The Ashtons - Cole, Abigail & Megan

to do, anywhere to look that they hadn’t already checked. How far could a confused sixty-year-old woman go?
    The phone rang. She’d been carrying it from room to room with her, so she grabbed it immediately. “Yes?”
    It was Jillian, checking in. Everyone had been so good. They’d practically shut Louret down for the day in order to look for Jody. The authorities were looking, too, of course. It just wasn’t doing much good.
    Everyone was looking…except Cole. Who had vanished as completely as her aunt.
    His mother had told her not to worry too much about him. “He does this sometimes,” she’d said gently. “When Cole has a personal snarl he needs to work through, he drives.”
    Dixie knew what snarl he was working on. Her. Apparently she was a huge snarl, too, since he’d not only stood her up, but had stayed gone all night. Somewhere around midnight, up at the hospital, she’d decided she’d take care of that tangle for him. If it was that hard to decide whether he even wanted to go out to dinner with her…
    When the back door opened she looked up dully, expecting one of the searchers.
    It was Cole.
    She went hot, then cold, the fluctuation hitting as abruptly as if a switch had been thrown. For a second she wondered if she might faint, which would be too mortifying to bear. She looked away.
    “No word?” he asked softly.
    She shook her head and looked at the table. She’d had too little sleep, that was all. A couple hours snatched on a hard couch in the waiting room at the hospital. She didn’t need Cole, not after he’d shown her how true all her doubts had been.
    But her aunt might. There were colored buttons on the topo map, each representing a searcher or group of searchers. She cleared her throat. “If you’re here to help look for Aunt Jody, fine. I’ll assign you an area. If you’re here for anything else, go away.”
    “I’ll search. But I want to know how you’re holding up.”
    “I’m fine.” Her stupid, traitorous eyes chose that moment to water. “I’ll be fine. This area, here, by Waters Street.” She tapped the city map. “It’s been searched already, but they might have missed her. Or she could have wandered back after they looked. There’s a coffee shop there. It’s…it was…one of her favorite…” Her voice broke as her eyes filled, and she finished in a whisper. “She might find her way there.”
    “Ah, hell, sweetheart.” He crossed to her quickly, pulled her out of the chair and folded his arms around her.
    She hit him in the chest with both fists. “Don’t you call me sweetheart! Damn you, where did you—where—” But the tears were winning, her words broken apart by sobs. “I wanted you last night! I needed you, and you pulled a vanishing act!”
    “I know, honey. I’m sorry. So sorry. Cry it out. You can hit me later. Hate me later.”
    At first she tried to break loose, but he held her too closely. Or maybe she just gave up. It felt too good to have his arms around her, his strength to lean on. So she cried.
    It didn’t last long. Dixie didn’t understand how some people could cry for hours—when tears hit her, they hit hard and fast. And left just as fast, like a storm in the desert.
    Once she was through crying, she pulled away. She didn’t want to, which infuriated her. She wiped her face, sniffed, and looked around for the tissues. Crying always made her nose run.
    Cole handed her the box.
    “Thanks,” she said, making it as cold as she could. She blew her nose.
    “Have you had any sleep?”
    “A little. And before you ask, I’m not going to go lie down. Later I’ll have to. I don’t have to yet.”
    He studied her face a moment. “All right. I’ll tell you what happened last night, but later. How’s your mom? I could take over here for a bit so you could go see her.”
    “She’d just send me back here. Or tell me to sleep—as if I could.” Dixie sniffed one last time and tossed the tissue in the trash. “It’s ridiculous! She blames herself, as if she could have timed her heart attack better!”
    He nodded. “I should’ve known you came by that tendency honestly.”
    She scowled. “What are you talking about?”
    “Tell me you aren’t convinced you should have somehow kept this from happening. Maybe you think you should have stayed with Jody last night. You had no idea you would be needed, but you ought to have guessed. Or maybe you should have intuitively known that your mother’s heart was going to act