1. She Vanished
SHE VANISHED
O ne Week Later
“What are you cooking?” Abe yelled to his cousin Easton the following Monday when he got out of his truck after a twelve-hour day.
Easton turned from the grill on the back deck of his girlfriend, Laurel’s, house. “Burgers. Are you hungry? I’ve got plenty.”
“If you’re cooking and offering, I’m not saying no. But I’ve got a layer of grime to get off of me.”
Sweat, sunscreen, and dirt were baked into his skin and would take him at least ten minutes of scrubbing to remove.
He was used to it.
He was doing what he loved in life and not many could say that.
“Food isn’t going anywhere. Laurel is on her way.”
Abe nodded and went into the house. His three-year-old Red Wings were unlaced and kicked off on the mat like he’d been trained to do by his mother for years.
Scuffed and slightly faded, the color of walnut, they reminded him of the pair his father wore too.
It still brought an ache to his heart at times to think of the man he looked up to and hoped he was doing him proud.
His socks were sticking to his feet from sweat, and his jeans were probably leaving a path of dust in his wake on the hardwood floors as he walked through the kitchen.
If not from his pants, then from the hair on his arms that the sunlight was catching rays on.
Little whitecaps on the strands that weren’t pristine snowflakes but rather concrete dust.
He climbed the stairs and took his hat off, then ran his hand through his hair, his fingers coming back damp.
He was used to this daily routine, but it’d been hard to find a woman who was okay with it.
He’d thought he had, but Ella decided she wanted someone a little less...embarrassing at the end of the day.
Fuck her.
And if he hadn’t run into her ten days ago, he might not have gone to the casino and tried to drink the memories of not being good enough away.
Instead, he’d gained the memories of another woman who might have made him work a little harder this week trying to wipe away the fact she was gone when he woke in the middle of the night, making him wonder if he’d done something wrong.
He went right to his bathroom in the hall, turned the water on to warm up, stripped out of his damp clothing and threw them in the basket in the corner.
His size thirteen feet stepped over the tub and into the shower, his head under the steamy spray while he let the dust from dirt and concrete run down his body before he lathered up his hair.
Wash it twice was what his mother always told him and he still listened to her even though she was living in Florida now.
His hands flung his damp hair back, then he reached for the Irish Spring and did the same to his body.
Washed himself twice.
Not just because he wanted it all gone, but he never wanted to stink or have a woman say that to him either.
Once he was rinsed off, he turned the cold water up and let it cool his body down for a minute before he shut it off and got out.
After he had dried off, he wrapped the towel around his waist and went to his room for a change of clothes.
A few minutes later, he was crossing the driveways that connected the two houses and walked up the deck stairs to his cousin Easton.
“A beer just for you.”
“Sweet,” he said. “I’ll take it. No Laurel yet?”
“Any minute. Dinner is almost done too if you want to help me get everything out.”
“Sure,” he said. “I should cook for you guys once.”
Easton snorted. “Yeah, right. You never wanted to cook much when we were kids, you’re not going to do it as an adult.”
Abe’s parents had raised Easton from when he was ten on. In Abe’s eyes, Easton and he were brothers more than cousins.
“I can pick up the phone and place an order like the next person,” Abe said.
He took a swig of his beer and followed Easton into the little rental house Laurel Glasgow lived in. His cousin lived in Stamford but worked remotely as an attorney and was spending more time in this neighborhood just outside of Mystic, Connecticut.
“If you want to get the red bowl in the fridge,” Easton said, “I’ll get the plates.”
Abe opened the fridge, saw the bowl, and snagged it out. “Macaroni salad. This day is looking up.”
Easton snorted and the two of them made their way back out to the table on the deck.
Abe was just sitting when Laurel walked up the steps. “Wow,” she said, fanning her hand in front of her face. “If it isn’t the Cooke cousins. What kind of a lucky girl am I to come home to two hot guys on my deck? And one is cooking for me.”
“Hey,” Easton said. “I’m the only one that is allowed to be called hot.”
“Please,” Laurel said, smirking. “You two look a lot alike. Remember, I thought you were him at first.”
Easton snorted. “And he never lets me live it down.”
“I should have opened my mouth rather than just waved,” he said. “Maybe Laurel would be cooking for me half the time rather than Easton doing it.”
“You’ll find your woman,” Laurel said. “She’s out there and will be lucky to have you. I’m going to go change.”
Laurel kissed Easton and then went into the house.
“You got lucky,” Abe said to his cousin.
“Don’t I know it. She’s right—you’ll get it too.”
“Whatever,” he said, taking another swig of his beer.
He was trying not to think about the woman named Daphne from the weekend before.
It was hard not to.
Shit, he hadn’t gone to the casino thinking he’d meet a woman and have a one-night stand. He’d never had one before and didn’t even know what he was thinking to start the conversation that night.
But he didn’t regret it.
Based on some of Daphne’s actions, he got the feeling it was not something she did often either but was trying to be a different person like he was.
He’d had every intention of getting her full name and number in the morning and trying to see her again.
But she’d vanished.
“How busy are you right now?” Easton asked.
“Crazy,” he said. “Things are in full swing. Thankfully I’m not down any men. That makes it harder. Most of them are split on jobs. Next week I’ve got the start of a big hardscaping job at McGill’s. That will take weeks if not a month and will pad my pockets well.”
Reese McGill’s family was worth billions. Their estate was massive and he’d been thrilled he was given the contract to maintain the grounds with the full-time gardener retired.
A steady source of revenue was something his father had been working on and Abe built it more.
He thought it’d be an easy mow and trim job weekly, but it had turned into so much more with Reese’s wife, Poppy, wanting the grounds updated.
He wasn’t about to say no to any of it.
“That job is going to be endless,” Easton said. “I thought it was a big job back in April when I met with them to get some planting done. That property is huge.”
Easton had covered for him and kept the company running for March and April while Abe was in Florida caring for his mother.
“It can keep coming as far as I’m concerned,” he said. Once the planting had been done, Poppy had other ideas.
His father had started Cooke Landscaping decades ago and Abe always knew he was going to take it over. He just didn’t know he could grow it as big as he had.
Hard work, determination, and not being afraid of getting dirty were winning for him.
In his career.
His personal life seemed to be one big failure after another though.