Page 47 of With You Forever

He swears and breaks into a run. Then he’s in the Bronco, burning asphalt, moving so goddamn fast he could make can make the old car fly.

Please, Lacey. Be there. Be at home.

She’s not at home.

By now, the pink and orange of the earlier sunset has been painted over with black. Arms crossed, Seth stands at the large window of his loft and stares out over the river. Worrying, waiting on Lacey.

“Where would she go?” Sal asks. She’s perched on the edge of the couch, a wriggling Cash in her arms.

“I don’t know.” Seth rips a hand through his hair. His pulse rages like a wildfire in his veins.

They’ve spent the last three hours driving around Nashville and camped out at the apartment in the hopes that she’d come back.

He knows one thing, though. She’s not missing. She took off. She’s scared and she doesn’t feel safe.

Luke hangs up the phone. “Griff and Al haven’t heard from her either. They’re gonna head out, drive around.”

His brother’s face is anguished, taking on Seth’s pain. No doubt flashing back to when Sal was kidnapped by some lunatic at the hospital. Luke’s worst nightmare—and Seth’s slowly getting there himself.

The longer he’s gone without hearing from Lacey, the more dread has curdled his stomach.

“Fuck.” Seth manages to move, to uproot his feet from the spot and pace. He rubs at the building ache in his chest. His girl is scared. That article broke her. All the emotions she’s been trying so hard to bottle up, unleashed, and now she’s in defense mode.

Flight.

Seth plows a hand through his hair. Twists it. “I shouldn’t have left her today,” he says, more to himself than the room, but Sal and Luke look up. The devil in his head has him blaming himself.

“This is my fault,” he says, guilt lashing his voice. “She was tryin’ to talk to me last night, but I didn’t listen. I was tryin’ to fix it as fuckin’ usual.”

“Was it about the wedding?” Sal asks, letting Cash loose. The baby toddles across the room.

Seth stops pacing for a moment and looks at Sal.

The tone of her voice—she knows something.

“Sal, tell me what the hell’s goin’ on.”

Sal hesitates for a few seconds, then flattens her lips. “She never mailed the invites.” Tears fill her eyes. Luke, sitting beside her, rubs her back in slow circles. “She wanted to talk to you, but didn’t want to worry you. She thinks you’re getting into something you’ll regret. That you’ll leave. That you’ll want an out.”

There’s a pause, and then Sal looks down, swiping at her eyes.

Seth stares, his world rocked. The static in his head building. An out? A goddamn out?

He had no idea Lacey was worrying about him. He thought she was worried about the stress, her cancer, her career. Never once did he imagine she had doubts about him.

Christ.

He’s an asshole.

She tried to tell him. Maybe not outright, but she had tried. Broached the subject hesitantly to feel him out. And what did he do? He tried to fix it instead of just fucking listening to her. And why? Because he was terrified of what she was going to say. Because he couldn’t stand to see her sad, not for one goddamn second.

He thought he had reassured her last night, but all he did was inadvertently force her to bury her fears. He didn’t know how deep her worries had roots. But after everything she’s been through, of fucking course she’d worry. Her mother went through cancer only to be abandoned by her husband. He should have seen it. How she was trying to be strong for the both of them, despite all the pain the past triggered for her.

And thisNashville Stararticle was the last straw of it all.

All her what-ifs made real in black and white.

Seth lets out a harsh breath. His chest caves in on itself, crushing him. His air. His heart. Lacey is out there somewhere.

---