Page 140 of Single Teddy
“We’ll each take a road and search the area,” Wyatt said, and before I could agree or say anything, he was on his phone, as was everyone else, getting the word out.
“Also, dude, you need a shirt,” Donovan said, and I looked down at my naked body.
He may have a point.
As Wyatt went upstairs to get me a new shirt, Joey took the kids out of the kitchen and to his home while Slade formed a coordinated search plan.
“Come on. Let’s go,” Wesley said once I was decent again and pulled me outside by the hand.
He led me to my car that had been parked outside the bar all day, but when I tried to climb into the driver’s seat, he stopped me.
“You’re in no position to drive,” He said, holding on to the handle.
I raised an eyebrow. “Neither are you. Aren’t you blind without your glasses?”
He grimaced.
“I guess you’re right.”
“YouguessI’m right?”
Wesley sighed and stepped aside allowing me to take the driver’s seat and we hit the road.
As we raced through the streets, my heart sank lower and lower until it was all the way to the floor and I could barely breathe.
“What a shit day,” I mumbled.
Wesley put his hand on my knee and squeezed.
“I know. But it’s okay. We’ll find him.”
“What if we don’t? What if?—”
“Don’t think that way. It won’t help. I know it’s hard, but don’t.”
I put my hand on top of his and sighed. Or tried to anyway. My throat was constricted and breathing was a chore. I imagined it would be that way until…until we found him.
If we ever did.
“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Wesley turned to me and frowned.
“Why would you think that? You didn’t make him sneak out. It’s not your fault.”
“It is. I left him. He was scared and worried, and I left him.” I rubbed my face and tried to bite back the tears, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to do so for long.
“You left him to come save me,” Wesley said softly. “You should be blaming me, not yourself.”
“What?” I snapped my head around but that made me a little more dizzy so I turned my attention back on the road. “This isn’t your fault.”
“If I hadn’t been so reckless?—”
“Wesley! We’ve been through this. You weren’t being reckless. You were being protective. You can’t blame yourself.”
I could see him biting his lip from my peripheral vision and I squeezed his hand.
“You can’t,” I repeated. I wanted to make him see. To know without a shadow of a doubt that he had nothing to do with this.
