Made For Us (15 page)

As they were walking up the driveway, something caught Zoe’s eye. As they got closer, Zoe noticed something shiny lying near a puddle.

Aidan’s phone.

Now what? She picked it up and straightened and looked around—as if the answer to why his phone was in a puddle or why Aidan wasn’t here yet was suddenly going to appear. A curse of frustration crossed her lips before she could stop it. There went any chance of caving and getting him on the phone. Hopefully by now, he would have realized his phone was missing and maybe he would borrow one and call to check in.

Back at the apartment, she took care of Baron first with a fresh bowl of water before reaching for her phone.

Nothing.

“Well, damn.” She sighed and tried to go over her mental checklist of anything she might have missed while making her calls earlier. Unfortunately, she was brutally efficient and had covered all her bases, which should have made her feel good.

But right now she’d kill for something productive to do.

Her loose ends were getting tied up. Insurance claims were filed, and for the most part, she had enough money in savings to tide her over until she received her insurance money. Honestly, things could have been a lot worse. Crossing item after item off her list, Zoe felt more at peace than she had just a few short hours ago.

Except for where Aidan was concerned.

She had a bad feeling about things with Aidan. Something wasn’t right. Why hadn’t he called her yet? If he was looking to escape and put some distance between the two of them, she wanted to think he’d at least be open and honest with her about it and not just run out the door. If it was a family emergency, Zoe wanted to believe he would have told her. The fact that he had run out the door and left her here just seemed…off. What in the world could have been said to make Aidan react that way?

There were no answers—at least none that were coming to her at the moment.

No one was answering the phones at Aidan’s office. Zoe had tried several times, and it continued to go directly to voice mail.

Which was full.

And he didn’t call from someone else’s phone either.

And he didn’t come back to the apartment.

By seven the following morning, Zoe was ready to kill him.

Of course that would require being able to leave this apartment and find her way back to town! Though it was early, the walls were already beginning to close in on her. Armed with her morning cup of coffee, she called for Baron to follow her and made her way down the stairs and watched the dog run around the yard. The sun was shining off the open mailbox, and the temperature was near perfect. Hell, there was even a gentle breeze blowing. Was there any sign of Aidan? No.

“Son of a
bitch
,” she muttered as her frustration level hit a breaking point. Knowing it was time for her to take action, she called out to Baron. Storming back into the house, Zoe had an idea—if Aidan wouldn’t answer his phone, maybe she could find someone else who might know where he was. Pulling her phone back out, she Google searched Aidan’s address. His place in town back by the beach came up but nothing else. Then she searched other Shaughnessys in the area and came up with an address and phone number for an Ian Shaughnessy. She remembered all of the names Sarah had gone through, and this one didn’t ring a bell, but she was making the call either way.

By now it was almost eight o’clock, but Zoe didn’t care about the early hour. She cared about getting back to town, getting her car, and getting on with her life. She would feel bad if something heinous happened to someone in Aidan’s family, but right now, in this moment, she was ready to do something heinous to him!

A female answered the phone. “Hello?” She sounded like she had just been woken up and Zoe almost felt bad. Almost.

“Yes, hello, I’m looking for Aidan Shaughnessy. Is he there by chance?”

“Who is this?” the girl asked hesitantly.

“Um…my name is Zoe. Zoe Dalton. I’ve been trying to get in touch with Aidan.”

A loud yawn was the only response.

“Look, do I even have the right number? Do you even know who I’m talking about?” She felt like a complete idiot when she might not be talking to the right person.

“Yeah, I know who you’re talking about. Aidan’s my brother.” Another yawn. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday afternoon. He hasn’t called here either.”

Zoe at least knew why that was, but she cursed out loud and then covered her mouth. She remembered Sarah saying that the sister was in her teens, but that didn’t mean she needed to hear Zoe’s frustration.

“Is there something you needed him for?”

Where did Zoe even begin? “Um…yeah, but…it’s kind of personal.”

“Really?” The sleepy voice suddenly seemed very interested.

“So…there’s no other way to reach him?”

“He could be at his apartment. Not the one here in town, the one farther inland.”

“No, he’s not here,” Zoe said and then instantly wanted to take the words back.

“You’re at the apartment? Seriously?” Now it went from interest to excitement.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!
“Okay, look. Your brother let me stay here because I was living in a house on the beach. He told me it wasn’t safe, and it turned out he was right because the damn house fell into the ocean. So now I’m here and my car is there… Well, it’s at the construction site, and I have no way of getting back to it!” Zoe blurted it all out without taking a breath.

“Wow! That was your house? We saw it on the news!”

