Page 48 of Say it Ain’t So

“I can’t wait until the new office is up and running. Having a gym at work is going to be the best thing about it. I still have to hit the gym tonight too.”

I cast a glance over to the front desk where Joss sat buried in paperwork. “I don’t know. A gym will be nice, but I’m more excited about that ice cream machine. Right, gorgeous?”

She couldn’t hide her smile, and it made me feel like I’d won a fucking jackpot. It felt like her smiles were never meant for me, even though I tried every day to catch one.

Joss tucked a loose hair behind her ear, but it didn’t want to stick. Her ponytail was crooked, pulled off to one side of her head, and half of it seemed to hover around her like a halo.

“You and that machine.”

I rubbed my palms together. “Best idea ever.”

Joss dipped her head, and her smile fled her lips. I knew why. The ice cream machine was Kelly’s idea. The whole move was. And Kelly was a touchy topic these days.

We’d finally found her. Just days ago, the call had come in. I’d raced to the scene with Lee and got there in time to see her being wheeled out of an apartment building on a stretcher.

Lee raced to her and surprised the hell out of me when he kissed her like he’d never see her again.

I hadn’t realized their relationship was like that. He’d never let on that he had feelings for Kelly, and I wasn’t sure what to think. She’d been in his care for a month before she disappeared. She’d been living with him in his safehouse and, from what I’d heard from Weston and Zane, the two of them never came out.

Shaking my head, I tapped my fist on Joss’s desk and headed to my uncomfortable-as-hell chair near the windows. Van snagged my arm before I could, giving me a sharp tug.

“Let me show you that thing we were talking about.” The look on his face was just as confusing as his words—we hadn’t fucking been talking about a thing. But he didn’t give me a choice. He tugged harder until I could do nothing but follow after him.

He led me down the hallway to the back room where he spent so much of his free time. Once inside, he closed the door that always stayed open.

“You know she’s married, right?”

If I thought I was confused before, it had nothing on this. “What are you talking about?”

“Joss. She’s married.”

My eyebrows climbed my forehead, and it took a moment to get my mouth to work. “To who?”

Van shook his head, moving toward the makeshift desk he’d set up for himself. He plopped down in his chair. “Don’t know his name. Don’t even know the whole story. All I know is, it’s complicated and they don’t talk much. I honestly think it has something to do with the car accident she was in a couple years ago.”

My knees shook as I glanced at the door behind me. The door that was closed, that was standing between me and Joss. I grabbed for the closest thing to sit on, which happened to be a box full of files. I hoped it held my weight. “What accident? What are you talking about?”

Van reached for the mouse and gave it a shake, not looking at me as he logged into the computer. “It was in all the newspapers for miles around.” He was quiet but for his fingers tapping across the keys. When he sat back, he pointed at his screen.

Still shaking, I rose from my seat and went to his side. I could barely focus on the words, couldn’t make it past her name at the top of the article.

Joslyn Ward.

Beside me, Van read the screen aloud, and I’d never been more grateful.

“Joslyn Ward… hospitalized after a rollover accident… what appears to be a domestic violence case. Um… here. Peter Wright, son of city Councilman, Wayne P. Wright, was also in an accident nearby. But he was taken to the hospital and released.”

DB Peter.

Fucking douchebag.

“There was speculation that another accident nearby, involving Cheyenne Macawi, was somehow related to the breaking and entering charges Wright filed against Macawi’s brother, Dakota Macawi, the next day. Says here both Cheyenne and Dakota were hospitalized.”

Cheyenne. I remembered that name. Once, as Joss caught sight of herself in one of the dresses she’d tried on, I heard her mutter something that sounded like, “If only Cheyenne could see this.”

I’d asked her what she’d said, but she’d shook it off and told me she felt beautiful.

And that was all the distraction I needed to move on from that thought.