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Chance was nervous about me going to meet Cassie Dickenson by myself, but unless we wanted to cancel the appointment, there weren't any good options. He made me promise to text right before I got to the ranch and as soon as I left.
I walked into the airport with him and waited while he checked in his gear. Before he got into the security line, he gave me one of his brain-freezing kisses. "I can't believe I won't see you again for a few weeks," he said. "I wish we could have a long talk tomorrow night after your meeting, but we'll be in the woods at that point. I hate not being able to help with this. If you need to talk to someone, call Tom. I probably won't be able to call until Friday or Saturday."
"It'll all work out. I'll be cautious," I said. "You be careful too."
I did good keeping my emotions under control until I was in the rental car in the parking garage with the doors locked. After shedding some tears, I calmed down and checked the directions for where I needed to go. I exited from the airport and headed south.
The last time I took a road trip by myself was when I moved from Georgia to Idaho. This one was much shorter, and I had plenty to think about. On the way to airport with Chance, we stopped at a convenience store, so I could load up on junk food for the road. I had bottles of sweet tea and a selection of sweet and salty snacks to keep me going. I started the drive with phone calls to everyone I needed to catch up with. I talked to Krista, Mama, Laurie, and Tom all before I reached Hillsboro.
"Call Gracie Layne," I said, and the phone obeyed. As usual it went to voice mail. "Hi, Gracie Layne. It's your sister, just checking in to see how things are going. Did you hear any more about the job with DHS or anyone else? Call when you can and let me know what's going on in your life."
It was probably ill-advised, but I decided to call Jim. It didn't feel right to have talked to everyone else and not him. "Hi, Jim. It's Everly."
"Hi, Everly. How's the trip going? Are you finished with the hunt?"
"Yeah. It was fun. Chance said I did OK. Of course, he might be a little biased."
"I'm sure you did great. When are you going to be back in Wilkins' Gap?"
"I should be back in a couple of days."
"When is your wilderness medical training?"
"It starts on the weekend, so I'll only have a couple days at home. The schedule is kind of crazy."
"Make sure we all get together while you're here."
"I could try to smooth over my next question by saying that it may sound crazy, but you know me well enough to know crazy is pretty normal for me."
"I'm not sure I follow. What's up?"
"When we had the conference call about Gracie Layne's interview with DHS, I could have sworn I heard the Oglethorpe University Carillon in the background. We're you in Atlanta on a secret spy assignment you didn't want us to know about?"
He laughed. "You caught me. Actually, I was in Atlanta. I got a last-minute holiday invite from an old college friend."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I knew if you found out I was in the area, you'd feel like you had to include me in your holiday celebrations. I figured you had enough on your plate explaining Chance to your mom."
"You're probably right. Did you have a nice visit?"
"Visit?"
"With your college friend?"
"Oh sure. It was great." He was telling the truth about being in Atlanta, but he wasn't telling the truth about the reason. There was still something going on with him that needed investigation, but it would have to wait.
I considered telling him where I was headed, but Chance and I had agreed not to mention my meeting with Cassie to the others until we saw how things worked out.
I made a pit stop in Waco and spent the rest of the drive thinking about my interview with Cassie.