“Great,” Zoe muttered. “Okay, look…who am I talking to exactly?”

“Oh, hey. I’m Darcy. Aidan’s sister.”

“Yeah, I got that part. So you have no idea where Aidan is?”

“Nope.”

“Is he okay?”

“Not really. He kind of freaked out yesterday, and now no one’s heard from him. That happens sometimes. It’s not just you… You know, in case you were wondering.”

She was, but that still didn’t help anything. “Is everyone else all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Damn, this so wasn’t the way Zoe wanted to find out what was going on. “He just sort of ran out of here yesterday after listening to his voice mail. He didn’t tell me anything so I’ve been sitting here hoping and praying that no one had gotten hurt in the storm. I know I don’t know any of you, but I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe.”

“Aw…you’re so sweet,” Darcy said. “We’re all fine. Aidan’s going to be fine too. He’s just…well, I don’t know how to explain it. Let’s just say that you need to give him a few days and then he should be back to his old self.”

Zoe didn’t have that kind of time to sit around and wait. “Okay,” she began calmly. “I can appreciate that you either don’t
want
to tell me, a total stranger, what’s going on with your brother or you can’t or…whatever. Can you please just let Aidan know that I’m leaving and heading home?”

“I thought your house was in the ocean. Where are you going home to?”

This girl could try the patience of a saint
, Zoe thought. “I’m going to make other arrangements,” she said, deciding that two could play at this being vague game.

“Oh, okay. Did Aidan ask you to leave?”

“What? No. He said that I could stay as long as I need to.”

“Then why are you leaving?”

Zoe pinched the bridge of her nose and counted to ten. Wasn’t this girl too old for so many questions? Wasn’t this a game reserved for toddlers? “Like I said, I have to make other arrangements. Plus, I need to get back into town to get my car and get my life back on track. Could you just let him know? Please?”

“Oh, sure,” Darcy said. “Do you want me to have Aidan call you? You know, when I see him?”

“No. No, that’s fine. I’m sure I’ll see him eventually.”

“Right. Okay. Well, sorry about your house, Zoe,” Darcy said, and Zoe appreciated the sincerity in her voice.

“Thanks. And I’m glad you and your family are all okay.”

“Yeah, we’re fine. For the most part,” she said with a laugh. “Good luck with your new place and maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”

“That sounds good. Thanks, Darcy.” Zoe hung up and sighed. She still didn’t have any answers to her questions about Aidan. Although apparently, he just wasn’t big on answering anyone about anything.

Actually, that made her feel better and less singled out.

“Okay, focus,” she said to herself as she dialed Martha’s number. Martha answered on the first ring, and Zoe sagged with relief. Surely Martha could help her find somewhere to stay, even just temporarily. Heck, Martha knew everyone—surely she’d pull a favor for Zoe.

“Hi, Martha, um, I’m sorry to bother you, but things aren’t working out here and I’m going to need to find a new place to rent right away. I was hoping to stay here for a while temporarily, but I just can’t.”

“Surely your friend isn’t just going to throw you out!” Martha sounded mortified at the very thought.

“Oh, no. It’s not that. I just think I should go. I don’t suppose you know of any available places, do you?”

“You know, it’s funny you should mention that,” Martha said with a hint of excitement. “It’s not as nice as your place at the beach, but my daughter does have a cute little studio apartment over her coffee shop in town. It’s about twenty minutes south of where you were living, but it’s only a block away from the beach. I just talked to her today and fortunately they didn’t sustain any damages. I can see if it’s still available, if you’d like.”

“Oh, Martha! That would be amazing! Do you really think she’d be open to that?”

“When I tell her that it’s for you, I’m sure she’ll be fine with it. She used to live up there before she moved into her fiancé’s place. She’s been ready to rent it out for about three months, she’s just been lazy about finding a tenant. Let me just call her and make sure. I’ll call you right back, okay?”

“Thank you so much for this.” Emotion began to clog Zoe’s throat. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“Oh please. It is the least that I can do. I’m just sorry for all that you lost.”

“Most of it is replaceable.”

They hung up with Martha promising to call back or to have her daughter call her, and Zoe felt the first real bubble of hope. She couldn’t believe she might be able to start rebuilding her life so soon! Aidan would probably be annoyed that she was already planning on leaving, but hopefully he’d understand her need to reclaim her life a bit. Surely he wouldn’t fault her for that, right?

Her phone rang and she was thankful to see it was Martha’s number.

“So? Was she interested in letting me rent the studio?” Not the greatest greeting ever, but she was suddenly feeling anxious.

“Absolutely!” Martha said. “When do you want to come and see it?”

