Milo raced to the set of apothecary drawers where Wyatt had kept the Shirley Temple hair sample. He opened every drawer and searched through various Ziploc bags.
He finally lifted one and said, “Bingo.”
It was labeled, Jessica Rabbit and had yesterday’s date on it. Apparently, Wyatt must have thought I resembled that fictional redhead from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
“I think I know who entered your room last night.”
Frantically, I ran my fingers through my hair in search of the spot where strands were missing. It wasn’t a very big chunk so I might never figure it out.
Milo put the bag of my hair in his pocket as we rushed out of the house together.
He started the car, and we took off down the road.
As he drove, he lifted the baggie from his jacket pocket. “I guess we have our souvenir from Bumford.”Chapter 14* * *Hazel“Hazel, I’m so sorry!”
My face scrunched up. No name had come up on my cellphone’s caller ID, so I wasn’t even positive who was apologizing.
“Felicity?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
I’d taken over behind the wheel for a few hours so Milo could grab a nap. Apparently, once he’d joined me in my bed last night, he’d had trouble falling back asleep. He’d been out cold in the passenger seat for about a half hour now. But he blinked his eyes open and looked over at me on the phone.
“I’m in the hospital,” Felicity said.
“The hospital? What happened?”
Seeing the look of concern on Milo’s face, I covered the phone and whispered, “It’s my friend back home. I’m going to pull over to talk to her. I don’t like driving and talking on the phone.” I put my blinker on and moved into the right lane.
“I’m so sorry to bother you on your trip,” Felicity said. “But I had a car accident.”
“Oh no. Are you alright?”
“I’m okay now. It happened last night. Some jerk blew a stop sign and hit the passenger side of my car. My Toyota took the brunt of the impact, but, unfortunately, I took the brunt of the airbag. My husband is always telling me I sit too close to the steering wheel and it’s dangerous. But I’m so short that it’s hard to sit too far back. Well, turns out he was right, and I should have tried harder. I fractured my neck and broke my wrist—all from the airbag.”
After getting off at the next exit, I pulled over to the side of the road and put the car into park. “Oh my God! A broken neck!”
“The doctors said I’m lucky I’m not paralyzed.”
“Wow, Felicity. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“But I feel awful. Even though I’ll probably only be in the hospital another night or two for observation, between my neck being in a collar for who knows how long and my right wrist being in a cast, there’s no way I’m going to be able to cover the upcoming shoots for you. I feel terrible about it.”
“Of course you can’t. Don’t even think about it. That should be the furthest thing from your mind right now. What’s important is that you’re okay, and you get the proper rest and treatment you need. I’m so sorry this happened.”
“Thank you. But listen, yet another doctor just walked in, so I have to run.”
“Go. Good luck. I’ll call and check on you in a day or two. I hope everything goes well.”
When I hung up, Milo was looking at me, waiting to be filled in. I shook my head. “That was my friend Felicity. She was in car accident and fractured her neck and wrist.”
He reached over and took my hand. “I’m sorry. That sucks. But she’s going to be okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It definitely could have been worse.”
Milo nodded. “You mentioned her the other day. Is she a good friend?”
“We’re pretty close. We met in an underwater photography class, actually. She’s a photographer, too. She sometimes covers for me in my school portrait business when I’m in a pinch or need to take some time off.”
“You do underwater photography?”
I smiled. “I took a class with hopes to. But I’ve never gotten around to it.”
Milo frowned and nodded. “Well, I’m glad your friend is okay.”
I’d been so concerned about Felicity’s accident that I hadn’t fully realized what her being out of commission meant for me. My stomach suddenly dropped, and it felt like someone reached into my chest and squeezed my heart. “This…sort of puts a wrench in our plans.”
Milo’s eyes caught with mine. “You need to head home?”
I nodded. “She was the one covering for me while I’ve been gone and was supposed to do all my school shoots next week, too. Now she can’t, obviously.”
His eyes looked as panicked as I felt. “When do you need to be home?”
“Monday. Which means I’m going to have to fly home from Atlanta tomorrow.”