Page 20 of Stay Baby Stay

“No, thanks.” He winks at me, like he appreciates me looking out for him. “How sure are you that this guy wasn’t looking for you?”

“I’m not. He asked where someone was. My boss told him she didn’t know. She could’ve been protecting me, or he could’ve been asking about Kenzie.” I eat a bite of my pancakes and wash it down with a sip of coffee. “If he is looking for Kenzie, that means she got away, and I need to find her before he does.”

Cal scrubs at his face. There’s a strange glint in his eye, like I’ve just surprised him.

“What?” I ask, after a long pause.

He shrugs. “Nothing. Just wondering what you’ve done with the shy, skittish girl I met last night.”

The memory of being cradled in his arms floats to the top of my mind. My cheeks smolder.

“She’s still in here, trust me.”

“I know she is, and I look forward to seeing her again. But I’m liking this side of you, too.”

“What side is that?”

“The smart, determined side that refuses to let her anxieties get in the way of helping a friend.”

If my cheeks were embers before, they’re twin flares now. Most of the time, people—especially potential employers—write me off for not having a high school diploma. They assume I’m stupid. Never mind that I was reading at a college level when I was only twelve years old.

“You know McKenzie better than anyone,” Cal says. “Where would she go if she got into trouble?”

“She’d come back to me.”

Cal nods thoughtfully. “How long have you two known each other?”

“About four years,” I say. “We lived in the same foster home.”

“Does McKenzie have any family nearby? I mean, besides you.”

A smile teases my lips. He gets it, I realize. Kenzie isn’t just my friend. She’s my sister. As much a part of me as my heart or my liver. I won’t be whole again until I find her.

“Neither of us have seen our parents since we were little,” I tell him.

“What about your foster parents?”

I shudder. “We ran away from that house when we were fifteen. She’d never go back.”

Cal’s gaze darkens like storm clouds rolling in across a lake. “And what prompted that decision? If you don’t mind me asking.”

I sip my coffee. I don’t like thinking about those days. “Our foster home was...less than ideal.”

“Someone hurt you?”

His jaw twitches. I take another sip of coffee, stalling.

“Not me,” I say finally.

Our foster dad used to sneak into Kenzie’s room at night. When I realized it was happening, I started sleeping on her bedroom floor as a deterrent, making myself throw up whenever he tried to move me. It didn’t make a difference. He just started cornering her in other places during the day.

I didn’t want to leave at first. I liked our foster mom a lot; she’d been nice to me. I thought if we told her the truth about her husband, she would kick him out. But as soon as the words left my mouth, she slapped me and said I was disgusting. I realized then and there that she knew exactly what kind of man she was married to. She just didn’t want to deal with the fallout of confronting him.

That night, Kenzie and I filled our bags with clothes and snacks and left for school the next morning and never went back.

Part of me wants to tell Cal all of this, as if by telling him about my past, I can hand the memories off so I no longer have to carry them. But these aren’t just my memories. They’re Kenzie’s too. It wouldn’t be right to hand over her secrets to a man she doesn’t know, especially if they’ve got nothing to do with her disappearance.

Cal sighs, his gaze hard with restrained rage.

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