Would
right now
seem too desperate?
“Well, to tell you the truth, I would love to see it right away, but…” Zoe cringed. “Um, I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up my car tomorrow… How about we say I’ll swing by the coffee shop tomorrow around eleven. Will that work?”

“That sounds just fine. Are you sure you don’t need me to come and get you?”

“No, I’m…fine,” Zoe hedged. Aidan had to come back eventually. “You’re too kind, Martha. Thank you.” It was amazing that the woman whom Zoe had found to be exhausting and pretty tough to be around was the one coming to her rescue.

“Call me tomorrow. By then we should know what we’re looking at work-wise. I’m taking today to call clients and get the roundup of where everyone else is with storm cleanup.”

“Thank you.” Relief flooded her. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow then.” They hung up and Zoe sagged in her seat.

* * *

The next morning Zoe held her phone in her hand and did her best to will it to ring. Of course it didn’t, but she was beginning to go a little stir-crazy. She wanted to give Aidan the benefit of the doubt—after all, he had lost his phone in a puddle—but there was no excuse for why he hadn’t used
another
phone to call her.

It was beyond inconsiderate.

She could sit and pout about it, but that was getting old and she knew it was time to move forward and make arrangements to get to her car and get on with her life. Placing the phone down, she stood and then jumped when Baron let out a very loud bark. A dog barking wasn’t anything to freak out about, but the dog had been a fairly quiet companion for days. What could have him barking now?

Just then the door opened and Aidan walked in. Zoe wasn’t sure if she should run into his arms or run him over on her way out the door.

“Zoe,” he said quietly, looking like he hadn’t slept in days.

“Aidan.”

As soon as the door was closed behind him, Aidan stood rooted to the spot, his hands tucked into his pockets. Baron jumped happily at his feet, but Aidan kept his focus on Zoe. “How are you?”

A million snarky retorts were on the tip of her tongue, but she held them. “Honestly? I’m a little confused. Where have you been?”

“I…” he began weakly. “I had something I had to do.”

Her eyes went wide at the less-than-informative reply. “Seriously? That’s it? Care to share what that was?”

“No.”

The urge to scream was so great that she had to take a step back and get herself together. And they were already standing pretty far apart. “That’s not acceptable, Aidan.”

He slowly swiped a hand across his face before moving into the space. “It’s all I’ve got.” Without another word, he walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed the orange juice and poured himself a glass.

She was speechless. Did he honestly believe that it was okay to walk away and leave her here—for days!—without an explanation? Without a phone call? Zoe was aware of the fact that she wasn’t the most compassionate person, but this defied reason. After too long of a silence, she finally spoke. “I thought we’d moved beyond this,” she began cautiously. “I thought we had finally started talking and confiding in one another. There’s nothing you can’t tell me, Aidan.”

He stared at her for so long and so hard that Zoe began to squirm. “Not this,” he said flatly and placed his glass in the sink.

“So that’s it then?” she said, but most of the fight had gone out of her faster than air out of a balloon. She knew when to argue and when to pull back and when to simply throw in the towel. Yelling, screaming, and pitching a fit weren’t going to work here. She wasn’t sure how she knew it, but she did. In that instant, the old Zoe was back. She should have known better than to put her hopes on anyone. The only one who was going to take of her was herself.

And damn if that didn’t hurt.

“I’ll get my things together. Could you take me to my car?”

“What? You’re leaving? I thought you were going to stay here.”

A shrug and a sad laugh were her only response as she turned to walk toward the bedroom.

“Zoe? What’s going on? I thought we agreed on this.”

Her throat felt tight and she could feel the tears starting to well in her eyes. “And I thought we had transitioned from the whole employer-employee thing to something more. Clearly we were both wrong.”

He sighed loudly. “It’s not like that, dammit! And where are you going to go? There’s no way you could’ve found a hotel room, not within a fifty-mile radius. It’s a mess out there.”

“Well, I guess you’d know that better than me, being that you’ve been out driving around,” she threw over her shoulder as she walked to the bedroom, but there was little fire in her words. Just weariness.

She was tired.

So very, very tired. And disappointed. In Aidan. Herself. And the whole situation.

With the kind of efficiency she normally prided herself on, she collected her things and in less than ten minutes, had the entire bedroom suite looking as if it hadn’t been lived in. Next she moved back out to the kitchen and collected all of her food and put everything back into her cooler and moved it over to the door. She was about to get Baron’s things together, but when she looked up, Aidan was already doing it.

And there it was.

He wasn’t going to fight with her or demand that she stay. For once Aidan Shaughnessy wasn’t going to argue with her, wasn’t going to demand that things go his way.