Page 45 of Did You See Evie

Her gaze flicks upward. “Coach Cass?”

Now that it’s confirmed Evie’s mother recognizes me, the woman with the crunchy hair exits the kitchen, leaving us alone. I move closer to her, breathing through my mouth so I don’t have to smell the smoke.

“I just left the prayer circle for Evie,” I say. “You weren’t there.”

“Too many people,” she scoffs, ashing her cigarette into the sink. “Not that it’s much better here.”

“Who are all these people?” I say, nodding toward the living room.

“Friends of friends. Everyone has heard what happened by now, and they want to help. Between you and me, it’s just another excuse for them to sit around and drink.”

There’s an open bottle of beer beside her on the counter. Evie’s mother is drinking, too. Not that I blame her. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.

“How are you doing?” I ask her.

“How do you think? My daughter is missing.” She pauses, thinking. “I have no idea where she could be, and I can’t get enough peace around here to even think straight.”

The amount of people in this house makes me worry. If Evie’s mother doesn’t even know half of them, what does that say about Evie’s life here?

“I can ask them to leave, if you’d like?—”

“What are you doing here?” There’s an intentional hardness in her voice that wasn’t there before.

“I wanted to check on you.”

“Well, now you have. Probably just as you expected.” There’s a loud sound coming from the living room. “Hell, maybe Evie did run away. Escape this madness while she can.”

“Is it usually like this?” I ask. “All these people here.”

“Not really. I’m hardly home. Always working or… out.” She pauses. “Used to be I was afraid she spent too much time alone.”

“It’s only the two of you living here, right?” I ask.

“Yep.” She nods her head, but her shoulders raise. She’s lying. Tara already confirmed someone else was living here.

“One of the girls on the team said someone might have moved in,” I say. “Maybe your new boyfriend?”

“Josh?”

I shrug.

“He just got back to town and is trying to get back on his feet, but he doesn’t live here,” she says. “He only stays over sometimes.”

“How do Evie and Josh get along?” I ask.

Evie’s mother’s face changes. She’s studying me closely now. “Why are you asking me this?”

“Some of the girls on the team…” My words trail away, as I try to find the best way to say it. “They said he makes her feel uncomfortable.”

A sad smile creeps across her face as she tosses her cigarette in the sink. “I see what you’re getting at. Nothing like that is going on.”

“I wasn’t suggesting… Maybe there was something going on you didn’t know about.”

“I would know what’s going on under my own roof.”

And yet that’s not true. Her mother just admitted she’s not here a lot. Evie is on her own. If this Josh guy is crashing here, there’s no telling what goes on when she’s not around. I sense these same thoughts are going through Evie’s mother’s head, and that’s why she’s getting so defensive.

“Besides, girls lie all the time. Her teammates don’t know anything about Evie. They don’t give her the time of day.”

---