“We can all help,” Jane offered. “We’ll find her faster that way.”
“Yes, we can,” Mindy said. “Jane, go get your Pop Pop and Jonesy. I’ll go with you Creed. Where would you like for them to search?” She grabbed her jacket off the hook and pulled it on, wondering if Creed would deny her from accompanying him.
Creed looked anguished. “Can you go to Hawke Farm where my mother is waiting. She’ll know where Livvy’s friends live and you can start there. Maybe divide up the locations.”
Mindy and Creed hurried to his truck that was still running.
“Where are we going, Creed?” She asked once they pulled onto the main road.
“If she’s anything like me, she’ll find the one person she feels has always been there for her.”
“Alex, right?”
He nodded.
“What happened, Creed?”
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “She’s angry with me. Angry at everyone. She has reason to be hurt. I think we’ve all let her down.”
“Why did Melody leave?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Her career is waiting.”
“Livvy must be so upset.”
“Before Mel left she gave me something.” The low huskiness of his voice made the hair on Mindy’s neck stand. “The letter.”
She looked across the bench seat, seeing the moisture in his eyes. Tears blurred her vision too. A pain unlike any other filled her. “I understand you’ll never forgive me, but it’s not too late for you to build a relationship with Jane. She’s willing.”
“Does she truly want that?”
“More than anything. Please understand that I’ve never hid her from you.”
His exhale sounded like a moan of a wounded animal. “It’s best we don’t go there now.”
“We’ll find Livvy. She loves you. She’s hurt.”
“If anything happens to her—”
She reached over and touched his arm. His thick muscle flexed under her fingers. “Don’t even think that. She’s safe.”
Silence fell between them.
Ten minutes later, he parked the truck in front of a two-story yellow house. He barely had the gear in park before he jumped out and stormed up the stretch of cobblestone walkway.
Mindy watched from the truck. Five minutes later he returned and slid behind the steering wheel.
“Is she here?” Mindy asked.
“No. And neither is Alex. They’re together.”
Chapter Twenty-One
HANGING UP THE phone, Creed dropped the device into the center console. “That was Sheriff Conley. Livvy and Alex have been found.”
Mindy’s cell beeped and she glanced at the screen. “It’s Isabella. She said the ice rink was broken into earlier. By two juveniles.” She looked across the seat. “Creed? Was it Livvy and Alex?”
“Bingo,” he growled then jerked the steering wheel, doing an illegal U-turn on the road. He slammed on the gas pedal as they headed back toward Cooper’s Hawk.
“Why? I could have let them in to skate.”
“Something tells me they didn’t want to do things by the book. Livvy’s angry and wants attention.”
“What will you do? What will Sheriff Conley do?”
“I’m going to ground her until she’s eighteen.” He felt his muscles aching in his shoulders. “Sheriff is a fair man.”
“Grounding her until she’s eighteen might be a bit overdramatic.”
He flashed Mindy a dangerous glance. “And how would you handle this?”
“Well, I’d first ask why. When Jane was fifteen, she and some friends were caught drinking on private property. I was so angry and disappointed but after learning the truth things weren’t as bad as they first seemed. She didn’t know there would be older kids at the party or that they would bring alcohol. Feeling pressure, she took a sip of beer. She hated it so she didn’t drink it. I grounded her for a few weeks. Trust me, I wanted to throw the book at her. Sometimes we must remember what it was like when we were kids. Peer pressure, hormones, social media…it’s all tough. I even took Jane to see a therapist.”
“She saw a therapist?”
“For a few months.”
“Why?”
“Don’t get panicked. She was going through a pretty hard stage. She got involved with the wrong crowd, had insecurities and she needed to speak to someone besides me about her feelings. Some kids need to talk to an unbiased person, someone they feel no emotional connection to.”
“Did she ever tell you what made her feel like that?”
“A kid at school continually called her fat. She wasn’t, but for a young girl that word can be very harmful.”
“Mindy…do you really believe that she and I can have a relationship? Will she be willing to give me a chance? Or will we never be close?”
She shifted so that she was looking at his profile. “Yes, she’ll give you a chance. Why wouldn’t she?”
“I’m not doing very good with Livvy.”
“Hey,” she laid her hand back on his arm. “Trust me, parents all feel the walk of shame at times. There were moments I thought I must have been the worst parent around because Jane was rebelling. It turns out she wasn’t rebelling as much as she was trying to find herself. We all go through stages where we lose our footing and must get back up and everyone gets back up at their own pace.” A long sigh came from her. “I’m sorry, Creed. It wouldn’t be fair to ask you to forgive me, but I do hope that one day you’ll understand.”
He stretched his gaze across the short space. “I wish I could say that I see that as a possibility.”
The rest of the drive was in silence.
Chapter Twenty-Two
PULLING OUTSIDE OF the two-story brick building with a fountain in front, Creed turned off the truck.
Mindy said softly, “I’m going
