Rumor Has It Read online

  the pleasure.”

  “You’re forgiven.” She paused. “For all of it.”

  “All of it?”

  “For you being a complete stubborn ass and all.”

  “Ah,” he said, something funny in his voice that she couldn’t quite place. Tension, certainly. Regret? Maybe . . . She tried to figure out what he might be thinking, but she’d never had much luck with that. Her stomach jittered. Nerves, unhappiness, emptiness, pick one.

  So this is what it felt like to have a hot fling go bad . . .

  “Adam’s got a crew in the woods and search dogs,” he said. “I’m going to join him.”

  That’s when she realized he was dressed in S&R gear. Nodding, she hugged herself as he started to go. Then he paused. “This isn’t your fault,” he said.

  She shook her head. “You don’t know that. Maybe he ran away because of his bad grade in spelling.”

  “Don’t do that, Kate. Don’t doubt yourself. You know who you are and what a great teacher you are.”

  She looked to the woods instead of into his eyes because she was afraid she might break. “Just find him.”

  She’d never asked him for a single thing, and they both knew it. A muscle in his jaw bunched, but he didn’t say anything else before he left.

  The street filled with people who wanted to help, including her family, Ryan, Holly and Jade, Donald Reid. Hell, half the town, it seemed. With dark coming, people organized into search groups and fanned out in every possible direction.

  And then the unbelievable happened.

  Tommy came up missing as well.

  It was like a nightmare, a bad Criminal Minds episode. One minute he was there, and then the next he was gone. Kate turned in a slow circle on her street, the warm, cozy, wonderful street she’d been so happy living on, as a shiver of dread raced up her spine.

  This isn’t your fault.

  Grif had told her that himself, and he never said anything that wasn’t one hundred percent true.

  But she still felt responsible.

  Tommy had gone after Dustin himself. She knew that. No man left behind, but the thought of him out there in the woods terrified her. She called Griffin.

  “I already know,” he answered. “I’m on it.”

  “Your app,” she said. “You can find him that way, right?”

  “Yes. Kate, I want you to trust me on this. It’s going to be okay,” he promised, sounding so calm and absolutely confident that she found herself nodding as if he could actually see her. She did trust him. Damn him. She disconnected and then nearly jumped out of her skin when someone slid an arm around her waist.

  Ashley.

  Her sister smiled wanly at her and handed her a steaming cup of hot chocolate. “You holding up okay?” she asked.

  “Yes. It’s going to be okay,” Kate assured her. “I think Griffin and Adam know where they are.”

  Ashley nodded. “Just in case, I’ve got Dad researching all the known trails that fan out from these woods.” She made Kate take the mug. “Drink it,” she said. “You’re cold and the sugar will help.”

  Kate took a sip, looking at her sister over the lid of the cup.

  “I know,” Ashley said. “I’m good in an emergency, right? Who knew?” She paused. “They’re going to find them. Tommy’s going to be okay.”

  Kate’s throat went tight. “I know.”

  “He has to be.” Ashley swallowed hard and looked away. “We’ve already lost mom. We can’t lose him, too.”

  Kate set the mug down and hugged her sister hard. “We won’t.” Her phone rang from her back pocket.

  “The boys are safe, and physically okay,” Adam said.

  Kate let out a relieved breath and had to lock her knees. “They’re together?”

  “Yep. Grif’s got them. He just called it into me and wanted me to call you right away. Kel’s calling Trevan Anders now.”

  She hung up and realized Adam had said “physically okay,” which relieved a lot of her angst but certainly not all, not by a long shot. She wanted to go to them but, one, she didn’t know where they were, and two, she had Ashley standing there looking terrified. She gave her the news and then they told their dad.

  Ashley let down her tough-girl guard to shed a few tears. “I do love that little freakazoid.” She clung for a moment. “Kate?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I don’t wanna go away to college.” She said this in a rush and then sucked up another breath. “That’s your dream, not mine.”

  Kate squeezed her and pulled back just enough to look into Ashley’s eyes. “You’ve been holding on to that.”

  “Yeah.”

  Kate smoothed Ashley’s hair back from her face. “Are you ever going to tell me what your dream is?”

  “WSU Spokane.”

  Washington State University was only thirty minutes from home. A good, solid school.

  “I could commute,” Ashley said. “And stay at home. I love it at home. Is that weird? Wanting to stay close to Dad and Tommy? I just feel like it’s my place, you know?”

  Kate swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled, then pulled Ashley in tight again. “It’s wonderful. I—” She broke off, going still. Her place. “Oh my God.” She pulled free.

  “What?”

  “I know where they are.” She should have known sooner. Clearly Griffin had caught on immediately. With “physically okay” echoing in her brain, she took off running around the back of her building to the trail she used for her torture slash exercise. Past the park and Larry’s bench.

  Larry sat up as she passed.

  “Hey,” he said. “Popcorn?”

  “Later, Larry, I promise!” She kept going, up to the dam, and once there, she pulled out her phone, calling Griffin. She heard it ring in her ear and . . . nearby.

  From her place, her spot. Her tree.

  She disconnected and stared at Griffin, who pointed up to the tree house.

  She craned her neck. “Tommy?” she called. “Dustin?”

  There was no movement, but she sensed four eyes peering down at her in the dark. “I know you’re up there.”

  Still nothing, and Griffin just raised a brow at her.

  “No one’s mad,” she said to the silence. “Everyone just wants to see you both.” She paused. “Please don’t make me climb up there. Because I will, and you both know I hate heights. I might cry all over the both of you.”

  The beat of silence was short this time, and then there was some rustling. Tommy’s face appeared, pale and anxious. “Dustin wants you to pinkie swear that he’s not in trouble. Not for this and not for before.”

  “Before?” Kate asked.

  “When he almost got caught by you the last time he hid up here.”

  Kate went still. “The day of the wedding? When someone ran behind me in the woods? That was Dustin?”

  Tommy nodded solemnly.

  Kate let out a long, shuddering breath. “Dustin?” she called. “You have no idea how happy I am that it was you that day. You’re not in trouble for that. And you’re not in trouble now. Pinkie promise.”

  “You have to come up here to do it,” Tommy said.

  “Tommy,” Kate said. “I’m not going up there. Now get down here. I want a hug, and then I want to smack you upside the head. I am not climbing a tree.”

  “Have to,” Tommy said solemnly.

  Kate looked at Griffin. “Can’t you do your S&R thing?”

  “I already did.”

  She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the tree. “I’m in a skirt.”

  “I won’t let you fall,” Griffin said.

  Famous last words. Because it was far too late. She’d fallen for him a long time ago. But then again, he knew that. He knew everything.

  The stubborn ass.

  Saying not a single word, he crouched down and put his hands together, fingers laced. A foothold.

  A stubborn ass who was still there for her when she needed him. “Are you going to pinkie