“Oh, damn it!” She reached into her bag again and yanked out her cell phone to check it. “Finn hasn’t called. Neither have my parents. They call when something like this happens. If I’m even a minute late they get in touch with me. Why haven’t they called?” She started dialing a number and held the cell phone to her ear. After a few moments she cursed under her breath again and shoved the phone back into her bag. “No answer. This isn’t like them. What if something has happened?”
Simon held his hands up. “Just take a deep breath, Heather. We’ll fix this. I’ll go...put my clothes on and I can drive you to your parents. We’ll pick your son up, okay? Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” She shook her head. “You clearly don’t have children, Simon. That phrase doesn’t exist once you do.”
He rushed to get dressed while Heather kept calling her parents, with no answer. She managed to get a few buttons of her blouse connected and pulled a cardigan out of her bag, buttoning that up. She tried again and swore under her breath.
With his clothes back on, he walked over to her and pulled her close. “I won’t leave you until you get to your son.”
“Thank you.” Her body stiffened at his touch, but she put her head on his shoulder. “I hope everything is okay. Because I’ll never forgive myself if something has happened to him.”
SIMON THROUGH THE STREETS but it still wasn’t fast enough for her.
Night had fallen, and that only set her more on edge. Usually as soon as work was over she headed down to her parents’ house to pick up Finn. The routine was new since her divorce was recent, and she’d only just started working at Dover, Inc., but Finn needed consistency. Especially now. The divorce had been hard on her son, and he needed to know that she would always be there for him.
“Anything?” Simon asked as she checked her phone for the hundredth time.
She shook her head and shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat beside him. Nothing. Her heart squeezed painfully. What if something had happened to Finnley? Or her parents?
They were always in touch with each other. She was so close to her family that she couldn’t remember a day going by when she didn’t send a text to her parents or get a call from them. That was one thing the divorce hadn’t taken from her. Her relationship with her parents. Neither of her parents had liked Gary, but they never held her mistake against her. Heather couldn’t stand to think about something bad happening to them.
“Is there anyone else you can try calling?” Simon asked.
“No. It’s too late to get in touch with Finn’s school. Ordinarily I’d call my ex-husband, but he won’t be coming back into town until tomorrow,” she replied. “I don’t want to ruin what’s left of his vacation. It’s best if I figure out what’s going on before I call him and freak him out.”
After the hell she had given Gary over constantly missing chances to spend time with their son, she had gone and screwed up royally. Not that she could tell Simon that.
The thought of Gary made her groan inwardly. She had lied to Simon and told him that Gary was her brother. Shit, she couldn’t confront how deep her lies had gone tonight. If Simon ended up seeing her family, there might be some very uncomfortable conversations and revelations. Like why she had taken so long to pick up Finnley.
“This is all my fault,” she continued, staring out the passenger window as the city rolled by.
“No, it’s not,” Simon said firmly. “These things happen. Mistakes happen.”
The certainty in his tone irritated her. More than irritated her. “I forgot my son,” she said harshly. “I forgot him because I was with you.”
“You’re allowed to take time for yourself, Heather,” he murmured. His voice was so calm she wanted to start yelling.
Instead, she took a deep breath before she said something they’d both end up regretting. “I have never forgotten Finnley. Ever. For almost three hours I forgot about my son while I was doing things. With you.” Her face heated and she squirmed in her seat. “Things we should never have done.”