh went back inside to update the officer that helped him.

Soon after, he was back in the car with Jordan, traveling south.

He didn’t have much to say as they drove the bland stretch of highway.

His mind did enough communicating for both of them.

The first image was of Zach waiting in the airport terminal.

The next, which got more air time, was him flying the friendly skies with his parents to an unknown destination, lost to Josh forever.

Jordan’s phone beeped out a notification, putting a dent in the replay going through Josh’s head. “I thought I silenced that.”

“Do you need to answer?”

“No, it’s a social media notification. You remember I have brothers?”

Josh searched her tone for censure, but didn’t find any. This was just a normal conversation. “Twins, right?”

“Yeah. Micah is going through an embarrass-my-sister phase and tagging me in old photos.”

Josh gave a soft laugh, picturing a young Jordan in pigtails and braces. “This I have to see.”

She seemed to understand his need to keep his mind on something else since she pressed her finger over her phone’s home button and handed it to him.

Pictures of Jordan at t-ball with her family cheering her on were loaded next to prom pictures and poses at a house that would have fit two of Josh’s fake brownstone. His stomach clenched at the scene. That was him, once. The large house, the loving family.

He kept swiping. The twins appeared, identical and sharing enough features with Jordan that Josh would have been able to tell they were related even if she hadn’t mentioned it.

The next picture showed her brothers with a handful of people, everyone holding a champagne glass. “What are they celebrating?” he asked.

She gave the picture a quick glance. “Being successful computer geeks.”

He swiped a few more times. “This woman looks like the lawyer of the people suing you,” he commented. His face grew hot as he realized what he had revealed.

Jordan had raised one eyebrow, but kept her eyes on the road. “You know who’s suing me?”

He tried to shrug it off. “It was in the news.”

“In Connecticut.”

“I might have looked it up.”

“I see.” Her knuckles tightened on the steering wheel. “I did that with you, you know, after you left. Looked you up. Never found anything.”

“It helped that I had a different last name.” He turned off her phone and put it on the console between them, the weight of his life settling over him again like a mantle of rusted chains. “I didn’t get a lot of publicity until after.”

Jordan made a stop at a drive-through to grab some food but Josh wasn’t hungry, his stomach holding on to the empty ache. He took over at the wheel, giving Jordan a break while she nibbled her chicken sandwich.

What would he have done if she wasn’t with him, to give him strength and courage with her presence? He’d always known she was a remarkable woman. He took a deep breath, searching for that spicy citrus scent of hers, letting its tendrils calm his mind while he drove on and on the endless road.

She licked mayonnaise off her finger, then crumpled the trash and put it in the empty bag. “So which picture looks like the lawyer?”

“It’s a few pictures after your brothers with the champagne. She and your brother are in the shot.”

Jordan tapped around on her phone, then raised her glasses and brought it closer to her face. “I think you might be right. How could you tell?”

“I’m good with faces.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything more as she tapped some more. Her phone dinged a few times and she responded with more tapping.

Several hours later, they turned onto the highway leading to the airport, each second increasing his heartrate as they got closer and closer. Zach had to be there. Had to. The police in Georgia had notified security hours ago, so someone was bound to have seen him. This day would soon be over.

He pulled into departures and flew out of the car while Jordan took over at the wheel. He made a beeline for the security office and introduced himself, but they had no news. No boy alone entering the building. No ticket under Zach’s name on any of the airlines. No end to Josh’s nightmare.