Page 82 of Resisting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 3)

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Thirty-six hours.It had been thirty-six hours since she’d left Josh’s house in the early morning and seen a woman letting herself in. And in those thirty-six hours Josh had gone MIA. She’d called and texted, but it went straight to voicemail, which wasn’t alarming in and of itself. Josh’s phone was often dead, or he forgot it at home.

That wasn’t what worried her. What worried her was that he hadn’t opened the shop on Friday or today. Nonna didn’t know where he was and neither did Caleb. Audrey had been so worried the night before that after the rehearsal she’d gone over to make sure that the woman hadn’t murdered him. When she got to the house she saw that his truck wasn’t there and when she knocked on the door, there were no sounds of Thor barking.

There was no way that she was going to ruin her sister’s wedding by making a scene, but she’d been on the verge of tears since she’d gone over to check on him last night.

“Sorry I’m late!” Viv rushed into the room like the hurricane that she was, wearing her bridesmaid dress. Her sister had been at the book event at Read Between the Lines with Dr. Vanessa Cupid. She’d worn the dress to the event because it ended right before the wedding was set to begin. Thankfully, Ava had gone with a simple, knee length, black cocktail dress for the bridesmaids so it’s not like Viv was in bows and chiffon.

Ava, who was seated in a chair next to the window getting her hair and makeup final touches smiled. “No worries.”

Her sister was whatever the opposite of a bridezilla was. All day she’d been the epitome of calm, cool, and collected. She didn’t seem even the slightest bit nervous. Grace and Blake both seemed more on edge than Ava. Blake was just excited about her dad getting remarried, and Grace was a perfectionist so she was always sort of on edge.

After hugging everyone, and declaring Ava the most beautiful bride that ever existed, Viv migrated across the room to Audrey, who was sitting on a couch in the corner reading a book. So far, she’d been able to conceal her own anxiousness by just quietly reading, which was totally in character for her.

“Who died?” Viv asked as she plopped down.

Audrey put on her best casual look. “No one.”

“Then why do you look like—" Her sister stopped mid-sentence and her expression changed. “What did he do?”

Audrey shook her head. “Nothing.”

And that was the problem. He hadn’t even had the decency to tell her that he was going out of town on a mini vacation with the blonde that had shown up at his door.

“Last time I saw you, you were being dragged out of the community center wearing the grin of a woman who knew she was about to have really good sex. Now you look like someone ran over your dog. There’s only one reason that you’d look like that, so I am going to repeat my question. What did he do?”

Audrey looked past Viv and saw that Ava, Grace, and Blake were all distracted as they debated whether or not Ava should have a smokey eye.

“You can’t say or do anything.” Audrey lifted her hand and held out her pinky.

“Oh, hell no, if this is pinky swear bad, there’s no way I’m promising not to say anything.”

“This is Ava’s day.” Audrey kept a smile on her face as she talked to Viv so just in case either of her sisters or niece looked over, they wouldn’t be concerned. “I just don’t want you to say or do anything that makes today about me.”

Viv sighed and lifted her hand, hooking her pinky around Audrey’s. They both kissed their thumbs sealing the sacred pinky swear.

“So yesterday morning, when I was leaving Josh’s—”

Viv clutched her hands to her chest and sighed as if she was having an ‘aww’ moment.

“What?” Audrey asked.

“Your first walk of shame. My little girl is finally growing up.”

Audrey rolled her eyes. “When I was driving away, I noticed a woman walking up the steps and when she got to door it looked like she put a key in it.”

Viv’s eyebrows furrowed. “What woman?”

“I couldn’t really see her that well, but from what I saw she was a pretty blonde.” Audrey shook her head. “The point is, I haven’t heard from him since. Neither has Nonna or Caleb. We’ve all called and texted and it goes straight to voicemail.”

“Holy shit!” Viv whispered. “Did she Glenn Close him?”

“What?”

“Did she try and Fatal Attraction him?”

For once she and Viv were on the same page. “I was worried about that, too. So, I went over to his house last night to make sure that he was okay and his truck was gone and so was Thor.”

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