Page 3 of The Sweet Life

“I’ll call you if there’s a problem, but I’m sure they’re fine. Now go, and let us know if…whenyou find Alice,” Brenda corrected herself, biting her bottom lip as she glanced at one of the photos on Sage’s desk. It was of Alice and Sage on the day Sage had received her JD degree from Harvard.

“Are you sure? I haven’t had a chance to review anything with…” She couldn’t remember the junior lawyer’s name. Sage hadn’t been a part of the hiring process, even though she’d asked to be.

The one and only female senior partner at the firm, and the lawyer who’d hired Sage, had recently retired. She’d been an old friend of Alice’s. She would have made sure Sage had been involved in the hiring process. She’d always had her back.

“That’s why you have me. Now get out of here. Wait!” Brenda called.

Sage stopped and turned, sighing when Brenda motioned to the phone still clutched in Sage’s hand. She brought it to her ear. “Nonna, I’ll see you in a couple of hours. Call me with updates, okay?”

“Si, si, you drive carefully. Try not to worry. I’m sure Alice is fine,” her grandmother said before disconnecting.

Carmen didn’t sound like she believed that Alice was fine any more than Sage did.

“I’m about a mile out,” Sage told her sister, who’d called with the latest update.

In the time it had taken Sage to get from downtown Boston to the outskirts of her hometown, SBPD had begun organizing a search party. They were doing a grid search from the farm to where Alice’s bike had been located. They had at least five miles to cover.

The police were working on the theory that a driver, blinded by the setting sun, had accidentally hit Alice, panicked, and left the scene. They surmised that Alice had been hurt and wandered away from the accident site, either in search of help or in a state of confusion.

“Sorry! I’m going to join another search team with my sister,” Willow called to someone.

“No, you go with them, Will. I want to talk to the police and the search coordinator. I’ll catch up with you.”

“Are you sure? You and Alice are so close. I don’t want you searching for her with a bunch of strangers. What if—”

“Don’t.” She cut off her sister before she could voice Sage’s own fears. “Alice probably went for a walk on one of the trails at the farm with her earbuds in, completely unaware of the fuss she’s caused. She’ll be mortified when she finds out.”

Instead of turning right toward the ocean, Sage headed left.

She had a general idea how to get to the farm. When she was younger, she’d accompany her mom to pick lavender every summer. Her mom was the crunchy granola type—low maintenance, into yoga, all-natural products, and reducing her carbon footprint. Sage wouldn’t have been surprised if her mom bought the farm, but she’d been shocked Alice had. “I’m going to the farm.”

“Sage, I don’t think that’s… Fine. We’ll meet you there,” her sister said, and began calling out the names of the Rosetti family and the Monroes, Willow’s newfound family.

It sounded like everyone had turned out, including Sage’s aunt Cami, who’d been estranged from the family for more than two decades. Last summer, they’d discovered she was Willow’s biological mother. It didn’t matter to Sage. Willow would always be her sister, even if she was technically her cousin.

The traffic was heavier than Sage expected as she got closer to the turnoff to the farm. Then she saw why. There were several police cars and emergency vehicles parked on the side ofthe road. She slowed her silver BMW and pulled off onto the gravel shoulder, noting a line of vehicles behind her doing the same.

Her stomach dropped when two German shepherds and their handlers walked over to the group of law enforcement officers. Somehow, seeing the search-and-rescue dogs hit harder than seeing the photo of Alice’s bike in the ditch. It made it more real. Alice really was missing.

With every intention of joining the search, Sage reached over the red leather seat for a pair of white sneakers. She kept them in her car on the off chance she’d have time to get in a walk on her lunch hour. They’d never been worn.

She slipped off her sensible heels and then opened the car door. A warm breeze carrying the sweet scent of lavender filled the car. The day promised to be hot for late May. It was ten thirty and already seventy-two degrees without a cloud in the bright-blue sky.

She took off the cream linen blazer with the black tuxedo side stripes that she wore over a black etched floral blouse and a black skirt, laying it on the passenger seat before slipping on her sneakers. As she got out of the car and shut the door, locking it with the app on her phone, a man caught her attention.

He had his back to her, talking to a group of first responders. They seemed to be paying close attention to whatever he was saying. She didn’t think he was law enforcement, though. He wore a white T-shirt, faded jeans, and a pair of scuffed brown leather motorcycle boots. This didn’t rule out that he worked at SBPD, but she knew most of the members of the small force and didn’t recall anyone with his longish,copper-streaked brown hair. Nor had there been anyone as tall or as muscularly built as this man the last time she’d been at the station to bail out her mother. Sage would have noticed him.

But he did have an air of confident authority about him, she thought as she crossed the road. The group started to disperse, and she hung back as he talked with one of the handlers, waiting to introduce herself. Then she saw him holding Alice’s favorite blue plaid flannel shirt. “Where the hell did you get that?”

Chapter Two

When the man turned his familiar cool-blue gaze on Sage, she staggered back two steps. He reached out to steady her, his warm hand and strong fingers closing around her forearm.

“Give us a minute,” Jake said to the dog’s handler.

The dark-haired woman nodded while giving Sage a sympathetic smile.

It was the sympathy in the woman’s expression that shook Sage from her shock. “I don’t need a minute,” she said, pulling her arm free.

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