Page 83 of Falling Madly
He smiled the same disarming smile I remembered from the party, moments before Trevor had dragged me away.
“I’m not looking for?—”
“No hidden agenda, I promise! You just look like you could use a moment to catch your breath. And it’s cold out here.”
It was freezing, and I missed Trevor’s scarf more every minute. I missed him, too, but that feeling was more complicated. He knew about my past now, at least the worst of itin bullet point format, and he’d heard the Nevilles. I wanted to tell my side of the story, but I wasn’t ready. I needed time.
“Okay,” I said, circling the car and collapsing into the passenger seat. “Take me away from here.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Trevor
“Where is she?” I demanded of Charlie. “She can’t have gotten this far!”
We’d driven all the way back to town, me following Charlie and Bess in my car, scouring the roads leading away from the slopes, but Teresa had vanished.
“Has she messaged you?” I asked Bess.
She removed her gloves to check on her phone again.
“Nothing yet. I don’t think she’s seen any of our messages. She’s offline.”
Gentle snowflakes floated down, hitting our phone screens. We’d parked right outside the cafe, which still sported some pink decorations. The ones hanging from lampposts looked a little wilted, but there was nothing sinister about this winter wonderland scene. The terror existed purely in my mind.
“Was her phone out of battery? It must have drained while it was locked inside your car,” Charlie suggested.
“It was working when she picked it up. She messaged her sister.”
“Did she say it was running low?” Bess injected.
“No. But maybe it was. It must have been.” I was trying to calm myself down, but nothing was working.
She’d run off, upset, into the cold. I’d forced myself to not follow, to give her space. Tonotsuffocate her. I’d expected her to head for the car and wait for us there. I’d even unlocked the car from a distance. But she must have run right past it, either down the road or into the forest. There were no tracks leading off the road, though. We’d checked. The thick layer of snow made you sink in. She would have taken ages to trudge through, easy enough to track.
At one p.m. it was still light outside, but it was winter, and days were short, the temperature just below freezing. If Teresa was lost somewhere, we’d have to find her quickly. Yet there was the possibility she’d turned off her phone on purpose. On top of that, there was a potential murderer on the loose, already responsible for another missing tourist.
Was I jumping to conclusions again? Thinking I was protecting her when I was acting out of fear, having knee-jerk reactions?
But, as much as I tried to be the chill guy who gave her space, I couldn’t shake the ill feeling. Something was wrong and I had to get to her.
“Maybe she just needs a minute?” Bess suggested. “That whole thing with those douchey guys was awful. Who do they think they are, banning someone from town? I’m so glad you said something!”
What had I even said? I remembered how I’d raised my voice and how it had cracked from emotion. I couldn’t let those pricks have the last word. Maybe it was best Teresa hadn’t been thereto see it. This was not the new, snowman level of chill I was supposed to exude. If anything, I was getting more intense.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was about Teresa burning down a building,” Charlie mused. “They’re architects and developers. They tear down and build new stuff all the time, and they’ve obviously done very well. It’s not like she burned down the entire town and it’s still a pile of ashes… so what am I missing?” He scanned the buildings around us as if looking for evidence of fire damage.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But you’re right, it seemed personal.”
“Why did she do it?” Bess wondered. “She’s never mentioned anything. She didn’t even tell us she grew up here when we talked about the office move. She was just against it.”
“It’s making more sense now,” Charlie agreed. “I mean… she’s a fiery person.” He couldn’t hide his grin.
I threw him a dirty look. “She was sixteen and I’m sure she had a reason. It doesn’t even have to be a good reason. Everyone’s allowed a teenage blunder.”
“Totally,” Bess echoed. “Nobody is perfect.”
“I’m just worried she’ll never want to live here,” I said. “It’s not like the town has welcomed her with open arms.”
