Page 27 of Splintered Memories (Ember Hollow Romance #2)

Emersyn

M y brother was missing.

No one had seen or heard from him in almost a week.

The week since my house burned.

Fox, August’s brother, was working hard to figure out what had happened to him.

I didn’t know Fox well, but he was head of cyber security at Hearthstone and was sort of a hacker, too.

I didn’t question how he got his information, but August assured me that Fox was legit.

Jake’s phone indicated that his last location was at his apartment the night of Emberlight.

After that, his phone went dark and hadn’t connected to any cell network or towers since.

August was nervous that it had been Jake who’d started the fire at my home, but I knew that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.

But something had happened to him, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Not even the police took his disappearance seriously.

It didn’t matter that he was finally getting his life together.

It didn’t matter that he was sober. Because this wasn’t the first time Jake had disappeared, I couldn’t prove he hadn’t simply relapsed and gone off on his own.

There was no sign of a struggle or of anything bad happening to him.

I had nothing left of him but a deep, dark pit of confusion and worry.

In order to deal with the total lack of control, I did the only thing that would secure my last thread of sanity before it snapped: I worked.

I’d bought a new phone and laptop—the necessities to keep my business running.

I’d set up on the tiny desk in the spare room of August’s home and focused all my energy on my podcast and platform.

I made Shadow Stalker content, continuing my much too-long series of his victims and telling their stories.

I made content on Xander Cohen and the murder of my sister.

I made content on Alex Cohen, his father, and the role he played in covering his son’s crimes for so long.

I’d already covered all these topics before, but I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. I would keep speaking. I would shout these crimes over and over again until justice was served.

Three soft knocks sounded on my door.

My head snapped up from my computer screen. My eyes ached. I missed my old equipment. Editing episodes on the laptop wasn’t ideal, but it had to work for now.

“Come in,” I said, knowing August was on the other side of the door.

It opened slowly. August stood there, looking at me with wary caution, like he had since I’d come to stay with him. I’d wanted to be left alone, and he’d obliged for the most part.

He tilted his head to the side. “Have you eaten anything today?”

I glanced down at my empty coffee mug.

“Coffee doesn’t count,” he clarified .

I narrowed my eyes on him. Now that I paid attention, my stomach cramped from hunger.

August let out a long sigh when I didn’t answer. “Come on.” He jerked his chin toward the hallway outside.

“I’m not hungry,” I said quickly. I was lying, but I didn’t have time to waste. I would grab something quick from the kitchen in a little bit.

His gaze held mine as he gave me a knowing look. “It’s after five o’clock,” he said, like I was being ridiculous. “You need to eat an actual meal.”

“I don’t have time.”

“You’re going to make time.”

There was no question in his voice. Not a hint of relenting. I normally would have bristled at such a command, but I didn’t have the energy.

“Lucky for us, my mom is an amazing cook, and she invited us over for dinner.”

My heart rate quickened. I shook my head, but no argument came out of my mouth. I had barely left this house the past week. I hadn’t spoken to anybody except for August, and even those conversations were brief and in passing. I wasn’t in any condition to have dinner with his mother.

“I don’t think—”

August shook his head, cutting me off. “She already invited us. She’ll be offended if we don’t go.”

I pursed my lips, glancing back at my computer screen and the half-edited video I was working on.

“Whatever you’re doing will be there when you get back. We don’t have to stay long, just long enough to eat. ”

I looked up as August stepped into the room, his hand outstretched to me. I stared at it, trying to conjure some excuse to get myself out of this. I came up empty.

I probably looked like an absolute mess. I couldn’t remember the last time I brushed my hair or put a dab of makeup on. I guess it didn’t matter.

“Fine,” I said tersely.

Relief softened his eyes. He grinned. The fingers of his outstretched hand twitched, beckoning me to come. “Let’s go.”

August all but dragged me across the street toward the bed-and-breakfast, his hand wrapped tight around mine. At least he was warm, and as I trudged behind him, a hint of his cologne tickled my nose. My traitorous heart fluttered, despite everything.

I had been inside the bed-and-breakfast once before, at the annual Christmas party Lark had invited me all those months ago.

The night I met August for the first time.

It was a beautiful house. A turn-of-the-century Queen Anne Victorian home with a wraparound porch and a two-story tower on one side, so much of its original charm had been preserved for all these decades.

August didn’t knock as we approached the ornate front door. He walked in as if this place were still very much his home.

My mouth watered at the smell of savory roasted chicken inside the foyer.

To the left was the front living room, which was empty.

Ahead of us next to an entryway to the kitchen was the grand staircase.

The woodwork was breathtaking and intricate, and I found myself staring at it all like I had the first time I was here .

August didn’t let my hand go as we walked straight into the farmhouse-style kitchen, the only place that didn’t hold the Victorian theme.

We had barely crossed the threshold when an excited, high-pitched voice wailed, “Uncle Gus!”

There was a pitter-patter of hurried footsteps, and a flash of dark-brown hair launched herself into August’s arms.

August held the little girl to his chest and spun around in a quick circle, making her cackle. “Hey, baby girl,” he said, before setting the girl back down on her feet. The wide smile on his face matched hers.

I arched a brow at him. “Gus?” I mouthed, curious.

He shrugged. A slight blush dusted the tops of his cheekbones. “There’s no convincing Hailey to change her nicknames once she latches onto one.”

I vaguely remembered the little girl, August’s niece. She was Roman’s daughter, the firefighter and oldest Ramsey brother.

Hailey’s wide, doll-like eyes shifted from her uncle to me. Her pink lips narrowed as she inspected me from head to toe.

“Hailey, this is my friend, Emersyn.” August introduced me.

