a step back, quickly arranging the features of her face to disguise the pull of fear and sorrow it was too late to hide. “It’s my dad. He’s … missing.”
Everything inside Levi came to a grinding halt. Missing.
Immediately Levi started flipping through the details he knew about her father … found his scowl deepening as he came up blank. Which didn’t seem possible. The way he knew Elise—the way she talked to him for hours at a stretch about her dreams for the studio, about books and movies, about local politics and pop culture, about her sister’s family …
But not her parents.
Parents, family and home life were subjects Levi was a master of avoiding. But until that very minute, he hadn’t realized how easy Elise had made it. Because she’d been avoiding them too.
Sure, there’d been a handful of stories from her youth. All white-picket perfection. A few more from high school. But nothing current. And yet he hadn’t even noticed.
Which took skill. The kind gained through practice.
Suddenly the ground beneath him felt loose and ready to give.
What was she trying to hide?
As he stared into the troubled eyes of a woman he cared too much about, ugly scenarios he didn’t want to consider rose to the surface of his consciousness.
“Heaven help us, Elise, tell me what’s going on.”
Elise swallowed, nervously checking the phone still clutched in her palm. “My father was diagnosed six years ago with Alzheimer’s. He doesn’t work, and my mother takes care of him at home.” After a breath, she turned to him, her eyes brimming with helpless tears. “Tonight she woke up and he was gone. The car and keys are still there, and so are his shoes. My mom’s got to stay at the house in case he comes back. She’s the only one who might be able to calm him down. They’ve already called the police and David’s driving around, but Ally’s home with Dex, and he needs another set of eyes.”
Levi nodded, the well of relief within him nearly enough to bring him to his knees. Alzheimer’s was a tragedy. And he pitied Elise’s entire family for the toll it had taken on their lives. But the scenarios he’d begun to imagine … had been much, much worse. What was wrong with Elise wasn’t about some seedy secret. It wasn’t a trip down a bottle-littered memory lane. And it wasn’t anything he could fix. But a missing parent was something he understood all too well.
“Okay, sweetheart. Call Ally back. Here’s what we’re going to do …”
An hour later, they were working their way through the grid of neighborhoods surrounding Elise’s parents’ home. Levi driving as Elise scanned the alleyways, sidewalks and gaps between parked cars. Ally riding with David, while one of Levi’s HeadRush managers, who happened to have six younger siblings, stayed with Dexter.
Elise stared out the window, eyes searching. “I didn’t mean to lie to you.”
Levi shot her a questioning glance.
“About my family being so great. You said they sounded perfect, and I told you they were because that’s how it used to be. And sometimes, maybe, I’d just rather pretend it still was.”
Levi watched the road. Taking in her admission and turning it around in his head. Knowing this was the opportunity to come clean himself. Ease her conscience by telling her about his own past.
Instead, he said, “You don’t need to apologize, Elise. You don’t owe me anything you aren’t comfortable sharing. But for the record, if you want to talk about it, I’ll listen.”
Her lips pressed into a flat line as she nodded too quickly, blinking back tears.
“It’s just hard for me to talk about. Hard to deal with. But at least if I’m the only one dealing with it, then when I don’t want to think about it—when I want to pretend it’s like it always was, I can. If you don’t know what’s happening, then you won’t ask me what kind of day my dad is having. What the latest news is on his medication. If he’s getting worse.” She swallowed, and closed her eyes a second before snapping them back open and scanning the streets.
Levi slowed the car, giving her time to reassure herself she hadn’t missed anything. Settling back into her seat, she went on. “Sometimes I just need to forget—be someone without all the worries.”
Someone without all the worries.
He understood the need to be someone else for a while. To take a break from the problems. But he also understood something else. “This is why you can’t come with me. Why leaving town, even for a few months, isn’t an option.”
“And why the studio is so important. It’s not just for me.”
No, he’d imagined it wouldn’t be. “What are you thinking?”
“That my mom’s spent the last six years at home taking care of my dad. Giving up a little more of herself each year, because she wouldn’t consider giving up the time she had left with him. Didn’t want to risk speeding up the progression of the disease with a change in surroundings or by bringing in unfamiliar faces. She just kept telling us she could handle it. Refusing to even consider that Dad might be at a point where he needs more help than she can give him. But after this—something has to change. And she’s going to need something to do. A place to go, to start rebuilding a life that doesn’t revolve around someone who mostly doesn’t know who she is anymore.”
He got it. “And you’re going to be ready. With a place for her to come.”
“She needs to be around people again. Get out of that house for more than a trip to the doctor’s office. The studio would be a base where she could spend some time with me. If she wanted to work, she could help out with the child care or handle the front retail area. I just want her to have options. I want to give her something she can count on.”
Because Elise knew what it was to feel as if her options were gone. To suddenly have everything she’d counted on taken away. Levi’s fists clenched over the wheel.
Yeah, now he got it, all right.
He hated that she had to go through this. But at least she wasn’t alone now. He’d stay with her, searching, for as long as she needed him to.
Reaching over, he slipped his hand beneath the tumble of silky curls at Elise’s neck. “We’ll find him.” He just hoped to hell it was the truth.
Twenty minutes later, the phone chimed to life, the screen illuminating behind the white-knuckled grasp of Elise’s fingers.
Slowing at a deserted intersection, he waited as she quickly connected the call.
“What’s going on?” she asked, still scanning the sidewalks. And then her head dropped forward, her free hand covering her face, and something wrenched deep inside his chest.
“Thank God. Where? … I can be there in … Are you sure?… Okay, I’ll see you then.”
Disconnecting, she turned to him, eyes shimmering bright.
“He’s okay?” he asked.
She nodded, her throat moving up and down in the exaggerated way it did with the buildup of too much emotion.
“Yes. David and Ally found him down by this restaurant we used to go to when we were kids. He’s fine. Tired and worn-out—which may have been a good thing in getting him into the car …” Her voice trailed off, and she looked out the window into the darkness of night. “But he wasn’t hurt.”
“Do you want to meet them over at your parents’ house? Is that where they’re going?”
“It is, but they don’t want me to come. David’s going to stay the night and then in the morning I’ll go over and we’ll meet with his doctor. Talk about options.” Leaning back into the seat, shoulders sagging with relief, she closed her eyes. “Could you just take me home?”
She