If he didn’t call, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. What if he’d tried once or twice and was giving up? This worry threatened to tip Olivia into a wave of panic. He’d promised to call on Sunday, and tomorrow would be Wednesday. How much time would he give her to return his call?

Thanks to last night’s internet search, she was pretty sure she’d found a way to contact him. When she wasn’t riding a wave of wild panic, she was determined to wait it out until Friday before doing so. She’d linked Gabe to a veterinarian’s office in the Rock Hill area. He’d mentioned he was taking over the practice of a retiring vet, and she’d found an article at his alma mater, Mizzou, linking him to the practice almost ten months ago. If he’d moved from there to a different veterinarian’s office, perhaps someone at the office could tell her where. The veterinary office she’d linked him to was owned and operated by a Dr. Albert Washington. Based on his picture, he was certainly at or near retirement age.

With any luck, she’d find her phone tonight and wouldn’t need to go that route, but it was reassuring to have a backup plan. She’d hardly been able to get Gabe out of her mind unless she was fully focused on something like teaching.

The final bell mercifully rang, and Olivia waited for her seventh-hour students to file out before logging off her computer and grabbing her already packed canvas tote and lunch bag.

As directed, Ava was parked at the back of the school, and Olivia spotted her bright-blue Jeep right away. Thankfully, her sister had promised not to show any property after two o’clock today. Sometimes Ava’s real-estate dealings could run three times longer than expected. And as far as Olivia was concerned, waiting any longer than she already had for both the dog and a sweep search for her phone was close to torture.

“You aren’t going to like this,” Ava said as Olivia tossed her bags into the back seat.

“Like what?”

“We’re having a late dinner with the fam.”

Olivia pulled open the front-passenger door. “Who called who?”

“Mom called this morning.”

Olivia had gotten a dozen Facebook messages from her hometown friends since Saturday attempting to confirm if the rumors were true. She’d known it was only a matter of time until her parents found out, but without her phone and having had to use Aunt Becky’s phone half-a-dozen times to coordinate her car repairs, she’d not had the energy to initiate a call to them yet.

“I knew I was going to regret not calling her first.” Olivia drummed her feet into the floor rapid-fire in frustration after buckling her seat belt. “So, did you tell her about Wes?”