Perfectly Ms. Matched(66)
Worried and scared for her, he made his call to the airport to have them get a plane ready as he jogged toward his coach’s office. He rapped on the doorjamb, interrupting a phone call, but he didn’t care. He had to go. “Sorry, Coach. I have a family emergency. I have to leave.”
Coach excused himself from his phone call and hung up. “The hell you will. Rick said the kid is with his mother, not in mortal danger.”
“I have to go, Coach.”
Coach stood and leaned over his desk. “We’ve spent the entire week and a butt load of money promoting your comeback. You owe me the next five hours, and then I don’t give a damn what you do, but you will get your ass out there and play today, Jenks.”
It was over a two-hour flight. He was wasting time. “It’s my fiancée. There’s been a fire, and she’s missing.” When he found her, he’d ask her to marry him again. He never wanted to live another day without her in his life. How he’d get her to agree, he wasn’t sure, but he’d do whatever it took.
Coach asked, “Did you try to contact her?”
“Yes. So have many other people. Something’s wrong. She’s never out of touch like this.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but what if the battery on her phone is just dead? You can’t let our hometown fans down like this. Go get dressed, and maybe there will be some news before kickoff.”
“I have to go now.” Chad’s heart nearly beat out of his chest as he turned to leave.
Coach called out, “If you leave this stadium, I’ll either bench your ass indefinitely or put you out on waivers. We’ve been doing just fine without you these past weeks, you know.”
Just fine without him? That was a knife straight to the heart.
But Jo was his heart.
“Do what you have to do, Coach.” He jogged out the door and to the parking lot.
After a long, tiring ride on Black Jack, Jo hurt in places she hadn’t in a very long time. She hugged Chad’s mom good-bye. “Thanks for a great afternoon, Mary. I’ll see you soon.”
“It was fun. Thanks for coming. Drive safe.”
Jo climbed into Chad’s truck and headed back to town. After about a half hour, her phone blew up with texts and messages. Something had to be going on, so she pulled the truck to the side of the road. As she scrolled through the oldest texts first, her stomach sank. A fire destroyed her restaurant? How had that happened? And what would she do now?
She couldn’t get enough air. She’d lost all she’d worked for? Was it the oven? She’d asked the kid to rig it up so it would work. She’d destroyed Chad’s building? He was going to kill her.
She laid her hand on her sick stomach and kept reading. Shelby was looking for her. Oh God. They saw her car and thought she’d been in there. Instead of reading the rest of the texts, she called her best friend.
Shelby answered with “Thank God, Jo. Where the hell have you been? Everyone has been looking for you.”
“I was with Chad’s mom at the ranch. Do we know what started the fire?”
Please don’t let it have been the oven.
“Not yet. But I called Chad, and he’s worried sick. His plane is due in about a half hour.”
She checked the time. He’d missed his game for her? She loved him for it, but she felt like crap at the same time. She’d burned down his building and made him miss his first game back, while she’d been out riding Black Jack? She hoped she hadn’t gotten him into trouble with his coach. “I’ll meet his plane. I think that fire might have been my fault. I’ll call you later.”
“Call your parents too. They’re beside themselves.”
“Will do.”
Jo got back on the road and headed for the airport. She dialed her parents’ home number. Her father answered on the first ring. “Joann?”
“Yes. I’m sorry I worried you guys.”
“Are you okay?” Her father’s voiced cracked. She could hear her mom asking about her too in the background.
The emotion in her dad’s voice made her get weepy. He really did care. “Yes. I was out at Chad’s ranch.” She had to stop and clear her throat. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do now without the restaurant.”
“The important thing is that you’re okay. It’s just a building. It can be fixed.”
He didn’t bring up going back to PT? Maybe he’d finally understood. “Thanks, Dad. I’m driving, so I’d better go. I’ll call you guys later. Bye.”
After they hung up, Jo wiped the tears from her eyes with her T-shirt. Hopefully Chad would see it that way too. That it was just a building. But dammit, it was her dreams too that had gone up in flames.