I was in a groove. There was one week left before my art show and I was making amazing progress. Yes, I've had good streaks like this where I've been able to get quite a few paintings done in a short time, but in this case the only thing I could chalk it up to was Jamie.
As Rise Against's Paper Wings filled my studio, I dipped my brush into the water again to clean it before brushing my forearm across my cheek. I was probably covered in paint. Wouldn't be the first time. Hazards of the job.
The painting I was working on now was inspired by a place that I saw on my last trip to Paris when I came with my parents. It was about five years ago and my mother planned a family trip to celebrate their anniversary. We ended up finding this rundown abandoned church.
Even though no one has probably attended a service there in decades, you could still feel the energy radiating off of it when you stood before it. I was never a religious person, but it was beautiful. Any photographer, painter, or anyone with a creative eye couldn't help but admire such a structure like that.
It was currently about ninety percent done. All I had left was to finish the steeple and a part of the tire swing that hung from a tree outside of it. It was going to be a great piece when it was finished. The whole show was going to be an experience I was never going to forget. Not only was I finally going to showcase some of my work professionally, but I was going to have a beautiful woman on my arm to share it with.
Speaking of, I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. The music silenced automatically and I pulled my phone out to see who it was. Since Jamie was usually a texter, I assumed it was one of my parents or my boss. I could not have been more wrong.
"Shit."
It was Harper again. She called me a little bit ago too but I didn't answer. I promised Jamie that I wouldn't tell them where she was and that I would keep her secret. If I answered, I felt like I would be obligated to tell Jamie that I spoke to her best friend. The last thing I wanted to do was keep a secret from her. But then again, what if there was some kind of emergency going on with one of the people she loved and they were calling to tell me in case I had seen her or spoke to her.
Feeling like I didn't have another choice, I hit the accept button.
"Hello? Harper?"
The voice that came through the phone was definitely not Harper. It wasn't even female. It was heavy with a British accent and it was angry.
"Not quite, mate. Been a minute since you and I had that little conversation over beers."
Oh shit. I remembered that conversation. Jackson went all 'big brother' on me about Jamie. Basically threatened to kill me if I ever did anything to hurt her.
"Jackson," I said lamely. "Yes, I remember. Is, uh, everything okay?"
That's when I finally heard Harper's voice in the background.
"Give me the phone, Jackson! I'm handling this."
Clearly her man was not letting her take the reins on this one. "So, Ollie, do you have anything to tell us?"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. It was obvious that they somehow figured out she was in Paris, or even worse that she was with me. But if I opened my mouth and admitted it, I felt like I would be betraying Jamie's trust.
"Nope," I answered, digging my own grave. "Not a damn thing to say." Dig, dig, dig. "It's good to hear from you guys though." Six feet should be good for my grave right?
There was cussing and rustling on the other end of the line before another voice came through.
"Yeah, hi. This is Lanie. You know the Lanie. Jamie's best friend. We know she ran away to Paris and we know she's with you! Do you have any idea how worried we've been?" I had to hold the phone from my ear a little as she continued to shriek into the receiver. That woman had a set of lungs. "I should get on a plane right now and fly over there to beat yo—Ayden Sawyer, don't you dare take this phone from—"
More shuffling and a still upset Lanie who sounded like she was being led away from the others when her voice trailed off.
"Hello?" I said, not even sure who was coming on the line to rip me a new one next.
The next voice was cheerful. But not in a good way. "Hey, bro. What's happening?"
Christ. My eyes slid shut. That was Nate. He was one of the close friends in the group that I remembered well after that little conversation he and I had the day of the wedding.
"Nate...good to hear from you."
He sucked his teeth. "Wish I could say the same. But I got an upset girl over here who's worried about a certain someone, feel me?" I could almost see his smart ass expression through the phone right now. "Now, I like you, Ollie, I really do. But I can't have my girl upset. Just ain't gonna happen. So why don't you tell us everything and put Jamie on the phone, 'kay?"
Deep breath from me. Anyone with eyes knew how much Nate loved his woman. He was not kidding around right now. "Look, I can't do that, all right? It's complicated and I made a promise—"
More shuffling before I heard Jackson in the background this time—and he wasn't any happier.
"Princess, I love you, but I need you to give me the phone. Don't look at me like that. I'm just going to talk to the bloke nicely. No threats. Promise."
She must not have believed him because the next sound I heard was the sound of a door slamming and then there was silence.
"Ollie? It's Harper."
Relieved sigh from me. "Harper, what's happening? How did you guys—"
"Find out she was in Paris with you? We kinda...tracked her email."
My eyes widened. "Wait a minute, you tracked her email? Wow, that's—"
"I can explain all that later, Ollie. First I need to know...is she, you know, okay?"
It was easier not saying anything to the other guys when they came on the phone, but now that Harper stated they knew she was here for sure, or maybe it was because of the way her voice hitched at the end, I couldn't seem to keep my mouth shut.
"She's okay. She's doing a little better every day. I'm helping her as much as I can. I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys where she was when I found her, but I promised her that I wouldn't do that. She begged me not to say anything. I was worried that if I betrayed her trust, she might take off and then none of us would know where she was again."
Harper was the one who sighed now. "Yeah, I figured. Once we found out she was with you, all the puzzle pieces kind of came together. I get that she needs her space and that's fine, but this call wasn't just to bitch at you."
Something about the way she said that made a chill shoot down my spine. "What's happened?"
"Ollie, where is Jamie right now?"
"She's in the loft."
After we woke up this morning, we did our normal routine of making love and showering together before eating breakfast. When we were done I told Jamie I was going to finish one of my portraits and she seemed perfectly fine. She told me she was going to spend the day in the loft straightening things up and just relaxing.
"Are you sure about that?"
Now I was the one who was getting angry. I got to my feet immediately and started heading upstairs to the loft to verify for myself that she was here. "What the fuck aren't you telling me, Harper? What is going on?"
"She took off, Ollie."
"That's ridiculous," I said as I walked up the stairs. "We've been good. She has no reason to run away from me."
"Yes, she does," Harper said in a worried tone. "Today she does."
"'Today she does'? What the hell does that mean? Why today? And please stop being cryptic."
Just as I rounded the corner and opened the door to her loft, Harper said five words and I froze. But it wasn't just what she said that had me standing stock still in Jamie's doorway. It was the fact that there was no redhead in sight.
"Ollie, did you hear what I said?'
Words seemed to fail me. "I...I..."
Then she repeated herself. "Today is her mom's birthday!"
What the fuck...Today was Cherise's birthday. And unable to handle it, Jamie took off.
Fuck.