Page 110 of The Kidnapped

“I hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of you,” Sandy said.

“I don’t know. I’ve moved a lot in my life, and I never really went back to where I lived before, so…” Hollis faded when she realized that she’d never had a choice in that before. Her father had always moved them because they’d been running, and she hadn’t been allowed to look back. “Maybe,” she added now that it was her own choice.

“Want to come in the back and say goodbye to everyone?” Sandy offered. “There are only three of us and the volunteers, but–”

“No, if it’s all right with you, I think I’d like to keep a low profile.”

“No problem,” Sandy replied.

“Oh, and I want to give this back,” Hollis added as she removed the book from her messenger bag.

“A book?” Sandy asked.

“It’s the book I found that day that led me to figure it out,” Hollis explained.

“The book on lost children,” Sandy noted, taking Kenna’s book from Hollis.

“Yeah. I’m not lost anymore,” she replied.

After a few more minutes, Hollis left the library and drove to her apartment. Packing didn’t take long since she only had clothes and books to worry about, and books were pretty easy to pack. She loaded boxes of them into her car and went to the local shipping place to have them delivered to her mom’s house before she went back and packed her clothes into her suitcases. With her flight being tomorrow, she had one more night in her apartment, and as she stared around into the empty space, with nothing in it save an air mattress she’d bought to sleep on for the last night, she wished for nothing more than to be back with Raleigh and her mom.

“Hey, babe,” Raleigh said when Hollis called.

“Hi,” she replied.

“How’s it going there?”

“Almost done. Just have to drop the car off tomorrow and do the final inspection with the landlord, and I’m on my way to the airport.”

“That’s great. How are you feeling?”

“Like I miss you,” Hollis said.

“I miss you, too. Your mom says hi.”

“She’s up?”

“Yeah, she’s right next to me. We were playing cards. And by playing, I mean she was kicking my ass.”

“She cheats,” Hollis replied.

“I do not cheat,” Olivia said loudly enough for Hollis to hear.

“Tell your daughter,” Raleigh said.

“Hey, honey. How are you?” Olivia asked, having been handed the phone.

“Better than Raleigh, it sounds like,” Hollis teased.

“She’s just bad at cards,” her mom told her. “You two have that in common. I didn’t cheat this time.”

“This time?” Hollis laughed.

CHAPTER 35

“Babe?”

Raleigh heard a voice but wasn’t sure if it was a dream or reality.

---