Pretend You're Mine(117)
Shit. He was going to have to tell everyone that they were down an office manager. There would be questions, which he wouldn’t answer. And more paperwork, which he wouldn’t file. But this space was his again. It was what he wanted.
Wasn’t it?
Luke mashed the buttons on the coffeemaker until it started to brew. He took his first mug into his office and kicked the door shut behind him. He didn’t have time to deal with a view of an empty desk.
He was in the middle of listening to a voicemail for the third time, because he kept spacing out, when Frank burst in without knocking.
“Why the hell is your door closed?”
“Because I wanted it closed.”
Frank shrugged. “Okay. Next question. Why is your woman calling in sick to me?”
Luke stood up before he thought better of it. “Did she say where she is?”
Frank crossed his arms. “No. Don’t you know where she is?”
Luke ignored the question and sank back into his chair. “She said she was sick?” Well at least she was alive. Somewhere.
“Said she wasn’t coming in today because she wasn’t feeling well. Why are you hearing this for the first time? Why didn’t she just roll over and tell you herself?”
“Harper’s not going to be around anymore,” Luke said, briskly. “Let me make this call and then we’ll go out to the Adams site.” He turned back to the phone and started dialing, dismissing Frank and his dumbfounded expression.
***
Harper woke curled in a ball in a sunny bedroom. She was still dressed in last night’s clothes. There were no strong arms wrapped around her. No dogs at her feet.
She was alone.
She wrapped her fingers around the edge of the quilt and pulled it over her head. She wanted to block it all out. The sun. The hurt. The loneliness.
***
“What?” Luke didn’t mean to snap at Sophie, but he already knew why she was calling. It would figure that Sophie would be the first person Harper would go to.
“That’s a fine greeting for your favorite sister.”
He shifted the phone to his other ear. “Sorry. What do you need?”
“Just some reassurance. I was supposed to meet Harper for lunch and she didn’t show. She’s not answering her cell. And I tried the office and they said she didn’t come in today. I know I’m just being silly, but ...” Sophie trailed off.
Luke remembered another time when Sophie had tried to reach someone and couldn’t find her. All their lives had changed that day. It wasn’t just his.
“I guess Harper didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what? Did you send her to the spa for the day? Is she adopting another dog?”
“We broke up.”
He was ready to yank the phone away from his ear in the event of a deafening screech. But there was only silence.
“Soph? Are you there?”
More silence. And then finally a whispered response.
“I ... I don’t understand. You guys are so ...”
“It just wasn’t working out. We wanted different things.” The words clogged his throat.
“You just ... broke up? Where is she?”
“I don’t know. She left last night.”
“Is she okay? I mean ... Jesus, Luke. I feel like I got sucker punched. I didn’t see this coming. I can’t imagine how she feels.”
“It’s Harper. Of course she’s okay. She’s been through worse than a breakup. She always lands on her feet.”
Sophie was quiet for a moment. “Luke, she loved you with everything she had. She waited six months for you. She’s not just going to land on her feet. And if you’re not going to try to find her then I will.”
He wasn’t about to admit that he spent the forty-five minutes he had allotted for lunch driving around town looking for her car. He just wanted to know that she was safe. That’s all.
“I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
“You’re worried. I can hear it in your tone.”
“I don’t have a tone.”
“What if something happened to her? We both know shit happens to good people. And we sure as hell know she’s a trouble magnet. What if she got kidnapped trying to check into a hotel?”
Luke would have laughed if he hadn’t already thought of that exact scenario. He’d called both motels in town that morning to see if Harper was registered.
“She called Frank this morning and told him she wouldn’t be in.”
“And that’s good enough for you? ‘She called Frank so now I don’t have to worry.’” He could hear Sophie getting angry.
“No, it’s not good enough for me, Soph. She’s not answering her phone, she hasn’t been on Facebook, Aldo and Gloria haven’t seen her. I thought she would have gone to your house last night. Short of calling the cops, I don’t know what else to do.”