“She wasn’t at yoga today,” Mallory mentions.
“She’s supposed to be here any minute. She’s sick. Her dad is too. I swung by there this afternoon to check on him,” I add quickly.
“I didn’t realize you were so close with her dad.”
“He likes me,” I shrug before taking a drink of the tea. I think back to our conversation about his favorite fishing holes and the map he tried to make me to find the biggest ginseng patch in Georgia. “They don’t make them like him anymore.”
The doorbell rings in the front hall and I put my drink down. “Hey, Ellie is here. I gotta go. Tell Graham I’ll call him later since you hogged the conversation.”
“Will do. See ya, Ford.”
Slipping my phone into my pocket, I jog to the front door. I don’t even look, but I should’ve. Maybe it would’ve prepared me for what I was going to see.
Ellie is standing on the stoop, her face swollen and blotchy. Her eyes are glassy and it’s obvious she’s been crying. For a while. Not one or two tears, but enough to make the whites of her eyes almost pink.
“What’s wrong?” I take her hand and pull her inside, positioning her under the chandelier so I can get a better look at her. “Are you okay? What happened?”
She seems unharmed. Physically, anyway. I don’t know what to do as her bottom lip starts to tremble, so I pull her into a hug.
“Did someone hurt you? Is your dad okay?”
She nods against my shirt. I pull her in tighter, my heart in my throat. “You’re scaring the shit out of me.”
“I need to talk to you.”
Her face is pressed against me, the words muffled, and I can barely make them out. She’s stiff at first, as if she doesn’t want held. But after a few seconds, her hands are dipping beneath my shirt and lying flat against my back.
“Ellie, I need you to explain this.”
Her back begins to shake. The sound of muted sobs slips through her efforts to contain them. The combination causes my heart to lodge in my throat, adrenaline to spike.
I guide her backwards so I can see her face. She has red lines in her skin, her lips plumped from crying, I guess. Her hair is matted agai
nst her face. “What is going on?”
She still refuses to say anything, just looks at me with tear-filled puppy dog eyes. I have to laugh or I’m going to lose my cool.
“Come on.” I take her hand and lead her into the kitchen. I get her situated at the island and hand her a glass of tea. “Tea fixes everything. Or that’s what my mom says. I find it not to be true, but it’s the best I have off the cuff.”
She laughs, blinking back tears. “Thank you.”
Rifling through drawers, I locate a cloth and dampen it. When I turn to hand it to her, I see her watching me. There’s something in her eyes I can’t pinpoint. Whatever it is, it stops me in my tracks.
“Babe, you’re going to have to start explaining this because I’m struggling to stay calm.”
Her head nods back and forth and I can almost see the words stuck in her throat.
“Is it your dad?”
“No.” The word is strangled, thick in the air. She takes a shaky sip of the tea.
“Halcyon?” I offer, getting exasperated.
“No.”
“Ellie,” I sigh, taking a deep breath, “I—”
My phone rings in my pocket and with an irritated glance, I pull it out. “It’s Barrett. He can wait.”