Wish You Were Here Read Online Free PDF Page B

the back of the sofa and wrapped it around herself, then spoke to the phone on the coffee table.
    “Every girl should have a pony, you know.”
    Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
     
    ***
     
    Ruby Vane heard the front door slam, followed by thumping footsteps, but by the time she ducked her head out of her bedroom door, all she saw was Piper ’s bedroom door slamming shut. There was no sign of Nate yet. She gently shut her door and locked it, then lifted up the rug on her bedroom floor, counted the wide oak floorboards until she hit the right one, and pushed her foot down on one end until the other end popped up. She grabbed it with her hands, set it aside, and then sat down cross-legged next to the hole in the floor. She reached down into the opening and withdrew the big, plastic, purple ladies’ tackle box. She set it on her lap and ran her fingers over it, then slowly undid the latch and opened it. In the deepest part of the box was a dinner plate wrapped in cellophane. Taped to it was a yellowed piece of paper with Deliver to the Boise Police scratched on it in Mick’s jagged hand.
    She reached in and picked it up. Through the aged cellophane she could see it was kinda ugly. Ornate gold trimmed the scalloped edges. The rim was a deep pinkish purple, and in the center was an eagle with its wings spread out as it stood on a shield sporting the stars and stripes.
    “ Ugh.” She turned it over and read the gold imprint on the back again. “Haviland and Company. Lime-o-gees.” She set it back down in the tackle box. “Huh.”
    She had no idea what it meant, what it was, or why it had been so important to Mick that Nate find it and bring it to the authorities. All she knew was that as long as the box stayed hidden, Nate and Piper would remain in Deer Creek, and Ruby wouldn’t have to leave her home. And, yeah, Mick’s dying wish went unfulfilled, but she could live with that.
    “ Sorry, babe,” Ruby said quietly as she shut the box. “Payback’s a bitch.”
    She tucked it back into the floor, replaced the board, an d moved the rug back into place.

 
    Three
     
     
    Nate spent most of his morning run trying to figure out exactly how he was going to apologize to Freya. The look on her face after he’d unloaded on her made him feel like shit. He had no right taking his panic out on her; Piper was his responsibility, and if he couldn’t keep tabs on her, it certainly wasn’t Freya’s fault. The truth was, he hadn’t even been that panicked; when Piper got upset, she always went either to the office or to the lake, and he’d been pretty sure he’d find her there. What had really thrown him for a loop was finding his baby girl getting advice on boys from Freya Daly.
    That had kept him up all night.
    Even so, when Nate emerged from the path in the woods to see Freya—wearing a well-tailored gray pinstripe power suit and heels that could perform an appendectomy— beelining toward his office, his first instinct was to avoid her. He slowed to a jog and thought briefly about ducking back into the woods, but her eyes locked on him and he was stuck. He bent over to stretch a bit as she changed course; he had a feeling it couldn’t hurt to limber up before this interaction.
    “ Good morning, Nate.” Her posture was ramrod-straight, her hair pulled back tight. In her right hand, she clutched a briefcase. Her smile seemed calculated, almost stiff, and his guard went up.
    “ Morning, Freya.”
    They stared at each other for a moment, then she said, “I’d like to start by apologizing about last night. It didn’t occur to me that Piper hadn’t asked you first. I wasn’t t hinkin g.”
    “ I appreciate that,” he said, feeling oddly formal, “but it wasn’t your fault. I was out of line, talking to you like that. I’m sorry.”
    She gave a small nod. “That’s very kind, but really, I should have—”
    “ No, it’s fine,” he said. They stared at each other, silence fueling the awkwardness,