Love At Peace (Hometown Heartstrings #3)

Chapter 6

Roarke

T he first couple of days after Heather told me to leave her alone were the hardest to get through. I missed her with a sharp ache in my heart. And I hated that our last interaction had ended with her crying. I’d never lose the awful memory of her crying like that, alone and stubborn to refuse any comfort.

But those two days were extra hard because I could not locate my niece. Nevaeh was nowhere to be found in Burton, almost as though she suspected I was looking for her.

I still had no answers. I was still in the dark about what she was up to, if she’d done something illegal, and if she had more poor intentions. From the day she’d shown up here, she was closed off about what she wanted.

And I was sick of it.

Going in to work helped. I put in as many hours as I could to keep my mind off the womanly drama I vowed I’d never allow in my life again.

Gavin approached me as we wrapped it up. He smacked his work gloves on his thighs as he walked, sending dust and debris flying out from the impacts.

“Hey.” He tipped his chin up at me. Today had been a long one. Whatever could go wrong had. Whatever could be screwed up was. Sometimes luck, fate, and karma—or whatever bullshit people wanted to believe in—just didn’t pan out.

I saw the exhaustion in my friend’s eyes. He looked every bit tired and grumpy as I felt.

“You want to drive around again and look for Nevaeh?” he asked.

I huffed a faint laugh, not quite amused by how solidly he stood by me but by the sheer determination he wouldn’t shut off for my niece and caring about my problems.

“Again? Are you sure?”

He nodded. “You’ve got to find her and figure this shit out,” he said. “So if I can help, yeah, I’ll help. You’d do the same for me if the roles were reversed.”

Damn right I would. “I appreciate it, man.”

“No wor—” He furrowed his brow, turning his head as I did to the person rushing through the barn doors at this end of the huge structure.

Heather?

It was her, all right. Dressed in a skirt and blouse much more appropriate for her desk job at the bank than striding in here among all the dirt, hay, and dust. Her appearance was such a contrast to all of us readying to leave for the day.

“Heather?” Todd noticed her first, frowning at her hustling toward us gathered near the door before we headed out. “What’s going on, hunny?”

He shot me a quick look, apparently thinking I’d know.

I shrugged, clueless because I hadn’t seen her lately. I was just as instantly concerned as he was though. I hadn’t talked to her since our last argument—the first real one we’d had as a couple.

I couldn’t let that color my perception of her right now though. Her brow was creased, her face pinched with what could only be stress and worry. Something was wrong. Or rather, something else was wrong now.

“Have you seen Eric?” she asked.

Todd grunted and scowled in concentration. “Eric? No. Course, I haven’t.”

“Why not?” Heather asked.

“Well, cuz he took a coupla days off or somethin’ like that,” Todd replied. “He sent me a text a while back saying he had some house stuff planned before Thanksgiving.”

She shook her head as another ranch hand spoke up. “Nah, man. That’s what I was saying this morning. That Eric was supposed to be back yesterday.”

“Oh, you keepin’ the schedule of everybody now?” Todd teased.

“No,” the man replied. “But I know that he’s been trying to save up his vacation time and all so he could take more time off in the spring to deal with the window replacements at his house. He should’ve been back.”

“Shit.” Heather tightened her coat around her. It wasn’t as cold in here as it was outside, but I doubted she was doing that to stay warm. More like she wanted to hug herself. I wished I could hug her. That I could comfort her. But I knew better than to suggest it. She’d made herself clear, and I had to try to accept that she was shutting me out.

“He’s not anywhere then,” she concluded.

“What do ya mean?” Todd asked.

“Are you saying Eric is missing?” Gavin asked.

Heather nodded. “I heard that he—” When she looked at me, she frowned harder.

More rumors? You’re taking stock in more rumors? I wanted to challenge her on the spot about doing that again.

“He’s missing,” she amended. “I just looked at his house and he’s not there, either, even though his truck is.”

Todd scratched his stubble-covered jaw. “I ain’t followin’ ya, hunny.”

She drew in a deep breath, lifting her shoulders as if to brace herself to talk more. “I was in town walking around for the toy drive collections today. When I stopped in at the hardware store, Jonas told me that Eric hadn’t come in to pick up a part that he’d ordered. He told him that he’d have to let someone else get it, and he reminded him a few times, but he hasn’t come in to get it.” She glanced around us all, almost as though she hoped someone would perk up with an aha moment of knowing where her cousin might be.

“I called him. I checked at his house. I looked through the windows...” She shrugged. “I’m not sure what to think of this now that he’s not here, either.”

Todd grunted. “Hey. Nick, you’re right,” he said, glancing at the ranch hand who’d spoken up. “He didn’t ask for today off.” The old man switched his chew to the other cheek and furrowed his brow. “Eric shoulda been here today. That was my mistake.”

“So...he is missing?”

“It sounds weird that his truck would be at home,” Gavin said. “Maybe we should have Marty look into this.”

