Page 31 of Developing Hearts (Pine Point Fixer-Uppers #5)

Chapter thirty-one

David

It was nearly two in the afternoon when David started to feel actual panic. He’d been all through the condo and he hadn’t been able to lay eyes on Mason for an hour. There was no real way he could have gotten hurt…right? Certainly not without anyone noticing.

Bunny approached David as he was heading out the door.

Maybe Mason was down in the parking garage.

That was a possibility. He had to check it out.

But he stopped when she waved him down. Her brows had met in the middle, and she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her overalls once she’d gotten his attention. “Have you seen—”

“I was just going to—”

They both talked over each other, then both stopped. David waved his hands toward her, passing her the conversation. “Go. What’s up?”

“It’s Mason. I was hoping you’d seen him.”

“No.” So they didn’t know where he was either. Not the twist he’d been hoping for in the plot. “I was going downstairs to look for him.”

Bunny sucked on her teeth, then shook her head. “He’s not picking up or answering texts. It’s not the first time someone’s run off partway through a job, but Mason…”

“Yeah, it’s not like him.” David felt a pang of awkwardness at that—Bunny would obviously know him better—but he pushed past it. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to call in the search and rescue dogs and find my friend, but I don’t think that’s reasonable.

” She lifted her phone from her pocket and checked it once before stuffing it back away and snorting in frustration.

“I might have to call all hands for this, though. I can’t imagine something happened to Mason, but this is so out of character. ”

“Mason?” Robinson walked up to the pair of them, one eyebrow raised. “He calmed down enough to be reasonable, or is he still convinced none of us trust him or whatever is going on with him?”

David’s eyes fixed on Robinson. “When did you talk to him?”

Robinson checked his phone. “Must have been an hour ago.”

“He’s been gone for an hour.” Bunny shook her head. “No, we need to look for him. That’s not right.”

Robinson’s cheeks reddened and he looked down at the floor.

“I think that might be my bad. He’d been walking around with a pickle up his ass about last night the whole day.

” He offered a sheepish expression to David, then turned his attention back to Bunny.

“I might have confronted him about it. I did confront him about it. It got…heated.”

David’s brows knitted. “He’s still upset about that?

I’m not even upset about that.” It had raised his ire a touch, but only as much as stubbing his toe.

Maybe not even that much. They’d been looking out for their friend, and none of them had been mean to David.

It was barely even what someone could consider rude.

Well, apparently someone could. Mason did.

“He was,” said David. “He is.”

“Which we knew would probably happen if he found out.” Bunny tapped her nails against the buttons on her overalls. “Have you tried texting? He might answer you if he’s not answering any of us.”

“Three times. That’s why I was starting to get worried. Couldn’t find him, couldn’t get hold of him.” That worry hadn’t lessened, exactly, but it felt more diffuse, being shared with everyone. An icy fog instead of a chunk of cold sitting in his belly. “How are we supposed to track him down?”

Bunny scanned the room, then darted off. David tracked her and saw that she was chasing down Eliza, who was heading into the elevator.

That left David alone, and he turned back around when Robinson cleared his throat. He wasn’t starting at the floor anymore, but he did seem to be having a hard time maintaining eye contact. “I really hope you weren’t offended. I know that kind of came out of nowhere—”

“I’m glad Mason has people in his life who care about him.

And it’s not like I didn’t earn a reputation for being…

a little erratic.” Even just in the time since they’d all shown up and started work on the condo.

“I don’t expect you all to just take me at face value, but it’s different.

I can’t make you a promise that we’re going to be together thirty years from now, but I fully intend on giving it a try as long as he’s still willing to put up with me. ”

Robinson nodded, and a tiny smile passed across his face. “Need to find him first, though.”

“Yeah.” David took a look around the room, as though Mason might have secretly been hiding behind the couch or something.

He wasn’t, but David still saw something that could work.

He marched over to the little folding table in what used to be his living room, where Mason had left his laptop sitting.

He sat down, then looked up at Robinson.

“Anyone here possibly know his password?”

Robinson strode over and leaned in. “I may have been given it for an emergency, but I don’t know if he’s changed it. That was a year ago.”

“Nobody changes their damn passwords.” Which wasn’t true, but David had to cling to something. “Shoot.”

Robinson rattled off what sounded an awful lot like a random string of characters, which made David’s heart sink.

Anyone who had a password like that probably wasn’t lax with their security.

Fitting that Mason would change out his password every three months or whatever.

Just like they recommend. David still tried it though.

And it worked. The login screen popped away and David was met with a pile of spreadsheets, windows all open on top of one another.

He minimized them all, and the several text documents, and the images of the design plans, until he finally reached the open browser window…

which he decidedly did not look at. It was open to Mason’s email, and that wasn’t his business.

He opened a new tab and went over to Mason’s Google account, which was thankfully logged in.

After that, it was easy. He navigated to Mason’s devices and, after a few seconds, a map of Seattle popped up on screen, showing Mason a few blocks away, on the corner of First and Vine.

David was familiar with the spot, and he grabbed his coat. “I’ll go on a rescue mission.”

“Someone should come with you,” said Robinson.

“I can handle him drunk, don’t worry.” David pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll text you as soon as I have eyes on him, all right?”

David headed out the door and into the elevator. There were a couple places on that corner, but David was pretty sure he’d find Mason at the bar, not the pretentious little restaurant.

He didn’t let himself focus on his worries at Mason getting drunk alone in the middle of the work day.

But he did tighten his grip around the spine of his sketchbook.

The words of the rest of the crew still circled in his head.

By God, he would prove he wasn’t flighty.

If not to them, and if not to Mason…then to himself.