Page 53 of Not that Impressed
I put a hand on her shoulder and make her turn toward me. She glares.
“The last thing we need right now is Hollis leaking this voicemail and turning the story on you,” I say reluctantly. I gesture toward the phone. Her shoulders fall and her anger dies quickly. She bites her bottom lip as she taps through the prompts and deletes the voicemail.
She turns back to me, eyes wide and bright with tears about to fall. “I didn’t even think…” Her voice is wobbly.
“And that’s okay.” I take her by the arms. “You’re allowed to be scared right now, El. It’s okay if you lose it, because I’m here. Right beside you.”
She presses her face into my chest, and I wrap my arms around her. “Tell me everything’s going to be okay.”
I summon the calmest, most sure voice I have. Even better than the one I use when it’s third and inches and the game is on the line, and I need my defense to step up.
“Everything is going to be fine, Ellie.” I can’t really promise this, but it’s what she needs to hear right now.
She nods determinedly and moves away from me. Then shesteps up to the curb and starts talking to the taxi drivers. In Spanish. Considering she’s holding up her phone and switches between pictures of her sister and of Hollis, I can guess that she’s trying to find out if any of them picked them up last night or if they know who did. I hover behind her, trying not to appear menacing, and probably failing. More than one driver peers over at me with trepidation.
She walks up and down the curb for over an hour with no luck.
Then the downpour starts.
Ellie stands in the rain, searching for drivers she hasn’t talked to yet. I take her hand and pull her back under the awning of the arrivals area. “Maybe different drivers work in the evenings.” I hug her against my side since she won’t take her eyes off the cars pulling up and stopping at the curb. “Let’s go to our hotel, out of the rain, and start calling around.”
Her face falls in disappointment but she nods.
“You speak Spanish,” I say when we’re in the back of an SUV and on our way to a hotel that her mom already has booked for us.
“Yeah.” She pulls out her phone. “I took it all through high school and then in college. I figured it would be a good skill for a businesswoman in Texas to have.”
“It is,” I agree. “And it could help us find your sister that much faster.” I reach over and take her hand, grateful for the tiny smile she gives me.
She scoots over into the middle to sit next to me and calls Libby a few more times. It goes straight to voicemail, and every time it does, Ellie looks up at me with worried eyes. She tries Hollis a couple more times, but it only rings a few times before it also goes to voicemail. The texts to Libby don’t show that they’re delivered. Hollis doesn’t read the ones Ellie sends to him.
She pulls up her Instagram and picks a picture of her and Libby taking a selfie together at a Pumas football game. They’re both grinning, and with Libby’s hair in a ponytail high on herhead, she looks so young it’s like a punch in my stomach. She doesn’t bother with any photo edits and adds the caption:My sister Libby has been traveling in Mexico and hasn’t been in touch with us since yesterday. If you’re in the Cancun or Cabo areas or know anyone who is, please keep an eye out for her. We just want to know that she’s safe.Reach out if you know anything.
“It’s time to leverage my ten million followers for something important,” she says when she posts it. There has to be a chance someone has seen Libby, right? I squeeze Ellie’s shoulder in support.
“We’ve got this,” I murmur. She puts her head on my shoulder, and I can only watch as silent tears slip down her cheeks.
CHAPTER 23
ELLIE
The rainy streets are like rivers of dirty water. I want to be out there, going door to door to the hotels and showing them my sister’s picture, but I can’t. I’d have to swim to every spot.
Ellie
Libby. Please just let me know you’re okay.
Like every text I’ve sent since we landed, there’s no notification that it’s delivered. If Libby’s phone is dead, why hasn’t she charged it? Fear keeps snaking its way heavily through my stomach, even when I try to banish it with Will’s reassurances. Grayson and Libby must be holed up somewhere in this mess too. They’re not out sightseeing or anything in the rain.
I press a hand to my forehead. Unless they did go out on the ocean and now they’re shipwrecked!
Will’s hand finds my arm. “What’s the last hotel you called?” he asks, gesturing to my laptop on the desk in our hotel room. I don’t know how he always senses when I’m spiraling, but he’s been doing this the last few hours—coming to stand by me, touching my arm, giving me a hug—whenever I’m about to convince myself that all hope is lost.
“This one.” I point to a name on the screen. He leans overand kisses my forehead, dialing the number for the next hotel on the list. Mom and Janelle created the list, and they’ve been working on calling all the hotels since early this morning. They sent me the list of Cancun hotels for Will and me to work on when we retreated to the hotel because of the rain. It goes faster for me than the other three since I know Spanish, but most of the hotels in resort towns like Cancun have someone who can speak English.
We’re calling the cheaper hotels first. Grayson probably isn’t destitute, but he also hasn’t played for a team since last season. It’s unlikely he whisked Libby off to an all-inclusive, high-end resort. So far none of the hotels we’ve called have guests under either Hollis or Libby’s name. Not that they’re disclosing to us anyway. I can’t help but be worried that we’re wasting our time.
I check the social media post I made earlier about Libby. It’s been shared thousands of times already, thankfully, but most of the comments are well-wishes that everything turns out okay or my fans begging Libby to call me. There’re also the trolls who’ve come out to accuse my parents of horrible parenting and me of making things up for popularity, but I’m used to ignoring those. My assistant will skim through any DMs that come in and let me know if they have information that helps us, but there’s nothing new from her either.
