“Bella,” he murmured.
“You came,” she gasped, looking up at him.
Her face was pale and her eyes were haunted. She looked so desperate that her words didn’t land on him for a second.
Then he felt them like a punch in the chest. Of course he came. He was out the door before he even ended the phone call. How could she be surprised that he was here?
“Have you heard from him yet?” he asked, fighting past his own hurt feelings.
“Nothing,” she said.
“I got Landon Cole on the phone on the way over,” he said. “He let me know you already called this in, but he’s out patrolling personally. After we talked, he sent a guy to the bus service to check everything that’s gone betweenhere and Burlington all night. And he’s going to coordinate with city force as well.”
“You… you called the sheriff?” Bella breathed.
“Yeah,” Cash said. “Of course. I’m calling in all my favors. I’ll get a helicopter out here if we have to.”
“He’s not going to Burlington,” she said sadly.
“Why not?” Cash asked.
“We were there last night for his guitar lesson,” she said. “He would have run then if that’s where he was going. Cash, he didn’t even take anything. His guitar is still under his bed, and your hoodie and notebook are on his desk, and he hasn’t let that notebook out of his sight for five minutes since you gave it to him.”
If Cody had been reading his old notebook, then maybe…
“I think I know where he is,” Cash said.
“You do?” Bella asked.
“Come on,” he told her.
He took her hand, and they moved quickly down the sidewalk. The town looked so picturesque under a mantle of snow, with pine boughs and holly decorating all the shops and the pavilion in the park. He had pictured it in his mind a million times since leaving home. He’d never thought he could feel so torn apart in a setting that felt so safe and so beautiful.
And he was sure that his feelings paled in comparison to Cody’s.
Please let him be there…
A million different emotions fought for his attention as they walked on. He was scared for Cody, but also hurtby Bella’s words, and angry that she would think so little of him.
You’re not the kind of guy who sticks around.
She had her reasons. He was sure of it. Just as he’d been giving Cody the benefit of the doubt since last night.
The two of them had started up a near-constant text stream that had just cut off abruptly yesterday afternoon, right when he knew Cody should be getting home from school. But he just figured the kid had his own stuff going on. And even though he did his best to just be cool about it, he’d ended up messaging Bella last night and asking her to have Cody get in touch, secretly wondering if maybe the boy had been grounded or run out of minutes on his phone or something.
Maybe I have to stop giving people the benefit of the doubt,he thought to himself as they reached the library.
“The library?” Bella asked clearly doubting that they would find Cody at her place of work. But that wasn’t why Cash thought he was here.
“Around back,” he told her.
They passed the brick building, and he was relieved to see footprints in the deeper snow between the back of the library and the big maple tree.
“The treehouse,” she breathed.
“I used to hang out up here all the time,” Cash said quietly. “If he’s been reading my notebook, he knows all about it.”
Bella nodded, the worry in her eyes melting into hope.
