Page 210 of The Vacation Mix-Up
“I’ll be in touch once these are filed.”
“No sweat.”
“Take care of yourself, Riley,” she says, ascending the stairs and edging past Roni, who’s now standing in the doorway. “You too, Veronica.”
My sister simply lifts her chin, barely acknowledging her. And even though Roni’s disdain pains me, for her sake and for Krystal’s, I can’t exactly blame her for feeling the way she does. She’s a fiercely loyal sister, and Krystal was cruel to her andPoppy, so it’s not my place to force Roni to forgive her as I have.
“You too, Krys,” I say as she exits the shop. Cracking my neck, I release the tension and focus on Roni. “What’s up?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
She smiles. “I have to hand it to you, bro. You’ve come a long way since… well, since everything happened. It’s nice to see you less savage where she’s concerned.”
“You can thank Riles for that.”
“Speaking of Riles, I think she was just here.”
I blink at her. “What?”
“Yeah. I can’t be sure, but there was a woman who just came in. She looked awfully similar to the woman in your photo.”
Excitement sizzles every nerve ending in my body, my gaze shooting past her shoulder toward the store. “Where is she?”
“She left. Practically fled before I could ask her name or if I could help her.”
I rub my beard, slide my cell out of my pocket, and dial Riles’s number. It rings a few times and then disconnects.
“She’s not answering her—” My blood runs cold. If Riles was here and just saw what she saw, she’d think…. “Fuck!”
“What? Riley, what’s wrong?”
I leap up the steps, Roni quickly moving out of my way.
“Where are you going?”
“After her.”
chapter thirty-one
RILES
How could I be so stupid?
Hands trembling, heart painfully pounding, I flee Riley’s store and hail a cab, tears stinging my eyes as I open the door and slide onto the back seat. “Manhattan, please.”
“Manhattan?” The driver turns to face me, his expression dumbfounded.
“Yes.”
“There’s a train station just around the cor?—”
“I don’t want to catch the train. I just want…. Can you take me or not?”
“Of course. But it’ll cost?—”
“I don’t care what it costs!”
