CHAPTER16
- DAX -
With a take-out box of pie still in my hands, Millie leans into me and presses her lips to mine. I don’t even break the kiss as I set the box on the hood of my Jeep so that I can thread my fingertips into her long hair and angle her face, tasting her more deeply.
Another weekend comes to a close.
She broke away from work for a few minutes so she could say goodbye to me this Sunday evening. She didn’t even wait until we turned the corner and were out of sight from the diner before taking my hand.
Progress.
My lips part, wanting so much more than just a kiss. And I take in her breath, feeling stronger for it and yet weaker at the same time.
“You know, you’re kind of messing with me, Dax,” she says when our kiss ends.
“I am?”
“Yeah. I used to love seeing the weekend end just because things would slow down at the diner. Now, it’s the opposite.”
“I think that’s a good thing. Isn’t it?”
She giggles, pressing her hand against my chest. “It depends on your perspective.” She kneads her fingertips into my shirt for a moment and then drops her hand to her side with a sigh. “I really better get back.”
“Me too.” I retrieve the pie from my hood. “See you next weekend.”
“See you then.” She steps backward and I love how she seems to not want to take her eyes off me.
Until she does.
And then I just get pissed off.
I get into my car and as soon as I hit the ignition, I catch myself saying, “Call Mason,” to my car’s voice recognition app.
“Do you want me to search for masonry contractors?” it chirps back to me in that annoying voice.
“No. Call Mason Adler.” I spit out each word with perfect pronunciation.
“I found something you might be looking for,” it replies. “Masonry Advantage is located in Emmitsville, Louisiana. Would you like me to call them?”
I groan, glancing in my rear-view mirror as I pull to the side of the road and curse my reply. With my car stopped, I tap Mason’s number, put it on speaker, and pull back into the traffic.
“Hey! How are things down south?” he greets me.
“Good. How about there?”
“Eh, it’s been an interesting one. We tried out a preschool last week and they actually left our kid out on the playground by herself at recess.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Yeah. I mean—no. Really happened. They figured out she was missing after just a few minutes and luckily she was still sitting inside one of those little tunnels they’ve got on their play equipment when they went to find her. And they didn’t even tell us about it.”
“What?”
“Yeah. One of the other kids told her mom and then her mom told Freya. At first, we thought maybe the kid got it wrong because Astrid didn’t even remember being out there by herself. She was just happily hanging out in the tunnel. But when Freya called, they admitted it.”
“Holy crap. You’re not sending Astrid back there again, are you?”
“Hell no. But now Freya doesn’t trust any of those places. It’ll be at least a year, I bet, till she tries a new one.”