“I’m worried something might have happened to him,” Heather admitted nervously. “It just doesn’t seem right.”

“I agree with ’im,” Todd said of Gavin. “We should call Marty up and see what he thinks about this.”

I watched Heather, waiting for her to protest at the thought of asking for official help from the police. It seemed that she was already struggling with coming here. Asking anyone for anything was the last thing I bet she wanted to do, but maybe that was just a sign of how worried and spooked she was about not being able to reach Eric.

It was unusual for Eric not to show up. He was reliable like that, always doing what he was supposed to do.

She’d been adamant about no one getting into her business—ever. She refused to talk to Marty about David. Yet, she didn’t speak up against the idea of talking with the cop now.

“If nothing else, he can do a well-check,” Gavin said. “Just to make sure nothing’s going on.”

“Something has to be going on,” she replied weakly.

“He’s been sick lately, too,” I told Gavin as he got his phone out to call Marty.

“Yeah. Sounded like a nasty cold.” He nodded as he lifted his phone to his ear.

“But he was better,” Heather argued. “When I saw him last, he said he was on the mend.”

I nodded, knowing that already since I’d seen him at work since he was off sick, but I had heard him dealing with a lingering cough.

“I ain’t seen him at the bar lately,” another ranch hand said.

“Yeah. Me neither.”

“He’s sort of quiet, you know?”

Heather nodded at all the men speaking up while Gavin spoke to Marty on the phone.

He hung up quickly. “Marty said he’d like to meet you at Eric’s place.” Then he glanced at me and opened and closed his mouth. “Would you want to ride with one of us, or...?” He shrugged. “Instead of more cars going to the same place?”

Todd huffed a laugh. “Want to ride with me, hunny?” He was quick to pick up on the tension that came with the slight suggestion of expecting Heather to be in a vehicle with me.

“Thanks, Todd.”

Once she walked out with him, Gavin nudged my side. “You coming with me?”

I nodded, irked that I couldn’t be the one to comfort Heather. It was obvious that we wouldn’t let her handle this on her own. We came together on the ranch because we were coworkers. Beyond that, we were friends. But more than that, we were all neighbors in this town and this would have to serve as proof to Heather that we all looked out for our own.

Gavin drove to the house Eric wanted to flip, and on the way, he called Wendy on speakerphone to see if she’d heard anything about Eric being missing.

“Well, I haven’t heard anything about him dating anyone,” she replied.

It peeved me that we were relying on gossip for clues, but I supposed that was an important factor of small-town life that couldn’t be ignored. If Eric was seeing someone in town, he could just be playing hooky with his lover.

Eric? Playing hooky? Nah. That’s not like him.

We pulled up at Eric’s house, parking behind Todd’s truck. Marty was already there, likely able to get there sooner because Eric’s place was closer to town than Grand River was.

“Hey,” Marty said in greeting to us all. Heather nodded an acknowledgment at him and approached him first.

I hung back with Gavin while Marty looked around the house with Heather. Her voice carried, and I was glad that she wasn’t being secretive about the little she knew with him.

Secrets were harmful. That was just common sense. But Heather didn’t apply her need for confidentiality when it was about someone else’s potential well-being.

“Wonder where he could be,” Gavin said, kicking absently at the tall grass that was sprouting up along the rudimentary sidewalk pavers that Eric would likely replace.

“Me too,” Todd said. “And—”

Chirps sounded from the overgrown thicket Gavin was kicking at. It didn’t sound like a bird or other living being. It was more like an electronic noise.

“That sounds like a...” I lowered until I grabbed it.

“Phone.” Gavin nodded. “Marty!” he called out.

Marty and Heather jogged toward us out front, and I handed the phone to him.

“I don’t know his passcode,” Heather said.

Marty shook his head. “We’ll figure it out, if we have to. But his lock screen shows enough.”

He turned the device around for us to see the lines of notifications that had come through.

The first line to a text from an unknown number read: I’ll be at the apartment later tonight.

The next read: No. I’ll come over and pick you up.

“That accounts for why his truck would be here,” I said.

“But that means he’s been gone since last night?” Heather guessed.

“There are only so many apartments around here, though,” Marty said. “That’s a start.” With a glance at Heather, he asked, “Want to ride with me?”

Once more, she looked at me. If I had to borrow hope and let it get high, I would’ve thought she wanted to go with me. To be near me. She was staying strong but I saw the slight signs of sign cracking her.

“Yeah. Let’s hurry, please,” she replied, tearing her gaze away from me.

I sighed, following Gavin to his truck to go along with them.

She might not want me to butt into her life. She said she wanted me to give up on anything happening between us.

But I saw the longing and worry in her eyes.

She could tell me to fuck off, but I saw the evidence of how much she wanted me near, too.

You can be mad at me all you want, gorgeous, but I’ve never been a quitter.

And I’m not about to give up on you. On us.