Page 70 of The Kidnapped

“Yeah. She owns a daycare, I guess, and takes kids to the park regularly. I’d never noticed her, but she checked out. Dylan told me she talked to her on the phone, and the woman assured her that no one else, outside of the people who worked at the daycare, came with her to the park when she went. They all have fingerprints on file with the state and have clean background checks.”

“Kenna invited me out for drinks next week with her and Ripley,” Hollis said, changing the subject.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I think she’s turning into a real friend, which I don’t have many of. And I haven’t spent much time with Ripley, but I like her.”

“That’s good.”

“Kenna told me to invite you, too,” she added. “I don’t know if I’m going yet, though. It’s TBD because of my mom.”

“How is she?” Raleigh took a bite of her own salad.

“Making me nervous,” Hollis admitted. “She’s more tired than ever and forgets stuff as well. She told me to pick flowers for you in the back garden.”

“This time of year?”

“Yeah… And that garden hasn’t had any work done on it in years, either; probably since she got really sick.”

“Can I do anything to help?” Raleigh asked.

“Not unless you’re a miracle worker.”

“If I were that, Eden would be home. So would all the other missing people on the planet.”

“Right,” Hollis said with a nod. “How’s work?”

“I haven’t lost another client yet, but I’m picking up projects from other VAs to make up for losing Mr.Roman. It sucks because they get a cut for giving me work in the first place, so I’m making less for the same effort, but it helps when I need the extra cash. It’s now time to replaster fliers, and I’m also thinking about doing a billboard off the highway, which connects everything around here. It’s not cheap, but I can probably afford to do it for a month. Dylan thought it might be a good idea since it’s been over a year, and people have moved on.”

“Well, if Dylan thinks it’s a good idea,” Hollis said, looking around the restaurant.

“John, from group, said that when he did a billboard, they got nine new good leads. Nothing came of them, but there were two kids that people thought might be JJ. They weren’t, but it was something. I don’t know if it’s better to think that I might have found her, only to be told that it’s not her, or to not get my hopes up at all.”

“Hey, Raleigh?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we talk about something else?”

“Something else?”

“We usually talk about this stuff, and… I don’t know. I thought maybe tonight, since it’s our first date, we could talk about something else. Work, friends, even Millie or my exes.”

“Oh,” Raleigh said, placing her fork on her salad plate. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. I’ve just attempted to change the subject a few times, and then I thought I should just say it.”

“That you don’t want to talk about Eden?”

“Not–” She met Raleigh’s eyes. “Not just that. I don’t want us to talk about what happened to me, my mom, or John from the group, either. I just thought we could get to know other things about each other tonight.”

“Other things?” Raleigh asked.

“Yeah. Like, more about each other; normal first date stuff.”

“Hollis, this isn’t a normal first date.”

“It’s not?” she asked.

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