Page 85 of Red Hot Harmony

“I have and they’re horrible, but at least they didn’t cast you out when you had a kid out of the wedlock,” he snapped back, hustling me down the stairs and to my car.

I wanted to shame him for his last comment, but my phone buzzed in my hand. It was my mother. She didn’t beat around the bush. “They’re enforcing evacuation in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. You have to move the merchandise.”

“Are you serious?” I halted in my tracks, one foot still on the lawn and one on the curb.

Harper stopped too and watched me silently, his light wind-tousled hair stark against the dark of the sky. Tallulah seemed restless inside the crate, almost as if she felt our fears.

“Very.”

“But I was just watching the news. They didn’t say anything about mandatory evacuation this far south.”

“Yes, fire officials did two minutes ago. That’s why I’m calling you, Camille.”

I had to give my mother credit. She could always work well under pressure and even at her age, she knew how to stay on top of everything. “Crap.” I slapped my palm against my forehead and glanced at the ground. “It’s just me and Renn. We’re the only ones with bigger cars.”

“Renn isn’t co—” my mother kept talking, but static distorted her words. All I heard was the word “evacuated.” Or something that sounded close to that.

“Mom, I’m sorry. I can’t hear you. What did you say?”

More garbled noises poured into my ear before we got disconnected. I dialed several times only to get slammed with the voicemail recording.

Harper touched my shoulder. “I think there may be an issue with the tower, sweets.” He shoved me his phone and I registered a couple of distressing tweets from our service provider.

Dropping my arm to my side, I absently stared at the street and tried to streamline the mess in my head.

My daughter was missing and every single item in my boutique was at risk of getting ruined, and I didn’t really have the means of getting it all out quickly and efficiently.

Oh, and there was only one me.

“Okay, how about this?” Harper said as if he’d just read my mind. “I’ll drive your car to the store and start packing whatever I can while you’re looking for Ally. Let me show you a couple of spots near school where she sometimes hangs out before we part ways.”

“Okay.” I nodded once.

“I’m sure Renn is on her way.” He handed me his keychain and I gave him mine.

“I don’t think she’s—”

My phone pinged, interrupting me. The message was from my mother, which meant something was really wrong, because Eloise Rockwell didn’t text unless there was no other way for her to communicate.

Mother: We don’t have any reception. I’m going to bring a minivan. Will leave as soon as I can. Be safe.

Yes, the whole California-on-fire situation made it difficult to refuse my mother’s help, but I had no idea how I was going to explain Ally’s absence to her. Or my own, for that matter, since I most likely wouldn’t be at the store when she arrived.

This day just kept getting better and better.

I was at my wit’s end.

By 3 p.m., I’d scouted the school grounds, visited all the parents I could think of, and driven around town so many times I’d lost count.

My daughter was gone. Disappeared. Dropped from the face of the earth.

Every few minutes, I checked my phone to see if she’d opened any of my panicked texts, but the notification below each message still saidunread, and not knowing whether she was simply ignoring me or something awful had truly happened made me feel like I was walking on a razor’s edge.

I was at a gas station, filling up Harper’s Jaguar and mentally preparing myself for the inevitable—reporting my daughter as missing—when Jules finally called me back.

“Camille! Hi!” She sounded agitated. “I just got your voicemail. Have you heard from Ally yet?”

“No. I haven’t.”

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