Hailey clasped her hands in front of her. “I know who she is,” she said lightly. “Your hair is a really pretty color.”

One hand moved down my knotted, days-old braid. “Thanks.”

Hailey nodded once. Then, she spun on her heel and ran back toward the long table taking up most of the kitchen. The table was set and dishes of food were piled in the middle. What looked like baked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, and fresh bread had my mouth filling with saliva again .

A man sat at the end, his blond hair falling over his forehead as he read the paper. “Good to see you guys made it. Just in time, too.” He flipped the page of the sports section.

August clapped him on the shoulder. “Wouldn’t have missed it, Pops.” August pulled out a chair and gestured toward me.

I shifted on my feet. Before I could take the seat August offered, a bright, feminine voice said my name.

The woman bustled in from a doorway on the right as she untied an apron from around her waist. “It’s so good to see you!

” She placed the apron on a hook screwed into the wall before she approached me and wrapped me in her arms.

My muscles stiffened at her embrace. She was tall and slim, but her grip was surprisingly strong. She was warm, and she smelled vaguely of the meal she had prepared, with a floral undertone.

I had met Raleigh Ramsey once, but she held me as if she had known me all my life.

She rubbed one hand up and down my back and didn’t let go until my muscles relaxed.

I had often been hugged by my own mother, but the way Raleigh hugged was what I envisioned the embrace of a real mother to feel like. No tension or weight of expectations.

Raleigh smiled as she let me go, and it was filled with nothing but warmth and happiness. There was no judgment in her expression at all.

“Come on, sit down and eat,” she said. “We have enough food to feed a small army, I think.”

I nodded, my skin flushing, not knowing exactly how to interact with them all. They were simply—a real family .

My eyes cut to August. He still held a chair out for me, a ghost of a smile on his mouth. Cautiously, I sat. He scooted the chair under me before taking the seat to my right.

Hailey sat across from me, her eyes surprisingly assessing for such a small child. They bounced from me to August as Raleigh sat down next to her.

“How old are you?” Hailey asked.

“How old are you?” I offered back.

Hailey pursed her lips. “I asked you first,” she said, with a hint of attitude that I appreciated.

The corner of my lip twitched, the closest I’d gotten to a smile in over a week. “I’m twenty-seven.”

She frowned, as if she didn’t know exactly what that meant, and so I added, “I am around Lark’s age.”

Her eyes brightened. “Oh, okay. Lark is going to be my aunt, you know,” she said excitedly.

“That’s right.” I nodded. “Lark is a really good friend of mine.”

“Lark is my friend too,” Hailey said as Raleigh dished some food onto her plate.

“I’m six, by the way. I just had a birthday, it was awesome!

Daddy brought me to go see a real life play where the people were on stage singing and everything.

” She speared a piece of chicken and brought it to her mouth.

“Hailey,” Raleigh warned, eyeing the little girl’s fork. “Let’s say grace first before we eat, all right?”

Hailey froze, her eyes bouncing to her grandmother before she slowly put her fork down.

Raleigh smiled in approval, and something tight and uncomfortable hit my chest. There was no malice in Raleigh’s eyes as she corrected Hailey’s behavior.

There was no undercurrent of anger. There was only a gentle reprimand in love.

Something so foreign to me. And yet, it was everything.

We all bowed our heads as August’s dad, Warner, said a quick prayer over the food. I wasn’t a praying person, but the quick, sweet prayer had a calmness spreading through me. A peace I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

When grace had been said, we ate.

I didn’t participate in much of the conversation, but I sat and listened.

The family around me spoke of everything and nothing.

Hailey chattered on about how her daddy was off work tomorrow and she was excited to go to the park with him.

Raleigh talked about how she was preparing to start her garden, and Warner spoke about a spot on the porch that he needed to repair.

I think I ate more than I had the whole last week put together. The food was delicious. I went back for seconds.

Through it all, I was highly aware of August sitting close at my side.

He’d been so tense this last week in the brief moments I’d seen him.

But his usual, easygoing smile was finally back.

That slightly mischievous glint in his eye had my very full stomach fluttering when he looked at me, his gaze lingering longer than it normally did.

“Emersyn,” Hailey grabbed her third piece of bread, “are you excited about Lark and Reid’s party?”

I frowned around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “Party?” I asked when I swallowed.

Hailey nodded, her head bouncing up and down like a bobblehead. “Yeah, the party for their wedding. I cannot wait!”

August cleared his throat as Raleigh stifled a chuckle. “That party is supposed to be a surprise, Hailey. ”

Hailey raised her brows. “I thought it was only a surprise for Lark and Uncle Reidsy.” She shrugged. “That’s what you said.”

August ran a hand through his hair as he sighed.

I gave him a questioning look.

“So, we’ve kind of been planning a party to commemorate the upcoming wedding. Lark and Reid didn’t want any kind of shower or bachelor/bachelorette party, so we’re going to throw them a joint celebration. Nothing too big.”

“Oh,” I stuttered. “When?”

“Next week.”

I blinked. That seemed fast. I wiped my mouth with a napkin and took a quick drink of water. “Is there anything I can do to help with the party?” I was, after all, the maid of honor. Even though I didn’t have a clue about planning parties.

August shook his head, but it was Raleigh who answered, “Oh, no, honey.” She leaned back in her seat and sipped red wine. “I’ve got everything under control. Hailey and I have been having a blast planning the whole shebang.”

Hailey nodded. “I picked out the best decorations. You should be really excited to see them!”

I couldn’t help it; I smiled at that. August’s eyes had softened when I looked back at him, his mouth tipped up too.

“Trust me, my mother is more than happy to put on the event,” he assured me.

I had no question about that.