Page 109 of Time to Bounce

“No,” he shook his head, sadness creeping into his eyes. “Long story short, Garrett and his girlfriend found out they were pregnant. For the next nine months, his girlfriend treated him like utter dog shit. I’m talking, full on, ripping him to shreds dog shit. She yelled at him when he brought her the food requested. Forced him to stay away from appointments. Didn’t tell him that she went into labor while he was out in the field. When he found out, we of course switched places, but by the time he got to the hospital, her family called security on him. Even worse, the baby was stillborn. And by the time that Garrett found out about that, the baby was already cremated.”

My mouth fell open. “What a bitch!”

“She was,” Garrett said. I whirled around to find Garrett standing behind me. “Still haven’t forgiven her.”

“I don’t blame you,” I admitted. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” he shrugged, his fingers going to the scar on his face. “I just got back. Tyrone filled you in?”

“He did,” Gable said as he watched his twin carefully. “What’s the next step?”

“Keep on livin’, man.” He walked to the fridge and pulled out three bottles of beer.

Even though I wasn’t the hugest fan of beer, I took one anyway.

When I couldn’t twist the top off, I walked over to Gable to hand it to him. He easily twisted it off and handed it back to me.

“You movin’ in?” Garrett asked curiously.

“I’m…”

“Yes,” Gable answered, his eyes straying to mine. “Even though she hasn’t realized it yet.”

I scrunched my nose up at him. “I feel like that might be a conversation we need to have first before making any declarations.”

My computer pinged, and I twisted to look at it.

“One second,” I said, hurrying toward it.

“What is it?” Garrett and Gable asked at the same time.

“That’s the notification I get when there’s been a match with someone on the app I created,” I replied excitedly.

Both men moved to where they could see over my shoulder.

I started typing away at my computer and sat back when the matches started to pull up.

“Whoa,” Gable said. “Isn’t that the little girl who went missing when we were kids? She’s what, sixteen now?”

“Sixteen and just did an Ancestry Zero DNA kit,” I replied excitedly. “I’ve had two come back for this same reason!”

“Wouldn’t the cops have this, too?” Garrett wondered.

“Actually, no,” I said. “This is a voluntary DNA database, and they have to agree to give their DNA to a third party, which is me.”

“Why would they choose to do that?” Gable asked.

“Because they feel the need to get an Ancestry Zero DNA kit because they feel like they don’t fit in with their current family.” I shrugged. “There’s a lot of reasons.”

Over the next thirty minutes, I fed information to the local cops in Cincinnati, Ohio.

They sounded stunned themselves and started working on their end with all of my information.

When I pulled back from my laptop, both men were watching me with curiosity.

“That’s a really cool app,” Gable said once he saw I’d given him my attention.

“I know,” I beamed. “I’m glad Maven urged me to set it up. Even though I’d already partially had it in the works. I might not have ever put it out there if it wasn’t for her urging.”

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