Page 78 of To Belong Together
A couple of preteen girls occupied the table to Erin’s left.
The excited newcomer to their little huddle waved a napkin. “I got Gannon Vaughn’s autograph! And John Kennedy is dancing with one of the bridesmaids.”
How ridiculous would Erin look if she tried to plug her ears to drown out this schoolgirl chatter? People danced at weddings. That’s all she—or anyone else—had seen. She’d find John after this dance, and he would be happy to see her.
Happy.
“She’s not as pretty as his last girlfriend.” The new speaker’s braces glittered in the DJ’s lights.
“No one’s as pretty as Nicole Deering.” This girl had a sort of confidence Erin would bet translated to popularity. “I wonder why they broke up.”
“He probably got bored. When you’re famous, it’s like that.”
Erin drew her phone from her pocket to look up Nicole Deering, then paused. Why was she letting middle school girls get to her? They didn’t know John and couldn’t say anything about him with any authority.
But Kate could. She’d seemed genuinely surprised to find Erin here, and the revelation about John’s other plus one had sounded nothing but honest.
The girls’ presumptions may have hit close to the truth. John might bore easily.
They’d never made this exclusive, and John had been too good to be true from the start. Handsome, standing there in the lobby of Hirsh Auto. Interested in what she’d had to say. A good driver. Good at his job. Willing to put effort into pursuing her, of all people.
Was he a womanizer? If so, boredom might have drawn him to her, a woman so different from the norm.
She pulled out her phone and searched.
Sure enough. The girls had been right about one thing. He’d dated Nicole Deering, a literal supermodel with long, impossibly glossy hair. A woman that delicate would probably break into pieces just picking up a wrench.
Erin’s phone vibrated in her hand. Startled, she fumbled to answer.
“Mom?” She plugged the ear that wasn’t pressed to the phone and started for the exit.
“Your father and I were grocery shopping. I left him for only a moment, but he took the car.”
“What? Is he okay?” She found a semi-quiet spot in the hall. “Mom?”
Answered by silence, Erin lowered the phone. The call had disconnected, and the culprit blinked in the upper right corner. She only had one bar because she was in the basement of a hotel she should’ve left hours ago.
She ought to be home by now, ready to dash to help her parents.
As she passed the mouth of the ballroom, she glimpsed the dancers again. She’d thought about giving a romance a try, but who was she fooling?
John hadn’t been all that impressed by her in the last dress, and he wouldn’t be impressed by this dress either. She would never keep his attention.
She didn’t belong here. Didn’t belong with John or his family or in this dress.
She didn’t belong anywhere—hadn’t in years.
The last time she’d been accepted for who she was, truly loved and cherished, she’d been in a garage with her dad.
She turned, redialed Mom, and felt her pocket to confirm the car key was still there as she hurried back up the stairs. “How is he?”
“We don’t know. We can’t find him.”
“What about the tracker?”
“It hasn’t arrived yet. We were having a good night. He was content. I left my purse and keys in the car with him. I only stepped away to return the cart. I never thought …”
“Okay.” Thank God Erin didn’t care about the few belongings she’d left in the room. “No one’s seen the car?” The flats clapped against the marble lobby floor as she jogged out.
