This time was no different. He’d been at Undrea’s. He smiled. He remembered all of that. Fixing her phone, finding out she liked to pretend to be a mermaid in the tub, the whole thing.
Then Nina had come over. He squinted as the memory started to grow dim. She’d been…outside. And she’d wanted to talk about them.
He shook his head. There was no them. He was sure he’d told her that, hadn’t he?
And then it all went black.
Was that what had caused the episode? The stress of arguing with Nina? He tried hard to remember more, but it only made his head hurt.
Bowie came over to lean against him.
He put his arm around the cat. Poor Undrea. She must have been shocked that he’d blacked out like that. What had Nina told her? Everything? That he’d been having the episodes for two years now and there was no cure for them so far?
Maybe that was more than Undrea had bargained for. Maybe she wouldn’t want anything to do with him now.
But no, Undrea wasn’t like that at all. At least he didn’t think so.
Sure, Nina had brought him back here, but then Undrea might have thought that was what was best for him.
Nina could be very persuasive. And this episode would be the perfect excuse to get him back in the same house with her again.
He frowned and scratched Bowie’s head. “We need to talk to Undrea.”
Bowie meowed.
Ethan nodded. “Right after breakfast.”
Undrea felt odd as she got ready for work. It wasn’t a feeling she knew a name for. Something like sadness mixed with the sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop along with a dash of angry. Maybe a drop of being unsettled. And a big dollop of longing. All with an undercurrent of worry.
She missed Ethan. And Bowie. And she was on edge with not knowing what was going on with them.
Was there a name for that? Worry? It felt like more than that. And as she stood at the kitchen counter slathering a birthday cake Pop-Tart with Marshmallow Fluff to have with her coffee, she wasn’t sure she could get through the day feeling like this.
Her ability to concentrate was off. She couldn’t focus on anything for more than a minute or two without her mind going back to Ethan. A hot shower hadn’t helped. Neither had her first cup of coffee.
Maybe she should have gotten up earlier so she could have fit in a swim at the lake, but she’d been up so late last night.
Just as she was licking a smudge of Marshmallow Fluff off her finger and getting ready to put the lid back on the jar, her cell phone rang. She’d left it in the bedroom, so she ran back to grab it. The ring tone was unfamiliar, but it had probably reset to the factory default after the whole tub incident.
But when she picked it up, there was no incoming call because the ringing wasn’t coming from her phone.
The sound was coming from the guest room.
She walked next door and arrowed in on it. Ethan’s phone was lying on the bed, half-tucked under one of the pillows. She picked it up. Screen ID showed the call was coming from his mom.
Undrea hesitated, then thought about how worried his mom might be if she hadn’t been able to get ahold of him. She answered. “Hello?”
“Well, hello there. You’re not my son.”
Undrea smiled because she could hear the smile in the other woman’s voice. “No, ma’am, I’m not.”
“You must be Undrea, because you’re not Nina.”
Undrea blinked a few times in surprise. “You know my name?”
“I do. Ethan told me he was staying with you.”
“Oh, right.”
“I’m Constance Edmonds, by the way. In case he didn’t tell you that. And please, call me Connie.”
“He didn’t tell me, but I’m sure he would have gotten around to it. Nice to meet you, Connie. As it were.”
“You too. Is he there?” She laughed softly. “I have a little surprise for him.”
“No, he’s not, unfortunately. But his phone is. Which is why I answered it.”
Connie groaned. “Don’t tell me he went back to Nina.”
“I wouldn’t say he went back exactly…more like she took him.” Undrea shook her head. “It’s kind of a long story.” And not one Undrea felt like she could even begin to explain over the phone to a woman she’d never met and didn’t know. Freaking Ethan’s mom out just seemed like it had bad idea written all over it.
“Well, why don’t you tell me in person?”
“I don’t know where you live. And to be honest, I should really go to work today.” Plus she had no intention of going anywhere until the Nina problem was solved.
Connie’s soft laugh filled the line again. “My little surprise was that my friend Sarah Jane and I are in Nocturne Falls for a visit. Well, the surprise isn’t really that we came for a visit; he knew we were going to come. Just not when. That part is the surprise. Say, are you in Nocturne Falls? Or do you live somewhere else?”
Undrea was still smiling. She already liked Connie. “No, I live here. So you’re in town?”
“We are. We took a red-eye. It was the cheapest, and when you get old, you don’t sleep anyway. We rented a car at the airport and just arrived.”
“Do you have a place to stay yet?”
“No, but we’ll sort that out. Sarah Jane and I were a little more concerned with breakfast, to be honest. If her blood sugar drops, she can get cranky in a hurry. Can you recommend a good place?”
“I can do better than that,” Undrea said. “I’ll give you directions and meet you there.”
Twenty minutes later and after a call to Whitney to say she’d be in late, she was standing outside of Mummy’s diner looking for two older women.
They weren’t hard to spot, in part because they were smiling at her and waving.
“You must be Undrea.” The woman who had Ethan’s smile stuck out her hand. “I’m Ethan’s mom, Connie.”
Undrea grinned and shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Connie had dark, shoulder-length hair with lots of silver streaked through it. She was dressed in mom basics: capri jeans, a striped twin set, and sensible sandals. Her red glasses brought attention to her kind eyes. She was absolutely adorable.
“Aren’t you pretty?” the other woman said. She leaned in. “I’m Sarah Jane, in case you hadn’t guessed.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Undrea said. Sarah Jane looked like a distant older cousin of Mattie’s, with fully silver hair that went well past her shoulders. Her long denim skirt and embroidered gauze blouse had a bohemian vibe that matched the stack of beaded bracelets on her wrist.
Undrea liked them both immediately. “Come on. Let me show you how Nocturne Falls does breakfast.”
They made small talk as they ordered and then dug in, but it wasn’t until the enormous cinnamon roll arrived that things got serious.
Sarah Jane shook her head. “Connie, we might have to move here. Look at that thing. I feel like I’m getting emotionally attached.”
Connie laughed. “You have an unnatural affection for pastries.”
Sarah Jane looked at Undrea. “She’s right. I do. Baked goods will be my downfall.”
“Why don’t you cut it up and we’ll all share it?” Undrea asked.