Page 71 of Sheriff's City Girl

Once I had swept the main area, where all of the guests were lingering—and staring at me—I made my way to the door. Graham said he thought she might have gone outside—and maybe she just needed air.

I kept my eye on my watch, counting down the time I had until the presentation started. Even if she had left, I would still give the presentation. I had to, with or without her. I needed to do everything I could to help Lucas… But if I couldn’t confirm that she had left, there was no way in hell I would be doing anything other than continuing to search for her.

The sun was beating down on my black jacket as I started weaving through the vehicles, my eyes peeled for her. Since I was no longer under close watch of the attendees, I called for her, shouting above the quiet of the rural property.

Please don’t have left.

By the time I made it to the Bronco, I had ripped my jacket off, down to just the white dress shirt underneath. I was fighting the urge to panic for some reason—and that was not like me. I never panicked. I was the sheriff for heaven’s sake. I kept my shit together in the most strenuous of times…

But something about this was grinding on my nerves.

“Emma!” I yelled, cupping my hands around my mouth. I shook my head when there was no reply, and once again, I dialed her number.

And once again, two rings and then voicemail.

“You’ve reached Emma Fisher, leave a message and I’ll call you back!”

I hung up the phone and took a deep breath. There was a chance she was just pissed about me leaving her to go in on her own. There was a chance that maybe Lily picked her up—who else could she have called for a ride?

My thumb hit the call button beside Lily’s name, and I put it to my ear, praying to God that she would pick up. I knew she was spending the evening with Jess and Dara—and sometimes I had a hard time getting a hold of her.

And just like I thought might happen… She didn’t answer.

I’ll call Jess.

She was an even slimmer chance when it came to answering the phone, but I tried her anyway—and nearly gasped out in relief when she picked up.

“Hey, Dad, are you already done?” she chimed on the other end.

“No, I’m not,” I said, keeping my voice calm and collected—the opposite of how I was feeling inside. “Did Emma by chance call Lily?”

“Huh? I thought Emma was going with you tonight?” Jess sounded just as confused as I felt about the entire thing. “Are you by yourself?”

“Listen, is Lily there?” I didn’t feel like giving her the rundown that she was becoming a big sister in the moment. I needed to find Emma first.

“Um, yeah, I think so. I don’t know.” Jess was starting to sound worried. “Is everything okay?”

“I think so, but will you just go get her? I need to talk to her.”

“Okay.” I heard her rustling around, and then saying something I couldn’t understand to someone who sounded a lot like Dara. “I think Lily might have gone to pick up pizza, Dad,” she said into the phone.

Or Emma.

I heard a door shut in the background, and the thunder of her trotting down the stairs. I could hear Drew in the background saying something to her when she asked where Lily was.

“She went to pick up pizza,” Jess said to me. “She should be back in like twenty minutes.”

“Let me talk to Drew,” I instructed.

“Uh, okay,” Jess said into the phone before the speaker went muffled.

“Hello?” Drew came over the phone.

“Did Lily actually go to get pizza?” I asked him, my heart pounding in my chest. “Because if she came to pick up Emma, I really need to know. Something is fuckin’ weird here.”

“I called in the order for her about thirty minutes ago…” Drew’s voice trailed off. “You’re at the gala, yeah?”

“Yeah, I am. She went in ahead of me, and then I haven’t been able to find her since. We had a bit of a tiff beforehand, and it’s complicated… But I don’t think she would’ve just left.”

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