I went into the Sea Hopper looking for Jodie like I’ve been doing most nights since I got back from tour. But like every single night, she wasn’t there.
She hasn’t been at any other bar or cafe or restaurant. I’ve tried them all in a fifty-mile radius up and down the coast. But I keep coming back to the Sea Hopper, the place where we met eighteen months ago, the place where our one incredible weekend started and ended.
But Seth’s looking at me like I’m a naughty child, not his colleague in the security firm and brother in arms from our Special Forces days. A thought occurs to me.
“How did you know I was there?”
Seth looks away, and I know he’s been up to no good. He’s the IT expert in our security firm. I know he doesn’t always use ethical means.
“I was watching on the CCTV.”
That doesn’t surprise me, but I am touched by his dedication to keeping me out of trouble.
“You were checking up on me?”
“Someone has to.”
He takes my arm and leads me to his car.
“You’ve got to pull yourself together, Kieren. You can’t keep pulling shit like this. If Bronn found out, you could be off the team.”
That’s a sobering thought. Bronn runs the security firm he set up for his old Special Forces team once we all got out of the military.
Security is a good job for a man who’s only ever known the military. But since my one weekend with Jodie, I find it hard to care about anything else. If I just knew where she was, I could stop this stupid search, going to bars every night and drinking more than I should.
“Why don’t you just let me look her up for you?”
It’s as if Seth can read my mind, which wouldn’t be too hard since it’s been stuck on the Jodie page for the last eighteen months.
It’s not the first time Seth has offered to find her for me. Sure, I’ve looked her up on social media, but it’s hard to find a woman when you only know her first name. There are a lot of Jodies in the state, and none of them are her.
We kept it impersonal on purpose, believing it was a one-off thing. But Jodie ran off before I told her I wanted more. Then I was deployed, and now she’s vanished without a trace.
“I don’t want you invading her privacy.”
Because hacking into God knows what to find her is something I can’t get behind. It may have worked for Seth to get his woman, but I won’t disrespect Jodie’s privacy that way.
“Suit yourself, man.” We reach Seth’s car and I slide into the passenger seat. “But you’ve got to stop getting into trouble like this. If you want me to help you find her, I will find her. But if you don’t want me to, then you’ve got to let her go. You’ve got to move on.”
He starts up the engine, and we ride in silence to my place. I stare out the window at the lights going past and know there is no way in hell that I’ll ever move on from Jodie.
2
JODIE
“Will three changes be enough, or should I pack four?”
The phone’s on speaker on the bed, and even though I can’t see her, I can feel Clare’s eyeroll.
“Stop stressing already.”
Holding up a stained bodysuit, I discard it and rifle through the drawer, looking for something that is clean and not too worn. I can’t send Layla to daycare on her first day in dirty clothes.
“I just want it to go smoothly for her.”
“Three changes will be enough. What’s the worst that can happen? They put her in a spare set from the lost and found and you have lots of washing to do?”
My sister’s comments are supposed to be comforting, but all it does is remind me of the water bill that’s overdue and the fact I’m having to ration the heating to one hot bath a week because it’s all I can afford.