Page 41 of So Much More
“Are you looking for someone?” the hostess asks from behind me.
“Yes, a woman with red hair.” I spin toward her and hold my hand five feet from the floor. “About yea tall.”
“I haven’t seen anyone this morning who looks like that. Sorry.”
I quickly make my way back across the lobby to the other restaurant, where I repeat the process with another hostess.
“Someone matching that description was here, but she left a couple minutes ago.”
I look at the ceiling and take a deep breath to calm myself as my heart descends to my feet. “Did you happen to see which direction she headed?”
“No. Sorry.”
I once again rush back into the lobby, hoping to catch a glimpse of Andrea heading out the door or to the elevators. I don’t spot her, but I do spy my brother walking toward me.
“Is she still here?” he asks.
“I just missed her. What are you doing here?”
“I had the valet park the car. You’re paying for it, by the way.”
“Whatever. I don’t care.”
“Do you know what room she’s staying in?”
“No. And I don’t know her last name, so I can’t ask the front desk to call her room. There’s no way they’ll do that if all I have is a first name.”
“You could try O’Halloran. That’s maybe not her name, but you could give it a shot.”
“No, that’s Wendy’s stepdad’s last name.” He’s not technically her stepdad, since he adopted her, but I don’t have time to go into the entire explanation with my brother.
“Oh. Try anyway. You’ve got nothing to lose.”
The man at the front desk is no help. Without a last name, he refuses to attempt to find an Andrea amongst the hotel’s guests. There’s no doubt he believes I met her at a bar last night and am trying to track her down.
I trudge toward where my brother is waiting for me in one of the lobby chairs.
“I’m going to have to leave the state. Thecountry.There’s no coming back from this with Wendy, is there?” I drop into the chair next to his.
“Wendy’s a good woman, but I don’t know how understanding she’ll be about this double whammy.”
“She shouldn’t be understanding at all.” I shut my eyes and try to ward off yet another bout of nausea.
“Open your eyes back up. We need to watch for this woman, in case she went back up to her room for a few minutes before heading out for the day. She might come back through the lobby.”
I open my eyes as hope fills me. “You’re right.”
“What does she look like?”
“Wendy.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“They look enough alike to be twins, apparently.”
We wait for two hours before I’m willing to give up, but when Ash says he needs to leave to meet up with Leslie and her family, I realize waiting any longer isn’t going to help. I need to go home, psych myself up, and then tell Wendy what I’ve done.
sixteen
