Chapter 26
Carly
The night sky, Adam’s lips and his hands and how she couldn’t help rubbing her cheek against his stubble right before everything
went black—those were the things Carly clung to as the funeral room came into focus.
She locked on to the photo of Bruce carrying pint-size Carly on his shoulders and wondered what her dad would think of Adam.
Would they have gotten along? “Hey, Dad,” she said. “You won’t believe this, but I met someone. He’s probably the opposite
of good on paper. He’s technically still married, and his job is . . . Well, it’s a steady job, but not exactly normal. Actually, you’d probably get a kick out of the fact that he—”
“Adam?” a voice called out down the hallway.
Carly turned toward it. Was that . . .
She hurried down the aisle, tripping over her own feet. But when she turned to Adam’s office, she didn’t see a tall redhead.
“Shireen?” Carly asked with relief.
Shireen was okay. She hadn’t disappeared forever. Here she was, standing in the hall, just like any other day.
“You’re back!” Carly said with real enthusiasm.
“Yeah, I do reset here every day.” Shireen seemed annoyed. Which is when Carly realized that she had no idea she’d been out
of commission for two loops.
“Well—” Carly started to say, but Shireen interrupted with, “Where’s Adam?”
Carly cocked her head. What did she mean, where’s Adam?
“He took off already?” Carly hedged. She didn’t think he actually would, but the alternative wasn’t possible.
“No,” Shireen said. “When I restarted, he wasn’t even in the room. He was never there.”
Shireen had said the words Carly was terrified to hear. There had to be a misunderstanding or something. Even though Shireen
had no reason to lie, Carly went into the office to check. She didn’t just observe that he wasn’t in the room, because she
also looked behind the curtains, under the desk, in the small closet and at one low point lifted a stack of paper to see if
maybe all six foot of him was under there. Then she went from room to room in the funeral home, calling his name like he was
just playing a very mean game of hide-and-seek.
It wasn’t until she went out under the piercing sun that she realized if Adam were there, he’d be by her side. But Shireen was right.
Adam was gone.
Shireen spoke—something about going to get help—but Carly had a hard time focusing.
What if something in the eclipse changed so drastically that Adam won’t return?
What if I never get to kiss this man again?
Where the hell is he?
Carly’s thoughts came so fast that she couldn’t lock on to any of them.
As soon as one came, another zoomed in to distract her.
It was almost like her brain was a salad spinner, and the thoughts were strips of lettuce, crashing into each other and flying around in a maddening circle.
At some point, she was so overwhelmed that she crouched low to the ground, hung her head between her knees and covered her ears.
She couldn’t hear anything except a blaring white noise in her head.
She finally snapped back when Shireen shook her shoulder, shouting, “Carly!”
Carly took her hands from her ears. She sat on the gravel driveway and sucked in one long, steadying breath, then let it out,
the same way her therapist had encouraged her to do when her ADHD was in overdrive. She repeated that two more times.
Eventually, Carly swallowed down her own fear, looked up at Shireen and said, “You were gone, too.”
Carly explained the last loops—Shireen’s disappearance and that, as far as they knew, no one else had gone missing. Shireen
listened to all of it and tried to hide her reaction when Carly brought up Adam and Dean’s confrontation. She wanted to word
vomit the facts as quickly as possible so she could get on with the bigger task of bringing Adam back.
“Do you feel any different after this reset?” Carly asked. As far as they all knew, the time between the eclipse and a reset
was just a snap of the fingers. But Shireen had been gone for multiple loops. Had she felt that time pass?
Shireen shook her head. “I kind of don’t believe what you’re telling me. In my mind, I reset and came straight here. I didn’t
miss a day, or any time at all. It’s only Adam missing that makes me think you’re telling the truth.”
Carly pushed herself up, feeling lightheaded from the near anxiety attack. If Shireen was able to come back, Adam would, too. But Carly had to channel Adam in that moment—gather the facts and come up with a plan to bring him back. That was doable. She could do this.
When they arrived in town, Shireen parked her SUV at the top of Main Street. But when they got out, the first thing Carly
saw was a blow-up swimming pool filled with stuffed animals—enormous giraffes, big fat elephants, tiny fuzzy cats, teddy bears
with bows, bunnies with fluffy tails—and toddlers jumping onto the pillowy pile with utter glee. Farther down the street was
a group of skateboarders moving in time to the beat the drum circle was putting out.
What was going on? Why wasn’t anyone else concerned?
“How do we start this?” Shireen asked.
