The Proposal (Forever Bound Book 2) by Bree Callahan Read Free Book Online

seen her?”
    She frowned.  “Not this week, but isn’t she working at your office?”  He nodded slowly.  “Well, if you can’t find her then maybe you’re just working too hard.”  She giggled as she turned around and headed away from his table.  He groaned, staring at her backside.  That didn’t go as easy as he hoped it would. 
    In fact, the rest of the meal was the same way.  He stayed in the Diner for nearly three hours, hoping that someone new would walk into the restaurant and have some idea as to where Charity might be.  However, he got the same natural response, with them questioning why he wouldn’t know. He left the Diner feeling more confused.  It was as if she disappeared from the small town, where usually a person couldn’t hide for anything.
    He went back to the office and sat in his chair just staring absentmindedly in front of him and wondered what the next step should be.  He grabbed the phone and called up Jesse, only to get his answering machine.  “Hey, Bud…will you give me a call when you get this message?  Talk to you soon.”  He hung up and waited for Jesse’s call.  He tried his hardest to do some work on his computer, but he couldn’t concentrate.  When Jesse finally called, Derek had wasted an entire afternoon.
    “Hello?” Derek answered.
    “Hey,…what’s up?” Jesse asked.
    “I was hoping you’ve talked to Ana today.”
    “You and me both, Man, but no…haven’t heard a word.  Why?”
    Derek sighed.  That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.  “Well, I stopped by her parent’s house, and I begged her to tell me where Charity was, and she said she didn’t know.”
    “Okay…then what?” Jesse asked.
    “Well, she said she would call Charity and see if she could get her to talk to me.  That’s been almost eight hours, and I haven’t heard anything, so I was just curious if you’ve talked to her.”  Derek finished up his statement to Jesse.
    “Well, sorry I can’t help you.”  There was a heavy pause on the other end before he asked.  “Did you happen to mention me?” Jesse asked.
    “Yeah, we did.  I told her that she shouldn’t blame you when you had no say in what happened.  I told her she should talk to you, which is why I was hoping she had.”  Derek sunk back into his chair. 
    “Oh.  Well, if I hear anything I’ll let you know.”
    “Thanks,” Derek commented, then hung up the phone.  He stood up from his desk and grabbed his things to go.  Another day down and he was still no closer to answers.
     
    ***
     
    Charity pulled into Damian’s driveway, anxious to start the routine with distressing exercises.  Although first will have to come supper.  She was about to get out of her car when her phone started ringing.  She glanced at the caller ID, expecting another call from Derek.  However, it wasn’t Derek.  Jamie’s name flashed across the screen.  She settled back into the car and answered the call.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey there!” Jamie enthusiastically stated.
    “Hey!  Long time no hear.”  She glanced up at the front door to see that Damian had already opened it up for her, but she had to wait to see what her ex-co-worker wanted.  “What’s going on?”
    “Well…we had an interesting customer in the Diner today.”  Jamie chuckled lightly, and Charity urged her to continue.  “Mayor Worthington sat at one of my tables.”
    Charity froze in place.  “Alright,” she slowly stated.  “That’s interesting, but not sure if it’s newsworthy,” she replied with a half-hearted chuckle.
    Jamie snickered.  “No…I know, but he asked me if I knew where you were.”  There was a pause on her end, then she continued.  “I thought you worked with him.  Is everything alright?”
    Charity groaned.  Out of all the people, he could find to talk to about her, Jamie was the last person she would want to get an earful.  Jamie was a gossip and rarely let things go, without getting to the bottom of it.