My phone rang.
“Sassy, just tell me if he’s okay,” I said before she could say a word.
“He’s fine. Just a moody bastard,” she grumbled. “He’s upset because he thinks you’re put off by his lack of experience.”
My stomach fell. I needed to find him and make sure he knew how crazy that was.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I hoped he was headed to your place.”
“Any other ideas besides his apartment?”
“Well, Hudson’s in Dallas, so maybe Stevie went to the pub to keep Charlie company?”
I felt my jaw tighten. Hobie was a small town. I already knew Charlie and Stevie had been out on a date. Even though Stevie had told me Charlie and Hudson were together, I knew what a flirt Stevie was. And if he was mad at me, I could see him turning his flirt factor up to a thousand to get back at me.
If he was with Charlie, I was going to have to rein in my jealousy since I didn’t own the poor man. I thanked Sassy and made my way to the unfinished pub, which turned out to be just as dark and empty as Sugar Britches.
I was torn between having to admit he was avoiding me and continuing to look for him like a deranged stalker. What if he just wasn’t that into me?
Twenty minutes later I pulled up outside of his apartment. My compromise with myself was checking one more place only. Not the Wilde Ranch. Not the hospital coffee cart. Just his home. If he wasn’t there, I’d acknowledge defeat and go home.
I strode up the stairs and knocked on the door. No answer. I knocked again. This time a little girl came up to me from the stairs to the parking lot.
“Mrs. Jodi isn’t here,” she said. “I’m not apposed to tell you that, but you’re a firefighter right?”
I looked down at my uniform. “Yes, ma’am. Do you know if Stevie is home?”
She shook her head, braids with little pink plastic clips on the end bounced around her. “No, sir. He went to Dallas for work. Mrs. Jodi was here, but Willow said she left after he did.”
I ignored the comment about Dallas, assuming it was amisunderstanding, and thought of Stevie’s little sister, who couldn’t be more than six or seven. “Is Willow home alone?”
The little girl shrugged. “That’s what she said. My sister said as how she needs to come be with us for supper so’s she’s not all by herself.”
She turned and banged her tiny fist on the door, calling out for Willow. Finally, the door opened a smidge on the chain and a tiny nose peeked out, followed by a pair of eyes the same light purple as Stevie’s. They widened when she recognized me from the times I’d seen her at the bakery.
“Chief Paige,” she cried with a grin, pulling the door open hard only to have it bounce closed again when it hit the end of the chain. We heard the rattle of the chain before she threw the door open again. “Is something on fire?”
I knelt down to her level so I didn’t loom over her. “No, sweetie. I came by to say hi to Stevie, but your friend here said he’s at work.”
She nodded. “Yeah. He said he has to go to his job in Dallas and won’t be home till very late. Past my bedtime. Mama said I have to watch the clock and go to bed when it has a nine and two zeros.”
Dammit. I was a mandatory reporter in the state of Texas. If I suspected child neglect, I was legally bound to report it within forty-eight hours. But if I reported his family to Child Protective Services, Stevie would most likely hate me.
What would he want me to do?
“Willow, do you know the name of the shop where your mama works?”
“The Snake Snake?” she asked. “I think?”
There was a shop attached to a local gas station called the Vape Snake. I pulled out my phone to find their number. Before dialing it, I tried Stevie one last time and left him a voicemail.
“Hi, sweetheart. Listen, I know you’re upset at me, and I’m sorry, but I’m not calling about that. I’m at the apartment, and Willow is home alone. I want to find out what you want me to do besides try to get a hold of your mom.”
After I hung up, I texted him the same basic message and thentexted Sassy what was going on in case he’d answer a call from her instead.
Then I called the Vape Snake and discovered she no longer worked there.
