Iris looks up, green eyes widening with joy.
Is this some kind of cruel joke?
Did she not realize what was between Cal and me?
My face breaks around a sob, and she is in my space a heartbeat later.
“Hey, Evie. What?” She holds me at arm’s length, her expression now reflecting mine. “What’s going on?”
“You—you sent me a message...” The words peter out. “About Cal.”
She’s shaking her head, her brows lowering more and more by the second.
“No, I lost my phone yesterday afternoon.”
“Youlostit?”
“Well, I had it on the counter by the register, like always. I went to call Em, and it wasn’t there. Hold on. Why are you here? Why,” she starts, her face lightening, hope filling it like flood gates opening. “Why did you come back?”
Her grip on my arms tightens, and she nods gently, as if that will coax an answer from my seized-up throat.
“The message . . . Cal’s in trouble.”
If Iris didn’t send it, then?—
God, fuck.
I sink onto the seat behind me. Gripping my hair in my hands, I keen through a low, raw noise.
It’s Joshua all over again.
Iris squats in front of me, her green eyes imploring. “I’m sure Cal’s fine. Did someone hurt you?”
I shake my head furiously. “Not me. Never me.”
Tears swell and spill over in rapid succession.
“Cal?” she says, straining, her head tilting.
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
I need Emmett.
I bolt from the chair and fly out of the café, sprinting to the watch house. The large building hanging over the water is easy to navigate. Searching each section, I find Errol in the watch room, feet on the large desk where they monitor all things marina and the surrounding seas.
He’s asleep, head leaning over the top of the office chair, his feet crossed and propped up on the desk to the left of the large radar screen.
“Errol!”
He bolts up, coffee sloshing from the cup on his desk.
“What the hell?”
“Where is he?”
“Where is he, who?” He turns to face me.
“Emmett! I need Emmett.”
