Page 82 of Fool Me Twice

“I was just thinking about that. None that I know of.”

“I don’t buy that. Everyone has a favorite place, even if it’s a secret. Do you know if he keeps a journal?”

“I doubt it. Sebastián has never been much of a writer.” Emotion clogged my throat. Even the mere thought of his room, full of his belongings but empty of him, made me want to break down.

“Georgia?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.” Overcome with emotion, I considered pulling the car over. That would mean losing another minute, though, and so much time had gone by already.

“You don’t have to—”

“I do,” I interrupted. “I pulled you into this mess.”

There was a pause. “I’m pretty sure I’ve never referred to it as a mess,” she said, not unkindly. “So don’t put words into my mouth.”

“It is a mess. I am a mess. Now my child is suffering because of it, and I have pushed away the only woman who ever meant something to me.”

There was the sound of a mattress creaking as she sat on Sebastián’s bed. “Sebastián means… so much to me.” Her voice cracked. “I don’t want to be anywhere else right now, except looking for him… Well, I’d rather have him back home already, but…”

Tears leaked from my eyes, and I blinked them back. The urge to tell Georgia how much I loved her built in my chest, but it was the wrong time and place. Not on the phone. Not with Sebastián missing.

“He thinks the world of you,” I said. “That day he met you, when you had your accident, I showed up at the hospital and his face was glowing. He couldn’t stop talking about you as he grabbed my hand—”

Georgia gasped loudly, and my hands gripped the wheel even tighter.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I have an idea about where he might be. It could be crazy, but we’ve got nothing to lose by looking there. Where are you?”

“I’m about five minutes from the house.”

“I’ll meet you out front. See you in five.” She hung up before I could ask any questions.

Five minutes later, just as promised, she stood at the street side of the gate. Before I’d even pulled the car to a full stop, she was opening the passenger door and climbing in.

“Go straight,” she said.

I didn’t waste any time following her instructions. “Where are we going?”

“To the place where Sebastián and I met. Maybe it’s egotistical of me, but I think he sees me as a kind of, well, mother he never had. Maybe he went back to the place where our relationship started.”

Hope bloomed in my chest, though I tried not to get carried away with it. “I can see that.”

But they’d met on one of the mountains. Was Sebastián really capable of walking that far?

“His sleeping bag was gone,” Georgia said. “I noticed he had one the first time I was in his room.”

“That doesn’t mean he intends to sleep in the woods.”

“He also took his book about constellations. The one he kept next to his telescope.”

That pushed me into thoughtful silence. Pressing the gas a little harder, I urged the car forward.

The journey to the overlook where Georgia had her accident was not an easy one. We parked as close as we could and then had to climb the rest of the way in the dark. More than once, our feet slid against stones and loose dirt.

Finally on the trail, we broke into a run.