Page 66 of Kian

Okay.

As she stared at her phone, her mother entered the kitchen.

“Well?” she asked, noticing Gretchen’s worried expression.

Gretchen let out a weary sigh and handed her phone to her mother, who read through the messages with furrowed brows.

“I feel like he’s blowing me off,” Gretchen finally admitted.

“What? How do you get that from these messages?” her mother exclaimed in disbelief. “Gretchen Janette, what is wrong with you? He’s just busy.”

“But one minute he’s asking if he can see me later, and then when I suggest coming to the cabin, he suddenly has to go.”

“Maybe he arrived at the sheriff’s office. Don’t jump to conclusions again,” her father interjected as he entered the kitchen.

Gretchen knew they were right, but she couldn’t shake off her doubts and insecurities. She hoped Kian would keep his promise and call her soon so they could clear things up, but she shook her head.

“Mom, instead of typing all that out, he could have just said he’d see me there.” She saw her father wince. “What was that for?”

“I…” He shook his head.

“No, tell me.”

He looked at her mother and then back at Gretchen. “You might be onto something.”

“Hugh Casteel, what is wrong with you?”

“Come on, Clara. I’m not going to lie to her. She’s right. Instead of typing all that out, he could have typed ‘I’ll see you there,’ and he didn’t. Nine words shorter than what he sent.”

“Did you actually count them?”

Gretchen looked at her father and saw him sheepishly grinning.

“I did.”

She bit her lip to stop a smile from forming, but when she glanced at her mother and saw her rolling her eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh before getting up from the table.

“After lunch, I’m heading home.”

“You’d better keep in touch. If he doesn’t show up, I want to know because I know you’ll be feeling hurt.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow. I have to make a call to the gallery anyway to let them know the shipment is on the way.”

Her mother nodded but kept her eyes on her, and Gretchendidn’t know what else she could say because she knew her mother was worried about her.

After having lunch and hugging them goodbye, Gretchen got into her SUV and drove home, unable to stop thinking about Kian. It didn’t matter that her mother thought he was on his way to the sheriff’s office or that her father had a similar opinion. In her mind, he could have easily typed something different.

“I need to give him the benefit of the doubt,” she muttered to herself.

She decided to wait and see if he actually showed up at the cabin. If he didn’t, she would be beyond pissed.

****

Kian took a seat in Sheriff Sam Garrett’s office, while Killian leaned casually against the doorframe, arms folded.

“I’m not making much progress on this case, but I do have some additional photos for you to review, Kian,” Sam said, turning his computer screen toward him. “I’ll send them to your email so you can go through them. There are quite a few.”

“Sounds good, Sam. I’ll take a look,” Kian replied, giving his email address.

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