Haleigh didn’t show up at Abby’s at five. She didn’t show up at five thirty either. At five forty-five, she finally answered one of his multiple texts to say she was fine and would explain everything when she saw him. At seven he received a text from Abby saying Haleigh wasn’t at work. Buford Stallings had just called the Ruby Restoration meeting to order when the message came through.
“I need to go,” Cooper whispered to Spencer.
“What?” his friend answered. “The meeting just started. You need to give an update on the rally and make sure the volunteers know where to be in the morning.”
Cooper shook his head. “I don’t care about the rally right now. Haleigh Rae is missing.”
“She’s what?” Lorelei cut in, drawing attention from the rest of the room.
Before Cooper could respond, his business cell rang. “Let me see what this is,” he said, leaving his chair to step out of the room. The call was from a rental car company regarding one of their vehicles broken down just off the interstate not far from his garage. Thanks to Frankie being at a show down in Nashville, there was no one else to run the truck.
Cooper fired off two quick texts. The first to Spencer saying he wouldn’t be returning to the meeting, and the second to Abby telling her to contact Haleigh’s mom to see if she might know where to find her.
That he’d heard from her little more than an hour before was the only reason he was taking the tow call. With luck, she’d call him before he finished the job so he could stop worrying. Otherwise, he planned to drive his tow truck straight to the Mitchner front door.
Whatever happened to dependable German engineering?
“Are you sure you didn’t run out of gas?” she asked for the third time as they stood helpless on the side of the road staring at the nonfunctioning luxury car.
“The gauge read more than half a tank,” Marcus defended. “I don’t know what’s wrong with the damn thing.” Kicking a tire, he added, “I should have taken the BMW instead.”
Haleigh wanted to kick something herself, but it wasn’t the car. “What did the rental company say?”
He shrugged. “They’re sending someone. I assume from Nashville, so we could be out here for a while.”
“Marcus, I’m already late for work. I told them I’d be there by now.”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, throwing his hands up. “I didn’t get us stranded out here on purpose.”
“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be out here at all!” she yelled, angry at herself for getting sucked into this mess. Frustrated that she couldn’t let Cooper know where she was because her stupid phone was dead. Not like she could ask Marcus to let her call her boyfriend since her ex would run straight to her mother with the news. Bad enough she hadn’t mustered up the guts to tell her yet. Hearing the fact from someone else would send her mother into even more of a tizzy.
Propping his linen-clad butt on the fender of the car, Marcus said, “I don’t remember you being this bitchy.”
They’d determined over dinner, during which Haleigh had repeatedly demanded to be taken home, that they were no longer a match. Meredith had apparently convinced Marcus that the aging country music elite would clamor for his services if he were to set up practice in Music City. Then he and Haleigh could live in Ardent Springs with a simple commute to the big city and everyone would live happily ever after.
By the time their entrées had arrived, the futility in that plan was apparent even to Marcus. Simply put, Haleigh no longer tolerated his crap. His condescension, his arrogance, and his false endearments made her want to drown him in his Italian wedding soup, a sentiment she loudly and quite colorfully shared.
“Funny,” she replied with an empty smile. “I remember you being exactly this annoying.”
As Marcus silently pouted, a set of headlights cut the darkness from Haleigh’s left. When the tow truck slowed and pulled off the highway in front of the Mercedes and then backed up toward them, her stomach dropped to her knees. This clearly was not her night. Silently reciting prayers she hadn’t rattled off in several years, Haleigh held her breath hoping to see Frankie’s cranky bearlike figure step out of the cab.
And as had been the case when she was a child, Haleigh’s prayers went unanswered as Cooper walked toward them.
Chapter 28
Cooper had never been so relieved in his life as when he laid eyes on Haleigh Rae standing on the side of that highway. The guy blocking his path nearly found himself planted in the trees until Haleigh made a slashing motion across her throat and mouthed the words don’t say anything. What the hell? And who was this prissy asshole?