“It’s a big place.” And hadn’t they sat around that very room, talking about not finding each other as children?
Jason called everyone into the room.
“You seriously think Owen is hiding here?” Rachel asked.
“We haven’t looked, have we?”
“That would be crazy,” Ford said.
“That would be smart.”
For the first time in three days, Rachel had hope in her eyes. They’d been searching on adrenaline and coffee without any sign of Owen.
Jason assigned everyone a section of the house, placed Nathan and Owen’s friends on the outside buildings.
He guided Rachel up, into the attic, where his childhood sat in dusty boxes.
The house was suddenly filled with everyone calling out Owen’s name.
“Owen?” Rachel called to the vast attic.
Jason found a switch and turned on a long string of fluorescent lights. The entire space lit up like it was noon instead of nine o’clock at night.
“Wow, this space is huge. I could get lost in here.”
“Or you could hide in here.” He looked around and started walking toward the east end of the house. “Owen?”
“Hey,” Rachel said, catching his attention. “The dust is a mess over here.”
Jason looked and patted her on the back. “We had some of the Christmas decorations up here.”
Her shoulders folded in disappointment.
“Owen?” she called out. “The court said you can come back home with me.”
Silence.
They ducked behind every box, looked in every corner. Dusty and more than a little cold, they exhausted the attic search and moved down one floor. Each room and every closet was poked into and overturned. When Jason and Rachel would meet up with another group, they’d take another direction. Finally they all ended up back in the living room.
“Nothing,” Trent reported.
Jason looked out the window. “Okay, bundle up.”
Their barns and loft were empty, the tack room and storage rooms showed nothing. Rachel checked each stall. Because the space was enclosed and heated, it would make sense for Owen to hang out there.
He wasn’t there.
The report from the hangar was the same.
They searched Nathan’s house, and the housekeeper’s. A separate guesthouse on the far side of the lake was empty and cold.
It was close to midnight by the time they suspended their search.
Rachel held her head in her hands. “Damn it. I thought you were onto something.”
Jason did, too. “Tomorrow we put a billboard in the middle of town and another one at his school. I’ll have our team work on getting one to place over the side of our high-rise, letting Owen know he can come home.”
“We’re going to go,” Ford told them.
“Thanks, guys,” Rachel said, opening her arms to hug them. “If you hear anything.”
“We know.”
Glen approached them. “Mary and I are going to bunk here.”
“Of course,” Jason said.
“We’re headed out. The dogs are probably eating the furniture,” Trent said as he helped Monica with her coat.
“We’ll be back tomorrow,” Monica said.
The room emptied out.
“I should probably go home,” Rachel said quietly. “In case Owen shows up there.”
“Okay. Let me grab a few things.”
She stopped him before he turned to head up to his bedroom.
“You don’t have to come.”
He gave his best you’ve got to be kidding me look. “I’m not leaving you alone until we find him. And even then, there’s a pretty big chance I won’t leave you alone. I’ll go pack some things.”
She followed him to his room and filled the suitcase she’d brought over a few days before.
Jason filled a small duffel bag with a few essentials.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Rachel looking through some papers.
“What’s that?” he asked, closing the door to his closet.
“My bills. I’ll be shocked if the electricity is still on when I get home. I’ve ignored all this since right after Christmas.” She kept scanning each envelope, then gasped.
“What?”
She dropped the stack onto the bed and waved one of the envelopes in her hand. “Here it is.”
He stopped what he was doing and moved to her side. “Here what is?”
“The court order.”
The unopened envelope stared at them.
“Ten bucks says Owen signed for it, tossed it in the stack, and forgot all about it,” Jason said.
“I’d bet a hundred.”
He turned back to his bag and placed the strap over his shoulder before grabbing hers. “Let’s go.”
Jason stepped out of Rachel’s room after taking a shower and found her sitting on Owen’s bed. They were going on four days without a sign from him. Jason was fairly certain Rachel had lost five pounds in that time.
“Hey.” She tried to smile when she saw him watching her.
“You okay?”
“I think I’m numb.”
“You’re tired and underfed.”
She patted the side of the bed, and he happily sat beside her. “When I decided to give us a shot, I never saw any of this.”
He smiled. “You mean when I wore you down and you realized there was no resisting my charm?”
He missed her smile. “I thought our biggest challenge would be work. Never in a million years did I think you’d be pulled into a custody debate with the Colemans or that we’d be keeping our eyes open with toothpicks, searching for Owen.”
“Life has a way of throwing curveballs. The fact we can’t quite predict everything makes life interesting.”
“Makes it crazy.”
“Maybe. But I like it. I didn’t see you coming, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he told her.
She melted. “You always know the perfect things to say.”
“It’s easy when you’re telling the truth.”
“See, perfect.” Her smile reached her eyes, and Jason leaned in to seal his words with a kiss.
She released a small moan and leaned into his arms. With her leading the way, he deepened his kiss and hoped she wouldn’t pull away. While they had been sleeping in the same bed since Costa Rica, they hadn’t made love for days. He missed her soft and pliant in his arms. He missed the way she was touching him right then, her hands on his chest, her legs crawling into his lap.
His body forgot the fact they were sitting on Owen’s bed, or that he was still missing. From the way Rachel was searching for his tonsils with the tip of her tongue, she’d forgotten, too.
He didn’t resist when she pushed him on his back and pressed her hips against his. With both hands, he held her against him, his erection searching for a break in their clothing.
Her breath caught, and she rode against him, finding pleasure without him being inside of her. If she kept doing it for long, he’d lose it in his pants, and he hadn’t done that since high school.
“Yes,” she whispered in his ear, her hips moving faster.
He thought of cold water, icebergs . . . anything to keep his erection.
With a quick shift of her hips, she moved in the opposite direction and moaned long and deep in his ear.
His cock twitched in anger at being denied release when she stopped stimulating him.
She started laughing with her head buried in his shoulder. “I think I just violated you.”