Carly wasn’t sure. She’d had Adam as her partner, and without him, she felt unsteady. But then she spotted Mayor Franco in
a purple cowboy hat and matching boots headed toward Moms Pie House. Mayor Franco had been her lifeline before Adam, and Carly
could use her help again today.
Carly jogged to catch up. “Mayor Franco!”
The mayor turned, and when she saw Carly she tipped the front of her hat in a hello. “Good for you to keep up with exercising.
And to go for a run in combat boots. You’re hardcore!”
Carly caught her breath but quickly said, “Adam is missing.”
“Well, I can see that,” the mayor said. “Where is he this morning? Playing basketball? Cleaning gutters without the assistance of a ladder?
What else do obscenely tall people do?”
She was not getting this at all. “No, I mean, Adam’s missing. He’s vanished, just like Shireen did. He’s not in Julian.”
“Oh,” Mayor Franco said, but still looked bewildered. “I see Shireen is here, though. That’s good news, right?”
Talking to Mayor Franco was a bad idea. She shook her head and turned back toward the street. Carly’s heart pounded so loudly her ears started to hurt. Could it really just be Adam who was gone?
“Shireen!” Dean’s voice came from behind them, and Shireen looked from Dean to Carly.
“You go,” Carly said quickly. They had a lot to catch up on, and Carly didn’t have time to listen to the recap. She had to
bring Adam back. “I’ll keep looking.”
Carly went into every open storefront and spoke to as many people who were willing, but no one had seen Adam. At one point,
she spotted red hair through the Main Street crowd and ran toward it with blinding intensity only to find that it was a mannequin
someone had pulled from a clothing store.
Carly calmed herself with the knowledge that if Adam was missing, he’d surely come back in the next reset or two. Shireen
had returned. Adam would, too. But Carly knew she had to tell Adam’s parents before they found out from someone else.
She approached Shireen and Dean on the sidewalk and said, “We have to tell Bill and Sheila.”
“Right.” Shireen focused on the ground.
Carly’s car was parked outside her dad’s place. She hadn’t been back there since . . . “Can I borrow your car?” Carly quickly
asked.
“Oh, of course.” Shireen pulled the key ring out of the back pocket of her jeans and tossed them to Carly. “Do you want me
to come? I know them very well, obviously.”
“Me, too,” echoed Dean. “I could come.”
“I’ll handle this on my own,” Carly said. “You both have unsettled business with Adam’s family. You know, destroying the marriage
and friendship thing?”
Shireen sharply exhaled. “I see your point. Okay, we’ll keep checking the storefronts here. See if anyone else is missing or has seen anything.”
“Thank you,” Carly said. “I know you probably don’t want to spend the first day back looking for Adam, but when you went missing,
that’s pretty much all we did.”
“I believe it,” Shireen said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him.”
Carly held on to that sentiment as she drove to Bill and Sheila’s house. Maybe, by some loop miracle, Adam would be waiting
for her there. Perhaps, unlike Shireen’s disappearance, Adam was simply misplaced.
When Carly knocked on the door, though, and Bill and Sheila answered with kind smiles, she understood that she’d be breaking
the news to them. They sat in front of the fireplace in the living room and Carly tried to stick to the facts, just as Adam
would want.
“Adam didn’t show up with the reset this morning.” Her heart clenched with each word. “Shireen came back, though. And she
and Dean are searching through town to see if anyone has seen Adam, or if others are missing.”
Sheila’s hands instantly went to her mouth, and Bill’s face fell. “Shireen is back,” he said. “So Adam will be back, too.”
“Of course he will,” Sheila said. She grasped onto Bill’s hand for support. Carly had grown so used to having Adam by her
side that she flexed her fingers for him, then hugged herself as she remembered he wasn’t there.
“Shireen was gone for two loops, so we can assume Adam will be back after two as well,” Carly offered. “But I wanted you both
to know what’s happening. I’m going to keep searching until he’s back.”
“We are, too.” Bill stood from the love seat and extended a hand to Sheila, pulling her up. “We can go to the funeral home
and search the tree house. We’ll look for any clues we can find.”
“Great,” Carly said, and felt some weight lift off her shoulders.
When Shireen had gone missing, Adam wanted to keep the search more contained.
But maybe with extra help, he’d return faster than two loops.
“How about we meet in town around sundown? Maybe I can convince Mayor Franco to hold another town hall.”
“Telling the whole town? Oh, God, that’s so serious.” Sheila wiped her nose with a tissue; her eyes were red rimmed and she