Page 47 of One More Baby for the Boss

He supposed he was going to have to try. The time they’d spent apart had shown him beyond doubt that he didn’t want to live without her. It wasn’t just for Jack’s sake, either, although that was certainly part of it. But everything had been better when she’d been around. He had felt so much less alone in the challenges of raising a child. He had finally had a partner again.

And it hadn’t hurt matters that he had developed very real feelings for her. He would have expected those feelings to fade in her absence, but if anything, they seemed to be getting more intense. He found himself missing her every day, and that feeling only seemed to grow stronger as time went on. It left Elijah feeling deep regret about the fact that he’d ever let her go. Even if Jack hadn’t been part of the equation, he knew, he would have come looking for her now. He would have wanted to bring her back.

He just hoped she would be willing to listen — and that he would be able to find her. Both seemed like a bit of a long shot from where he sat tonight.

“That place was boring,” Jack said as they drove away from Tirsdale. “There wasn’t anything there!”

“You’re right,” Elijah agreed, even though he knew Jack was commenting on the lack of entertainment in Tirsdale and his own concern had more to do with the lack of Alex. “But I think you’ll like the next place we’re going. It’s at the top of the mountain!”

“We’re going all the way to the top?”

“There’s a little town called Herald Springs up there.”

“Who’s Harold?”

“Not Harold like the name.Herald. It’s a word.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Jack said. “What does it mean?”

“Um.” Elijah thought about it for a moment. “I guess it means something like… news. A herald is a messenger.”

“So do the people in that town send a lot of messages?”

“Maybe they do,” Elijah said. “We can ask them while we’re there.”

They made good time up the mountain pass, which pleased Elijah, because he knew that people tended to drive slowly on these roads. It was still light outside when they reached Herald Springs and got checked into the bed and breakfast they’d found to stay in. It was a much nicer place than last night’s motel, and Elijah couldn’t suppress a surge of optimism. Things here already seemed to be going a bit better than they had in Tirsdale.

“Why don’t we go out to dinner?” he asked Jack once the two of them had dropped off their things. “It’s about that time, and I think I saw a diner on the way in.”

If he was being honest, the reason he wanted to check out the diner had nothing to do with food. He needed to start searchingthis town for Alex. It had shaken his confidence a bit when he’d discovered that she wasn’t in Tirsdale. He hadn’t realized how sure he had been that he would find her there. Herald Springs seemed a lot less likely, given the fact that it was a smaller town and you had to go all the way to the top of the mountain to reach it. Would she really have come this far?

The diner he had seen was the only one in town, and he kept his eyes on the members of staff as he was seated, but none of them looked familiar. He held out hope, though. When the server came to their table, he decided to ask the question.

“Have you made any recent hires?” he asked her.

“Recent hires?” The poor girl frowned, obviously confused but wanting to do her best to provide quality service. “I don’t think we have. I’m not completely sure about the kitchen.”

“But no one in a server position?”

“No, it’s been the same serving crew for over a year now,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

He couldn’t come out with the truth in front of Jack. If his son knew they were looking for Alex, and then they didn’t find her, he could end up getting seriously hurt. “I’m just curious about how often new people come through a town like this,” he fibbed. He glanced at Jack, who was busy with the maze on the children’s menu and didn’t seem to be paying attention — he probably wasn’t at risk of putting the pieces together and figuring out what Elijah was talking about. “Do you get a lot of newcomers to this area?”

“Not really. Are you thinking of putting down roots here?”

“Oh, no, we’re just passing through,” Elijah said. “It was just idle curiosity.”

He ordered a club sandwich and a grilled cheese for Jack. The two of them ate in relative silence. Elijah had discovered lately that neither he nor his son were any good at making conversation when there wasn’t anything specific that needed to be said. It had always been Alex, it transpired, who had driven their talks. Without her, it felt as if neither of them knew what to say half the time.

When their meal was finished and they had paid, they went back out onto the street. “Now what?” Jack said.

“I guess we go back to the room and get some rest,” Elijah suggested. He was so down that he didn’t feel up to much else.

But Jack frowned. “We’re on vacation,” he pointed out. “We’re supposed to be doingfunthings, and it’s still early. I don’t want to go to bed. Can’t we do something fun?”

“What would you like to do?” Elijah felt bad. He’d been selling this road trip to Jack as a fun vacation, and his son was justified in pointing out that there hadn’t been much fun involved so far.

Jack pointed at a little bakery across the street. “Can we go get some dessert?”

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