The Vanishing Girls Of Willow Creek (Willow Creek, #1)

Chapter Twenty Four

Wow. That is a ton of pressure. I still have no idea what's going on. Yet, here I stand, with the ghost of my friend's mom, asking me to look out for him.

"I'll try," I replied, not wanting to make a promise I wasn't sure I could keep. "I'll try my best."

After that, my dream seemed to fade away.

I was brought out of my flashback by a rapping on the window.

Slowing getting up, I made my way over, pulling back the curtain, and unlocking the latch.

"Hey Jon," I said as he let himself in. He was dressed in a nice button down black shirt and dark jeans.

"What are you up to?"

"Just thinking." I sat back down on my bed, him joining me. "Not much to do on Sunday's."

"True. But isn't Florence's baby shower today?"

I jumped up. "How could I forget?!"

My mom reminded me last night and everything.

"Okay. This case is beginning to mess with my head."

"Beginning?" Jon teased, chuckling to himself.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Don't make me grab my bat and live up to my namesake."

"Okay, okay. I surrender." He relented. "But have you decided what you're going to wear?"

I shook my head. "Considering you just reminded me a few seconds ago, not really. Help?"

He laughed to himself before following me into my closet.

My closet was pretty organized so finding an outfit shouldn't take too long.

"Let's have a look. I don't want anything too revealing. This is a baby shower after all. Her parents and other adults are going to be there."

"True. But, you've grown up around all of them. They should know how you dress by now."

"Fair enough," I said, rifling through the portion of hangers that held some of my tops.

After showing him a few options, he picked a black ruffle spaghetti strap off the shoulder top with red roses on it that criss crossed in the back. Thankfully I had slept in my strapless bra last night.

I decided to pair it with a match pair of black shorts with roses that had an attached billowy skirt, almost like a version of a fohawk dress only it was a top and skort.

I began pulling of the shirt I'd slept in when Jon said, " Whoa! What are you doing?"

"What? Changing? What's the matter? We change in front of each other all the time. Okay, not all the time. But you know what I mean."

He laughed, though it sounded skittish.

I furrowed my brow as I pulled on the top he'd help choose. I struggled with doing up the ties on the back. "Hey. Can you do me up?"

"What?!" He exclaimed.

I turned around, seeing him wide eyed. "My top. Can you help me do it up?"

"Oh, right. Sure." I turned around, holding my hair up as he began tying the back. I'd decided to just leave my hair in its natural curls.

"I'm just glad we have a little bit of a day off. All this investigating the disappearing girls and Miranda's murder has really begun to take a toll on me. I keep seeing them in my dreams."

"Again?"

I nodded. "Last night Aubrey visited me again. Only this time she talked. She seemed shocked that I knew who she was. There were other women there too. I think they are some of the missing women and girls. None of them talked. They just stood there. Watching."