“Can I go with you?”
“I thought you were heading to the pier with Dara?”
“Dara’s still going, but there’s no reason for Mama to drive there.”
“Uh, yeah, okay. Are we… waiting for Ted?” The last thing he wanted to do was make small talk with the man under the circumstances.
Devon walked past him and kept going toward the truck he’d parked down the street to give the family members plenty of room in the driveway.
“No.”
No? “He’s not helping with the search?”
“Not unless he sees her at the airport,” she muttered dryly.
Oz fell into step beside of her. “Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Your call.” They kept walking, and at the fast pace she’d set, they reached his truck in seconds. He hit the key fob and opened the passenger door for her, hurrying around the front to climb behind the wheel while fuming at the fact the guy had abandoned her again.
He jabbed the key in the ignition and got them in motion.
“You’re upset,” she said softly. “I can tell.”
“I’m worried about your mom. What’s his excuse this time?”
“He… He has to return to New York tonight. He couldn’t stay and help.”
“Couldn’t—or didn’t want to?”
“You know nothing about our relationship, Oz.”
“So you’ve said before.”
“He’s an important man, all right? He has to be there for a gala that’s being held in his honor. I’d promised to be there with him, but now that my mother is missing—”
“Poor guy had to leave you here to handle it alone? Sucks for him,” he said, unable to keep the derision from his tone.
He glanced across the interior and found her gaze quickly shifting from him to the window beside her.
“It’s complicated,” she said. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“No, I guess it is beyond my comprehension, because to me, a fiancé or boyfriend or whatever you’re calling him today should be by your side during times like this. Nothing is more important than you and Rayna Jo and Dara right now.”
Devon yanked on her seat belt to readjust it at her neck and gripped it in her fist.
Oz glanced down and glared at the rockless finger on her hand. Even though it wasn’t there, it was. Binding her to someone who didn’t appreciate her. She knew her own mind, always had. Did he have it wrong? Had she changed that much?
“Finding Mama is the only thing that matters now. Let’s focus on that.”
Love is blind. Wasn’t that the saying? he mused, shooting a glance her way before turning his attention to the road in front of him.
Blind, deaf, and dumb, he added, wondering how a man could be so stupid as to think anything more important than family.
Devon’s return couldn’t have had worse timing. He’d been pondering life a lot of late, thinking it was about time he found someone to create a life with. Maybe have children?
But after seeing her again, he knew he’d have to start over when it came to forgetting her. Because until he managed it, he didn’t want to treat a woman as second best, which was exactly the way Ted treated Devon.