Mrs. Robin's Sons by Kori Roberts (free children's online books .TXT) 📗

the same time. They stared at the man in disbelief.

“Since when?” Noah demanded.

“I’m sorry…I’m not at liberty to say,” the clerk said apologetically.

“Does she still live here?” Nick pressed.

“Sir…I really can’t discuss —”

“Yeah, yeah. I got it.” Nick turned away from the clerk and looked at Noah in disbelief.

He didn’t know that to think, couldn’t believe Rylee was actually gone, and couldn’t imagine that they were never going to see her again. “What are we supposed to do now?”

Noah sighed in resignation. “The only thing we can do. We go home and figure out a way to find her.”

As they left the hotel, they saw Rylee’s two friends standing outside.

“Hey, Drew…Mya,” Noah called out. The pair looked at them in surprise.

“What do you two want?” Drew’s face became tight with anger. “We were looking for Rylee,” Nick told him. “The clerk told us she didn’t work here anymore. Do you know where she went?”

“Don’t you think you’ve hurt her enough already? Or are you trying to completely destroy her?”

“Fuck you!” Nick snarled at Drew and crowded into the smaller man’s face. This entire situation had him quickly losing his battle to control the anger brewing within him. “You don’t know dick about this situation!”

“I know enough!” Drew didn’t back down. “I know you two assholes ripped her heart out and pissed on it!”

“Drew, don’t —” Mya tried to pull Drew away, but he wouldn’t budge.

“It wasn’t enough for you to break her heart that night, was it?” Drew continued, and his face turned red with anger. “You had to humiliate and embarrass her in front of her peers, her staff — people she had to work with every day, people who looked up to her!”

Drew stepped closer to Nick; only inches separated them.

“And even after the way you treated her, she still drove all the way to Wisconsin —

prepared to beg, if necessary — to ask you to forgive her for something that she didn’t even do! And now, a month later, after all the damage is done, you decide to come looking for her? And you have the nerve to say ‘fuck me?’ No! Fuck you two selfish bastards!”

A car pulled up to the curb in front of them, and Tom and Jacob got out. They wore similar expressions of confusion and concern. Tom rushed over to Mya and wrapped his arms protectively around her.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here” — he scowled at the group — “but it’s upsetting my wife, which means it’s upsetting our baby. So everybody needs to calm the fuck down!”

Jacob put his arm around Drew, pulling him tightly against his chest. Drew continued to glare at Noah and Nick. Noah placed a restraining hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Look,” Noah said, “we don’t have a beef with you, and we’re not trying to cause any problems. All we want to do is find Rylee.”

“I know you all love her, and want to protect her.” Nick spoke to the group, but his eyes were locked on Drew. “But, we love her, too. And, I swear to you, we’re not going to hurt her again.”

Nick’s chest tightened, and he swallowed around the lump in his throat. He felt Noah squeeze his shoulder in support. “We know we fucked things up with Rylee. But we’re trying to fix it. We need your help. Please.”

Nick watched as Jacob whispered something in Drew’s ear. Finally, Drew sighed and looked at Mya. He nodded his head slightly, and Mya turned to Noah and him.

“Rylee left,” Mya told them. “She accepted a job in another city and moved away.”

“What?!” Noah sounded incredulous. Nick felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He just stared at Mya.

“Where?” he managed to croak out.

“She asked us not to tell anyone where she went.”

“But —” Noah started to protest, but Mya cut him off.

“Look, I believe you meant what you said today. But I promised Rylee that I wouldn’t tell anyone where she went, and I won’t break that promise — not even for you.”

“But,” she added, “I will let her know that you’re looking for her. It’ll be her decision to contact you or not.”

“Okay,” Nick said finally. “That’s fair enough. Thank you.” He and Noah walked in the opposite direction of the group. Nick stopped suddenly and turned around. He looked at Mya and Drew.

“When you talk to Rylee, let her know that we’ve regretted that night since the moment it happened. Tell her that we never stopped trying to contact her, and we never knew that she came to see us until today. Make sure…make sure she knows we never stopped loving her.”

Mya gave him a watery smile. “We’ll let her know,” she said softly. “And hopefully, you two will get a chance to tell her yourselves.”

Nick nodded once more, before he and Noah walked away. His heart was heavy,

knowing there was nothing else they could do at the moment but go home, wait, and hope that it wasn’t too late to make things right between the three of them again.

Chapter Twenty-seven

“Good morning, Ms. Putnam. You’re just in time. You have a call holding on line three,” Rylee’s assistant told her as she walked in.

“Good morning, Joyce.” She smiled. “Thanks. I’ll grab the call in a moment.” She went into her office and threw her purse and bag in the chair before she walked around her desk and picked up the phone.

“Rylee Putnam,” she answered.

“Hey, boss lady.” Rylee recognized Mya’s voice and smiled.

“Hey, yourself, stranger!” She sat down in her chair. “How’s my favorite mommy-to-be doing?”

“Oh, God.” Rylee heard Drew’s groan through the phone. “Please, don’t ask, unless you want to be on the phone for the next two hours.” Rylee burst out laughing.

“Hey, sweetie!” she spoke to Drew. “How are you?”

“I’m good, babe,” Drew told her. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah…yeah, I’m good,” Rylee lied.

“We miss you,” Mya told her softly. “It’s just not the same without you here.” “I miss