My heart gave a thundering stutter in my chest. “You have it all. And you’re not going to lose it being two miles away.” Hell, I’d spend every night on that blasted back-killing couch of hers if I had to. Anything so she never felt alone again.

40

Caelyn

“Hey, Molls,” I greeted as she entered the store for her afternoon shift.

She made her way to the back of the store, eyeing me carefully. “Are you okay? You tore out of here with that mountain of a man yesterday before I had a chance to talk to you.”

“Sorry. Things have been a bit extreme lately. I really appreciate you and Max closing.” The explanation sounded lame even to my ears, but there wasn’t a lot I could share with her. Parker was trying to keep a lid on my mom’s murder until he had more information. And that meant I hadn’t told the kids yet.

Guilt gnawed at me. Will deserved to know. He knew something was up. But I thought he’d reasoned it away as me being tweaked about someone trying to take Ava and Mia. And he wasn’t wrong about that. I called the school at least five times a day to check on them. But what had happened to our mother… That terrified me to my bones.

“What’s going on?” Molly asked. “Did someone leave you another note?”

I shook my head. I had to give her something. “Someone tried to take the girls from school the other day.”

“What? Are they okay?”

I nodded. “They’re fine. Sue didn’t let him get past the office. But I’m freaked, to say the least.”

Molly rounded the counter and gave me a quick hug. “Of course, you are. That’s insane. Is there anything I can do?”

“I wish there was. Parker’s trying to figure out who’s behind all of this but so far, not a lot of luck.”

“I can’t imagine. Just let me know if you think of anything I can do to help. Whatever you need, okay?”

I smiled, and it wasn’t even forced. Some things about living in such a small community were hard, but so many more were wonderful. Like how so many folks had your back, no matter what. “Thank you. It means a lot.”

My phone buzzed in my back pocket. Pulling it out, I froze as the high school’s number flashed across my screen. This wasn’t happening. Not again. I hurried to answer. “Hello? This is Caelyn. Is something wrong? Is Will okay?”

“He’s fine, Caelyn,” the school’s secretary soothed. “But I’m afraid he’s gotten himself into some trouble. I need you to come down here.”

“He what?” Never. Not once in the past six years had I been called to school because Will was in trouble. It simply wasn’t in his nature.