Page 18 of Little Buried Secrets

The front door opened, and Rae said, “Grant just finished making dinner. We’re grabbing a quick bite before we head out to join the search party. Georgiana, you’re welcome to stay.”

The aroma of sauteed garlic and fresh bread wafting onto the front porch smelled divine.

“I appreciate the offer, thank you,” I said. “Giovanni’s cooking for me tonight.”

“Another time then.”

“Sure.”

Bronte headed inside, turning around before she closed the door to say, “Hey, thank you … you know, for being here for us. It’s nice to know someone has our back.”

CHAPTER 8

I sat next to Giovanni, picking at the delicious food he’d made with my fork. I was trying my best to be in the present moment, but my thoughts were all over the place.

“What do you think about us buying a vacation home in Italy, spending part of the year there and part of the year here?” Giovanni asked.

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Wait, what?”

I glared at him, and he laughed.

“It’s good to see I have your attention,” he said. “You haven’t responded to a thing I’ve said in the last few minutes.”

He was right, and I felt awful about it.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “You deserve for me to be focusing on you, and all I’m thinking about is this case.”

“Is it the case, or is it the fact you’re not joining in on the search tonight?”

The original plan had been for us to eat dinner together and then meet up with Simone and search for Margot. A half hour earlier, plans changed when Hunter called. To my surprise, she suggested I take the night off.

With few leads to pursue at this point in the investigation, Hunter had decided to join Simone in tonight’s search. Being on the front lines of the investigation instead of behind the scenes was the kind of thing that gave her anxiety. Tonight, she’d decided to push herself out of her comfort zone, and I was proud of her for it.

I’d wanted all of us to search together. But as I thought about why Hunter suggested I stay behind, I figured it was because she wasn’t sure how she might react to being “out there” instead of huddled behind a computer. If she had a panic attack, I assumed she wouldn’t want me to see it, even though I would have understood.

Above all, Hunter preferred to keep to herself, including all her quirks. At least as much as possible. And based on some things she’d said over the years, I got that her introverted ways was a protective shell of sort, so that she wouldn’t “let me down”—as if she ever could. So, out of respect for her, I’d bowed out on the search, but after I did, I called Simone. She promised to keep an eye on Hunter tonight for any signs that she might be struggling.

Simone’s assurance should have been enough to ease my mind, but it wasn’t.

“I feel scattered,” I said. “One minute, I’m thinking about how Hunter is doing. The next, I’m thinking about what everyone said to me today. The next, I’m worried we won’t ever find Margot.”

Giovanni reached over and took my hand in his. “How many times in the history of your investigations have you not solved one of them?”

“Zero.”

“So what are the odds you won’t this time?”

“Zero, I guess?”

He smiled. “Three feet of ice does not form in a single day.”

Ever since we’d met in college, he sprung Chinese proverbs on me from time to time. He always knew the right thing to say and the right way to say it.

“You’re right,” I said, blowing out a sigh. “Sometimes I just expect answers before I even know what questions to ask.”

He leaned in and gave me a kiss. “I know what you need.”

“And what’s that?”

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