“SETH!”
“Hmm?” The way Mitzi’s voice had sharpened, he had a feeling it wasn’t the first time she’d called his name.
“I’ve got the layouts for the new brochure. Do you have a minute?”
“Sure. In fact, you’re exactly the person I wanted to see.”
“That’s unusual,” she muttered, placing the mock-up on his desk.
He glanced at the thing. “That looks great, Mitzi.”
“Are you feeling all right? You always hate everything I do.”
“No, I don’t. We have differing opinions from time to time. You do a fine job.” He smiled warmly. He’d been smiling warmly at everyone today. And the reactions had shocked him. From puzzled looks to nervous grins to Mitzi here, with her mouth hanging open. It gave him the uncomfortable feeling that he might have been less than pleasant the last few days.
“You go out a lot. What’s the most romantic restaurant you know?”
“La Pergole.” A dimple appeared. “So that’s why you’ve been so weird lately.”
“Sorry about that.”
“You had a fight and you want to make up?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s so romantic. No wonder you’ve been such a grouch.” Her face brightened in a playful grin. “As soon as you initial your approval on this brochure you like so much, I’ll give you directions. It was written up in ‘Best Places to Kiss in the Pacific Northwest.’”
He ignored the blackmail and signed. “Best Places to Kiss”…that sounded good. “How’s the food?” Like he cared.
“Mouth watering. You’ll kiss and make up before dessert. At least I hope so, for all our sakes.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been kind of…uh…grumpy. It’s been a tough couple of—”
The phone shrilled insistently on his desk. He frowned. Stella always held his calls when there was someone with him. Unless it was important. “Excuse me,” he muttered to Mitzi. “Seth O’Reilly here.”
“Seth. It’s Melissa.”
Pleasure coursed through him at the sound of her voice. “Melissa, I was just thinking about you.”
“I’m so sorry, Seth.” She sounded near tears. He made bye-bye motions to Mitzi, who was eagerly listening in.
“I’m sorry, too, honey.” Mitzi gave him a thumbs-up and waltzed out with her signed layout.
“Did they leave you a note?”
“Who? What note?” He reached for the extra strength antacid pills his doctor had recently prescribed.
“Oh, God, Seth. It’s the girls. They’ve gone to the Bravo Boys Concert.”
“They what?” he shouted, jerking to his feet.
“I—they sent home a note with Matthew. I’m going to drive down to the stadium and try to find them.” She had that super-calm voice he remembered from the first day he’d met her when the twins had been so sick. But now that he knew her better, he heard a quaver underneath the calm.
“Don’t move. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
He sprinted out of his office. “Stella, if the twins call, find out where they are, tell them to stay put, and call me immediately on my cell.”
“Trouble?” the startled woman asked.
But he was already through the stairwell door and he didn’t pause. Oh, yeah, there was trouble.
When he pulled up at Melissa’s house, Matthew and Alice were waiting outside with their coats on. “He’s here, Mom,” the boy shouted through the open door.
Seconds later, Melissa appeared with her coat and purse, and locked the door behind her. He couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t planning on bringing a couple of little kids on a manhunt, was she?
Her eyes were wide and anxious as she opened the rear door of the Volvo.
“Wait. Melissa, they’ll slow us down.” He motioned to Alice, already half in the backseat.
Her tragic eyes widened. “I don’t—I’ll take my car. We’ll meet you there.”
But he couldn’t do it. He’d only be worried about her and her kids as well as his own two. “No. Get in.”
She hesitated.
“Please.” He got out and opened the other rear door for Matthew.
She nodded briefly and within a minute they were on their way. “I called the school, but no one there knew anything, except they were at school all day, so they don’t have too much of a head start.” She was calm. Businesslike. Whatever fear she was feeling, she had it under control. “I also called the bus line while I was waiting for you. I have the probable route they took. If we can overtake the bus, that’s our best chance.”
She didn’t explain, and she didn’t have to. If that concert wasn’t sold out, it was damned close. Tens of thousands of concert goers would be milling around. He pictured drinking, drugs, even a riot. Anything could happen. If they could nab the girls before they got off the bus… He pressed down on the accelerator.
He could practically hear Melissa’s teeth grinding in the seat next to him. Momentarily, he’d forgotten Alice and Matthew in the backseat. Ashamed of taking foolish risks with those he loved, he slowed the car.
She gave him directions to help him track the bus route, and he followed them.
“I think that’s it.” Melissa said beside him.
And sure enough, ahead of them was a bus. He pulled in behind and followed it. The tension in the car was palpable as they followed the lumbering vehicle. Several blocks went by before the bus signaled.
“It’s stopping,” Melissa said.
He nodded. “If there’s a place to park—”
Already she was grasping the handle. “Pull in behind. I’ll go.”
So he did. And she did. After several tense minutes of waiting she returned. Alone. Her head shake was pretty unnecessary under the circumstances.
He watched the bus pull away as she slipped back into the seat beside him. “Given the timing, the driver thinks they’ve probably already reached Seattle Center. He’s going to try to get hold of the other drivers and if anyone remembers the girls, they’ll call your cell.”
He nodded. Grim. Knowing she was as worried as he was. And that he could trust her completely. She couldn’t love them more if she were their biological mother. The thought didn’t even surprise him, the way it would have a few months ago. He pulled away from the curb. “Should we call the police?”
“Won’t there be police outside the concert? For crowd control?” There was an awkward pause before she resumed, with false brightness. “Not that they’ll be hard to spot. Redheaded twins.”
“Are Laura and Jessie getting arrested?” Matthew asked hopefully from the back.
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Cool. Maybe they’ll be on ‘America’s Most Wanted.’”
