Page 26 of Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride

“How are you holdin’ up with all this?” she asked.

“Ah, nice change of subject.”

“I thought so.”

He laughed and she liked the sound. And she liked howherhouse felt with him in it. With them in it, together.

“Thanks for asking,” he said at length. “I’m… I kinda feel like the ground just fell out from under me, too. I admire how youhave your life all figured out, know exactly what you want. I feel like I’m in free-fall with no idea where I’ll land.”

“You hide it well,” she said, looking more closely at his face. “But no wonder you feel that way. It was your life’s work.”

“There are notes and plans. I can build it again, but if someone beats me to it somehow, despite the patent, there wouldn’t be much point. Either way, this has made me realize that I have no idea what I want my life to look like, long term.”

“No?”

He shook his head. “On her deathbed, my mother made me promise to keep the family together, and I’m failing. But I don’t think I can even process any of that until we find Carrie.”

“Oh.” She blinked. “Were you two?—?”

He looked surprised. “No. She’s devoted to her husband.” He pulled out his phone and turned it her way to show a photo of a plump-cheeked, fifty-something-scientist, in the arms of a smiling man. “That’s Carrie and John right after their late-in-life marriage. I was a groomsman.”

Maria looked at the photo and felt a surge of relief. He’d only ever mentioned three women, and none of them were a girlfriend. She handed the phone back to him, even though her thumb had been itching to scroll a little. How could he not have a girlfriend, a guy like him?

“I hope she’s all right,” she said. Then she blinked as the pink cloud cleared from her smitten brain and let in some sunlight. “Wait a minute. Wait just a minute. Yesterday in the afternoon, somebody stole your car. This mornin’, somebody broke into that safe. I mean, did they?”

“Well, yeah, you know they did.”

“No, I mean, did theybreakinto the safe? Or did they open it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should find out. But either way, it’s gotta be, what, a twenty-four-hour drive?”

“Thirty-three. But they could’ve flown.”

“Mmm, either that, or it’s more than one person. And, PS, Harry, how did they track us down at Manny’s Cantina? Seems like maybe they’ve been behind you since you left Florida.”

Harry nodded. “Or tracking me electronically. Hell.”

“How would you know?”

He pulled out his phone, checked its settings while Maria drove. “It’s not the phone. But it might be the car they’re tracking, or even the solar tile itself.”

Maria’s phone pinged. “It’s Willow,” she said, and answered on speaker. “Hey Will. What have you got?”

“Harry still with you?”

“Yep.”

“Tell him we’ve located his car out at Slap-Jack-Jimmy’s.”

Harrison looked at Maria for clarification. “It’s a junkyard,” she said.

“I’m heading out there now,” Willow went on.

“So are we.” Maria ended the call and surged off the sofa, rolling up the chip bag on the way to the kitchen. “I’ll have to show you the second floor another time.”

Maria pulled her van off the road near the junkyard, got out, and stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the view from the edge of a drop-off. Harry got out and went to stand beside her. It was hot, dry, and dusty. When the wind blew, you could feel the little bits of earth it carried. Everything was cast in red.

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