Chapter Twenty-Six
“You two have ten minutes, then I’m leaving and you’ll have to come back tomorrow,” Colton threatened Kenny and Braden later that afternoon during their third try at the bookcases.
The boys groaned their displeasure.
“I gave you the instructions two hours ago and you still can’t figure it out,” he added so they understood how disappointed he was.
He’d thought his little lesson might spark some love of engineering, or at the very least, prepare them to be men—who never read instructions. But no. Ten minutes in, they’d already broken the scrench and lost three screws.
“I think we got it this time, Mr. Willis.” The boys stood to the side, glowing with pride. Braden even held out his hands presenting their work.
“Good. Now move them over to the wall and put that pile of books on them.”
“Any particular order?” Kenny asked.
“No.” He didn’t want to wait around while these two mastered the alphabet. He just wanted to get home to Angel.
As he tossed his things in his bag, eager to leave, he was stopped by a loud crack and the sound of books falling to the floor.
“I told you that wasn’t the way it went,” Kenny challenged his partner in crime.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Seven thirty,” Colton said as he rubbed his temples and sighed.
He was still muttering curses regarding the mental capacity of the neighbor boys when he pulled into the garage and got out of the car.
He would solve their problems tomorrow. For the rest of the evening, he would enjoy every moment he had with his guest.
The first sign something was wrong was the silence when he walked into the kitchen. Pudge wasn’t eagerly greeting him, tail wagging and dancing in a circle to go out.
“Hello?” he called as he moved into the living room.
It looked like the same living room he’d been walking into for the last year. There was no laptop on the coffee table, bracketed by guns.
No beautiful woman sitting on the floor tapping away, completely oblivious to her surroundings.
“Oh, no.”
He went out into the backyard and rushed to the gate. Across the alley, he opened the garage and went in. The space was damp and cool, but mostly it was empty.
His woman was gone. His dog was gone. And his 2004 Corolla was gone.
His life had become disturbingly similar to a country song.