Page 50 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

“Maybe you should get dressed first.” She pointed at his pants.

He glanced down. He was still in his flannel bottoms and t-shirt.

“And a shower might be a good idea,” she said.

Yes, that was an excellent idea. He changed directions and headed for his room. What he was doing was huge. He wanted to bowl her over. New clothes, clean clothes, a shower, and then he was going to win her over.

Then he remembered her recipe he’d tossed on the passenger seat, and a brilliant idea hit him.

Chapter 17

After another night of tossing and turning, Jo woke early and fixed the hives Tony had broken when he’d stolen the money from the register. She wanted to minimize the damage he’d done when she told Allie it was him. She was still going to fire him, and he’d be lucky if he didn’t do jail time. Allie was going to break up with him. There’s was no doubt in Jo’s mind of that. What Tony had done would be as inexcusable to her as it had been to Jo. But that didn’t mean Allie had to know the extent of his handiwork.

She was done with the hives by seven, and in the shower. She had to keep busy, between thoughts of Cash leaving her life forever and their last conversation/fight and thoughts of Tony, she was a mess. She got dressed in a hurry, threw her hair into a ponytail, and tried Allie again. She still didn’t answer. Then she tried Tony. Nothing from him either.

Ugh, they were so irresponsible. What if someone had died? What if she’d broken an arm and ended up in the hospital? What if their mom had a heart attack?

She paced the floor in her new apartment, ignoring the dishes she’d left on the table, and decided. She needed to find them. She pulled up Allie’s cell phone account online, guessing the password on her second try,sugarpiehoneybunch, and activated “find my phone.” As the computer went to work finding Allie’s phone, she did the dishes, ran the trash outside, and folded the couch bed back up.

Phone finder located Allie’s phone in the next town over, Charleston. Allie frowned. That couldn’t be right. Weren’t they going to see Tony’s family? They didn’t live in the state, much less twenty minutes from here. Well, there was only one way to find out. She wrote down the address, grabbed her keys and headed out.

***

Fifteen minutes later, Jo pulled her car up in front of a Greyhound racing track. She frowned. Allie didn’t bet on Greyhounds. Jo parked and got out of the car to look around. She marched up to the box office and caught movement behind the closed sign through the window. She went to the side door and knocked.

A lanky man with a comb-over answered. “You!” he yelped, then slammed the door in her face.

She stumbled back a step. What on earth? “Wait!” She knocked again. “Sir, excuse me. I’m looking for my sister.”

“Go away,” he screamed through the door, his voice way past hysterical, “or, I . . . I’ll call the police!”

She stared blankly at the door. Well, Allie wasn’t here, and even if she had been at some point this week, this man was insane. No way he’d remember her. Jo shook her head and headed for her car. Maybe the cops would have some idea of where Tony was by now. But if she was going to be driving around looking for them, there was something she needed to do first.

She grabbed her phone and called the Warners.

Cynthia answered after a couple rings. “Allie? Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, it’s just I’ve had something come up this afternoon. Would it be all right if we met up now to sign the contract?”

“We’re out to breakfast at Blue Shadow café, can you meet us here?” Cynthia asked. “The contract’s in my purse.”

“Absolutely,” Jo said.

“And what about the notary?”

That was Ethan. She could run by the sheriff’s office, grab him, run to the café, sign the contract, then grill him for information on the way back. “I can bring him, no problem.”

“Perfect,” Cynthia said. “See you soon.”

***

It ended up taking her twenty minutes to get back in town and find a parking spot. She ran from two blocks over to the café, glad that she’d called Ethan ahead of time when she saw him waiting outside for her. The two went inside and found the Warners sitting in the back at a table. The Warners signed first, and then Jo took the contract. Even though she’d read it four times, she began reading through it again.

She was halfway through when her phone rang.

“Sorry, one second,” she said, lifting a finger to the Warners, who seemed less patient today than she’d seen them before. She grabbed her phone and scowled at the unknown number. “Hello?”

“Jo?” came Allie’s voice. “Where are you?”

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