Totally, Sweetly, Irrevocably(59)

“No,” he said quietly, “you’re not wrong.”

“Well…”

Before he could answer, his phone rang. Jenny picked it up from the console and looked at the display.

“Speak of the angel,” she said, turning the phone around so he could see that it was Gina.

Rick answered it and put her on speaker. He’d rather not have the audience while talking to her, but after giving both Jenny and Gina tickets for the whole phone thing, he couldn’t really violate that law himself. Besides, he’d been to too many accidents due to distracted drivers on their cells to not use the hands-free option.

“Hello?”

The only answer was some background noise, laughter, lots of voices talking, the faint sound of music.

“Hello?”

Jenny glanced at him. “I think she butt-dialed you.”

His eyebrows rose. He should probably hang up. She’d obviously not meant to call him. Then she spoke, though her voice kept cutting out.

“I’ve always wanted to live in Paris…I applied for a two-year culinary program there. It’s an amazing program, learning from the best pastry chefs…”

Whomever she was speaking with mumbled something. Rick looked at Jenny, shards of panic shredding through him. Yes, they’d decided to break up, or not see each other, or whatever the hell they were doing, or not doing. But she’d never said anything about leaving the country. Maybe he’d misunderstood, though the sympathetic look on Jenny’s face meant she thought the same thing he did. Gina was leaving.

Gina’s voice again: “That sounds wonderful, I’ll definitely check that out…tonight actually…excited to get started. Right after the party…”

“What?” Rick said. Tonight? That couldn’t mean she was leaving tonight. Could it?

“Gina,” he said, hoping she’d hear his voice through whatever material her phone was shoved in. No response.

He took the phone off speaker and held it to his mouth. “Gina! Gina!”

“Um, hello. Hands-free while driving,” Jenny said. He totally ignored her.

“Gina!”

“Hello?” she said. “Who is this?”

“It’s Rick. Where are you?”

“At a fund-raiser Eric’s parents are throwing. Sorry. I must have accidentally dialed you. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

“No, that’s okay.”

“What?”

“I said, that’s okay.”

“Oh, good. Well, look, I wanted to…”

Her words continued but Rick couldn’t really make out what she was saying.

“Gina? Hello?”

“Rick? I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time hearing you. Kind of noisy in here. But I want to talk to you. Maybe we can…”

“Gina?”

“Hello?”

“Gina?”

“Can you hear me now?” Jenny mumbled. Rick glared at her.

“Sorry, Rick, I’ve got to go. Not sure if you can hear me. I’ll try to call you later…”

The phone clicked off before he could say anything else.

“Shit!” He tossed his phone at Jenny, who yelped at the unexpected device flying at her. “Call Street Treats bakery and ask to speak to the owner. He won’t be there, but maybe they’ll tell you where he is. I’ve got the number in my contacts.”

As she dialed, he grabbed her purse and dug her phone out.

“Hey,” she said, but he ignored her.

“I need to call Joe.”

Someone must have picked up on the other end of his phone, because she turned her attention to talking. He quickly dialed Joe’s number. He should probably pull over. He might be going in the opposite direction of where he needed to go. There really wasn’t anywhere to stop, though.

A car honked, and he swerved back into his own lane. Yeah. That was another reason he should really pull over, but there was no time.

“Joe!” he said the second his partner picked up. “I need to know if there are any big functions tonight that required extra security or something.”

Rick didn’t know too much about Eric and his family, but he knew they had extensive contacts, so surely a fund-raiser they were throwing would be a big deal.

“Yeah,” Joe said. “Over at the W. Some bigwig raising money for a charity. The captain was bitching because the guy throwing it had wanted extra patrols, but we’re short-staffed tonight since it’s the ball. Speaking of, shouldn’t you be here already?”

“I was on my way, but I’m going to be late. Need to make a stop first.”

He hung up, ignoring the twinge of guilt at cutting his partner off. But he didn’t have the time to deal with all his questions at the moment.