He shot a glance at Melissa and they exchanged a look—the kind of look that parents everywhere swap when a kid says something outrageous. There was a world of unspoken communication in that glance. Understanding and the kind of intimacy shared by parents who work long and hard raising children together. He pulled his gaze back to the road, but not before he’d seen her small, reassuring smile. “It’ll be okay,” that smile said. He had to believe it.
Apart from Alice getting all excited every time they passed a bus—she’d picked up that this was somehow a very special event—the rest of the drive passed in virtual silence. As they drew closer to the stadium, the traffic got heavier, the sidewalks and crosswalks were thronged with people, scruffy-looking deadbeats most of them, as far as Seth was concerned. And bus after bus came from all directions. “What the hell were they thinking?” he finally roared in mingled frustration and terror.
She didn’t murmur any safe platitudes, merely reached over to squeeze his hand in sympathy and support. He felt the trembling in her palm and knew she was as anxious as he was.
The traffic was hardly crawling, and somewhere out there with all the riffraff, druggies, drunks and perverts were his precious daughters. He couldn’t sit there. “Take the wheel Melissa. I’m going to flag down a cop and get some help.”
“Yes. All right.”
“Everybody got their doors locked back there?” He craned his neck around and checked to be certain.
“I hate to leave you like this,” he said to the outwardly calm woman at his side.
“No. You’re right. We can search different areas. Let’s make a time and place to meet.”
“No. Honey, take the kids home. I’ll call you.”
“We’re not leaving, Seth.”
“But—” His cell phone rang. With a quick glance at Melissa he answered, “Seth O’Reilly.”
“Daddy,” a small scared voice said, bringing an immediate lump to his throat.
“Red. You okay?”
“Yes. We’re so sorry, Dad. We didn’t—”
“It’s okay, baby. Where are you?”
“At McDonald’s,” she sniffled.
He glanced up, and hallelujah, there it was a few blocks ahead. He’d never been so glad to see those golden arches in his life. “Is it the one near the stadium?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Is Jessie with you?”
“Yeah.”
“We’re on our way. Stay put.”
Through the aggressive use of his horn and by shouting the word emergency out the window until he was hoarse, he managed to cut his way through the jammed cars. Of course, the restaurant parking lot was full when he finally got there.
“Go on in. I’ll park. We’ll join you in a few minutes,” Melissa said.
“I can see them in the window,” Matthew piped up. “Look.” And there they were. Two identical curly red heads, in identical dejected poses slumped at a table near the window.
All the relief he felt was mirrored in Melissa’s eyes. He didn’t have time to say everything he wanted. He leaned over and kissed her lips swiftly. “See you inside.”
She was flustered and blushing. He grinned as she pulled away. Then stowed the grin as he marched toward the restaurant.
“Hey, Red,” he said softly as he approached.
The twin heads flew up and both girls threw themselves at him. “We’re sorry, Dad.”
“Please don’t be mad.”
He hugged them both tightly, not sure which of the three of them was trembling hardest. “I’m glad you’re safe. We’ve been worried sick.”
“We?” Laura searched behind him.
“Melissa and the kids are with me. She’s parking the car. We started tracking you the minute she got your note.”
“I’m sure glad we left that note,” Jessie said.
“We weren’t going to,” Laura admitted.
“Let’s all sit down again and you can tell me about it.” He sat on the hard plastic chair and listened.
The confession was halting at first. They’d won four tickets from the radio contest. “We wanted to surprise you and Melissa and take you to the concert,” Laura said. He’d told them to their faces about fifty times that they were too young for a rock concert, but he refrained from reminding them of that now.
“Then, when we were going to Hawaii we figured we wouldn’t be able to go. I mean, I guess you guys getting married and us going to Hawaii is more important than one Bravo Boys concert.” He had to hide a smile—she sounded pretty unsure of the equality of the trade-off.
Laura seemed to have stalled, so Jessie took up the tale. “Then you weren’t getting married anymore, and it was so awful. Everybody was mad at everybody and we figured you’d say no if we asked again.” She shrugged, guilt written all over her face. “So we didn’t ask.”
“What made you change your mind about going through with it?”
They both blushed. Laura finally spoke. “On the bus it was fun, but when we got here it was awfully crowded. There were lots of kids, but they all had grown-ups with them.” She looked at her sister, as if wondering how to proceed.
“Then this guy came up to us,” Jessie continued. “He was weird. And he smelled—you know how Uncle Fred used to smell before he started going to AA?”
The familiar burning started deep in his gut. He nodded, dreading what might be coming.
“He hung around and kept trying to talk to us. He said stuff about ‘little twinnies’ and how he likes redheads cause they’re so hot. We were totally grossed out. Then Laura yelled, ‘Hi Dad.’ I was scared because I knew you’d be mad at us, but she grabbed my hand and started running. It wasn’t you. It was somebody else’s dad, but we tagged along behind them and pretended we were with them. They came in here, then we hid in the bathroom. We didn’t come out for a long time, but the weirdo wasn’t here.”
“But we were too scared to go back on the street. So we called you.”
There was a pause, while he searched for the right words to say. “You were wrong, girls. You know that, don’t you?”
Mute nods.
“You’ve learned firsthand why Melissa and I refused to let you come.”
“But lots of families are together. It would have been okay if you guys had come with us.”
“But not alone,” he reminded her sternly. “I guess you’ve learned your lesson, though. It wasn’t very pleasant what happened tonight, was it?”
Mute head shakes this time.
“I’m also proud of you.” The heads jerked up, identical questioning looks on their faces. “You handled a difficult situation very well. That was smart of you, Laura, to attach yourself to a family. And even smarter to call me and stay here until I arrived.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
“Me, too.”
A great wave of tenderness engulfed him. “Me, too,” he replied a little huskily.