“Well, when we got to New Mexico, we were able to trace the girl to her adoptive parents. She was found at a gas station right outside of a small town. It was easy to track her after that. After she was found, she was adopted by a couple that was in their mid forties and had no other children.”

“We went to their house, but she was no longer there. We pieced together that they were afraid she had gone crazy and took off. Something about her meeting some guy that she claimed she had dreamt about her whole life. They didn’t believe her and tried to check her into the psych ward at the hospital. Her adoptive parents didn’t seem overly compassionate, and it was clear that they thought she was off her rocker. Once she discovered their plans, she took off with the guy. They seemed almost relieved that she was gone. They did say that she would probably head to California. She had always wanted to move here. She even had a map of California tacked over her bed. It’s the only thing she took when she left.”

The draw of Santa Cruz obviously had a power over all of us.

“What are their names?” Sam asked.

“Lynn and Robert,” Shawn answered.

“Did you get a picture of her?” I asked, curious about what they looked like. “Was the girl Mark’s long lost sister? Did she have his warm molasses colored eyes?”

“Unfortunately no, like we said, her parents weren’t the friendliest, as a matter of fact, I would say they were downright frigid.” Shawn said.

“Well, all we can do is wait,” Sam piped in. “After all, we wound up here, so if their half as smart as us, they will too.”

We decided to hang out at my house once we left the pizza parlor. Sam and I wanted to go to our park, but the boys vetoed that. “It was just this morning that both of you were deathly ill. Just because Shawn and I have prince like reviving kisses, doesn’t mean you two shouldn’t take it easy,” Mark said glibly.

He didn’t fool us, something was going on. We let it rest though until we were all comfortably situated in my sitting room with bowls of ice cream.

“Okay, out with it. In case you forgot, Krista and I can practically read the emotions of anyone, and we can definitely tell when we’re being lied to,” Sam said.

Shawn looked at Mark, who shrugged his shoulders. “We may as well tell them, they need to be on the lookout anyway,” Mark said.

“We noticed on the way to the airport before we left, that someone was following us. We tried to pull over a couple of times to get a look at the driver, but every time we did, the car would speed by us. Neither one of us got a good enough look, but we could tell that it was a guy. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to be walking around a park at night,” Mark explained.

“Who do you think it is?” Sam asked intrigued.

“We don’t know, like I said, we couldn’t get a good look at the driver,” Mark answered.

“Are you sure it wasn’t your imagination?” I asked. “We were pretty stressed out after my mom freaked out on us.”

“Maybe, I just think we should all be a little more cautious for the next few days,” Mark answered.

“Hey, let’s change the subject. I don’t want to ruin the good mood. Why don’t we play a game?” Shawn suggested.

We agreed we didn’t want to ruin the mood, just when things seemed to be normal again. We pushed it to the side and decided to ignore it for at least the night.

I got up and turned on some music and got out our monopoly game.

The mood began to lighten up again as Sam kept us laughing at her usual antics. She took the game lightly and thought it was funny every time she landed in jail. She was generous with her money and kept giving it away. When one of us would buy a property that was the same color as hers, she would give us hers. Shawn kept telling her she had the game backwards.

“You’re supposed to accumulate property not give it away,” he would tell her every time she gave one away. She laughed and told him that was the way she played the game.

We finally gave up on the game when Sam ran out of assets and money. I put the game away, and we lounged around chatting until my mom came up to tell us it was bedtime.

Sam and I grudgingly walked the guys down to the porch and said our goodbyes; we weren’t looking forward to the separation. I felt a little panicked that my emotional health would regress again, once Mark wasn’t with me. Sensing my unease, he gave me a searing kiss before he left.

“I will see you in the morning,” he said quietly, not bothering to mention that we probably wouldn’t see each other in our dreams tonight.

I didn’t try to hide my despair. I could control the emotions, but I was still sad over my loss.

Now that Mark was unemployed, he and Shawn were going to continue their research, trying to locate the others. Shawn had given the Boardwalk his notice; we all felt for the time being that our time should be dedicated to the search. Mark told Shawn he could crash at his house and save money that way. They planned on spending part of their morning watching the Boardwalk on the off chance that Lynn and Robert were there.

Sam and I talked long into the night. Not about the disturbing stuff, like the strange guy that might be stalking us, or the twist my dreams had taken, but about the love stuff. We joked about my talk with my mom, and Sam died laughing as I told her the trick I played on Mark. Sam then filled me in on how her walk went with Shawn.

“We talked about marriage,” she confessed.

“You did?” I asked surprised.

Tags: Tiffany King The Saving Angels
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