A week before their high school graduation, Ellie's boyfriend walked her to her door and kissed her goodnight, just like any other night. But there was nothing ordinary about what followed. Austin disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again...
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3 months later "What time did you tell Alex we'd pick him up?" Ellie called from the kitchen. She was busy packing the chocolate cupcakes she'd made to bring to her sister's house. They were having a barbeque to celebrate Brielle's birthday, and it was the first time Alex was meeting her sister's family and her parents.
"Around two," I answered from the livingroom where I sat on the couch with Selma on the seat next to me, eyeing me like she was just waiting for me to make some kind of mistake. We had bonded some, but she still didn't fully trust me, and that was okay. I didn't fully trust her either, and we had time. There was no rush. I wasn't going anywhere.
I was there to stay.
It had been three weeks since I moved in with Ellie. Or technically, it had been three weeks since me and my brother moved back to Willow. We rented a three-bedroom house on the outskirts of town, but I'd spent every night except for two in Ellie's apartment. The first one was the night we moved in, and the second one last Saturday night when Ellie stayed with me.
We left her apartment at the same time in the morning. She went into BioloGen and I went over to the house and worked from the office space me and my brother had created in the third bedroom. It worked so much better than the dining room set up we had in Kansas.
My brother hadn't hesitated for a second to come along after Lloyd made it clear that it was safe for me to move back to Georgia. He'd been all for it, just like I'd expected. We'd probably moved even earlier than we did, but it took us some time to get everything in order, but hopefully this was our last move.
"I'm almost ready," Ellie continued. "I just have to change clothes. Alex knows we're bringing Bear, right?"
That was news to me.
"We are?" I asked her.
"Come on, Austin," she groaned. "We already decided we would. You said yes last night when we were watching the movie."
That's why. Ellie was watching the movie. I watched her and imagined everything I wanted for the rest of my life.
"Brielle will love it," Ellie continued as she hurried past me into the bedroom.
She probably would, but I wasn't so sure her father would appreciate it and so far me and Brian got along. I wasn't keen on rocking that boat. Bear was good and well behaved, but some people were still scared of him just because he was a German Shepherd.
***
I walked out onto Ellie's sister's back patio shortly after 2:30, with Bear at my side and my brother behind me. Clearly, I'd lost that discussion.
Ellie had been stopped in the kitchen by a very stern birthday girl who had a brand new tub of icing in her hands that she'd thrust toward Ellie as soon as she saw her. Pink, of course.
"Just go," Ellie said to me. "This will take a little while."
I knew from experience that it would take more than a little while, so I left Ellie with her niece and went outside. I was happy to see that there were only a few people in the backyard. Too much action would wound Bear up.
