Page 49 of The Heiress
Chapter 15
Phoenix
There was a reasonI used my crutches at the Country Club. And it wasn’t because I was tired from playing tennis with Taylor earlier, or that I’d run on the treadmill after breakfast. No, it was because I didn’t want anyone asking me when I’d be back on the courts. When I used my crutches, I found people tended to be more sympathetic and therefore less likely to ask that dreaded question, “Will you be back playing soon, Phoenix?”
And I know people had good intentions, keen to show their support for me, but it could get nauseating having to repeat myself over and over—Yeah, I don’t know, recovery’s going well, hopefully soon, one day.So yeah, basically I was using my crutches as a crutch.
It was my rumbling stomach that led me to go in search of food, expecting to see Mom, Elisha and Mr. Frank at a table in the restaurant. I’d decided to delay eating, preferring to stay with Taylor to watch and analyze her next opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. Okay, I admit, it wasn’t the real reason. I was avoiding being with Elisha.
Yeah, Elisha was making me crazy, giving me all sorts of feelings that I didn’t know what to do with. One minute she’d be comforting me, holding me in her arms, the next she was keeping her distance as if I had the plague. And she’d given back my hoodie, even offering to wash it for me! Wasn’t it a thing that girls never returned hoodies—or was that only if they actually liked the boy?
When I got to the restaurant, Mom and Mr. Frank were sitting together. Alone. Without Elisha. And Mom had a plate in front of her, hardly anything left on it, a few salad leaves and sprigs of herb. It should have been a moment to cheer about, but the absence of Elisha and the fact that they were at a table set for two alarmed me. “Where’s Elisha?”
Mom frowned. “Isn’t she with you? She said she was going back to watch.”
“No. She isn’t.” A weird panic swept through me, weird because Elisha’s whereabouts suddenly seemed like the most important thing in the world.
“She said she was going to wait with you,” Mom said, her pitch raising an octave. She wiped her napkin across her mouth and pushed her chair back. “Excuse me, Brandon,” she said, standing, “I won’t be a minute.”
“Everything all right?” Mr. Frank asked.
“I’m sure it is,” Mom said, almost race walking across the floor. “Maybe she’s in the restroom?”
“What? For twenty minutes?” I scoffed in an accusatory tone as if this was all her fault.
“Or wandered around the club?” Mom was grasping at straws. “Can you call her?”
“She doesn’t use her phone,” I said.
“She said she’d eat later. With you,” Mom said, and I sensed her worry was escalating by the second. “Goodness, I hope nothing’s happened to her.”
Mom barged through the restroom door like a shopper at the Black Friday sales. And a minute later she barged out. “No, she’s not in there,” she said, words that caused my heart to sink. “Are you sure she’s not watching?”
“No, she’s not,” I said a little too sharply, totally unwarranted, but it was like I was blaming Mom for Elisha’s disappearance.
“She wouldn’t have gone home, would she?” Mom said, immediately answering her own question. “No, she hasn’t got a key. Phoe, I’ll look around here and see if anyone’s seen her. What was she wearing? A pink sweater?”
“Jeans, white sneakers and carrying a pale green Fendi jacket.”
Mom batted her eyelashes at my precise details, but hey, I couldn’t help that my memory retained certain things.
“I’ll drive down to Covington,” I said. “She might have gone down there.”
“Yes, good idea,” Mom said, now in a fluster. “Stay in touch. I’ll just let Brandon know what’s going on.”
