Teddy? she mouthed, her eyebrows going up.
He grinned and shook his head as his mother started talking about when she could come visit. His sister was going to drive, and his brother was going to come with his father another time. Emma deduced that Ted’s parents were divorced, and she was glad when she heard them say they’d be there on Saturday.
She’d be gone Saturday, and if he was preoccupied, she wouldn’t have to explain anything to him.
“All right, Ma,” he said. “See you then. Love you.” He tapped the phone button, and the call ended. He glanced at Emma.
Before he could say anything, she asked, “Can I call you Teddy?”
“Absolutely not,” he said, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“No?” She giggled again, a thread a happiness pulling through her. True happiness. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like.
“No,” he said. “Two people on this planet call me Teddy, and I don’t want you to be one of them.”
“Who besides your mom?”
“Nate,” Ted said.
“You’re kidding.”
“We bonded in prison,” Ted said with a shrug. “He’s my brother now.”
Emma liked the idea of that, and she realized in that moment how many holes she had in her life. She didn’t have anyone like a Nate in her life. Even Ginger, though Emma pretended like they were close, she’d held at arm’s length. She knew Ginger really well, and she loved her like a sister.
But she wasn’t a sister, not the way Ted had just come out and said, He’s my brother now.
“So just Ted,” she said, needing this moment to stay light, because she didn’t want to think about such hard things.
“Did you want to see who the license plate belongs to?” he asked.
Anxiety tripped through Emma, and so much for not thinking about hard things. What if she knew the name? What if it was Robert? What if they’d found her?
“I guess,” she said.
Ted looked at her with something in his eye she didn’t like. He definitely looked like a lawyer, and Emma focused back on her wrapper.
“It’s a guy named William Leavitt,” he said, the words low and slow coming out of his mouth.
Emma pinched everything tight and held it, though she continued to fiddle with the crinkly plastic her ice cream bar had come in.
“Do you know that name?”
Emma really didn’t want to lie, but her voice had disappeared behind a giant, flaming ball of anxiety.
“I think you do,” Ted said. “And I think you’re terrified. In fact, I can feel it. You don’t have to tell me, but I really can help you.”
She looked at him then, feeling her eyes and how wide and round they were. Ted looked at her steadily, not a trace of judgement or scrutiny in his expression. Maybe she could trust him….
You don’t have to tell him about Missy, she told herself.
She cleared her throat, and it physically hurt. “Will was one of Rob’s guys.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Ted said, looking back at his phone. “Well, he’s looking for you, is my guess.”
“Why would he do that?” Emma asked, though she knew why. She knew exactly why.
“Do you have anything that belongs to Rob?” Ted asked. “A car, owe him some money? Heck, even his old sweatshirt. Maybe he wants it back.”
Emma couldn’t even shake her head. “I don’t have his sweatshirt,” she said. “Or his car.”
She’d had his child though. How would he even know? How could he have possibly found out?
Emma couldn’t swallow, and when she blinked and looked away from Ted, absolute terror tore through her. She wanted to say excuse me and fly from the house, but she didn’t get the words out before she leapt from the barstool, grabbed her car keys, and fled the West Wing.
Sometime later, Emma didn’t know how long, she pulled to the side of the road. Her vision had cleared enough that she could see she’d driven north. Her heart hadn’t stopped sprinting in her chest, and she’d ignored three calls from Ginger. One from an unknown number, but the message Ted had left had identified it as his.
He’d said he’d had to tell Ginger, and he was sorry, but he was worried about her.
Emma was worried about herself. She had no recollection of getting to where she was, but she recognized this stretch of road as the one leading to San Antonio. Of course she’d come this way. At the same time, her mind had slowed enough for her to realize that perhaps William would be following her.
She couldn’t go to Fran and Matt’s. She couldn’t go make sure Missy was okay. Her daughter had a cell phone, and so did Fran and Matt. They had safe words set up. Emma had left no stone unturned, and she forced herself to calm down again.
Her phone rang, and she looked numbly at the screen. Ginger.
Emma couldn’t ignore her best friend and boss. Ginger would be so worried, and Emma didn’t want to be the cause of that. She wondered what Ted had told her, and Emma supposed there was only one way to find out.
“Hey,” she answered.
“Emma, praise the Lord,” Ginger said. “She answered.”
“Who’s with you?” Emma asked.
“All the girls,” Ginger said. “We’ve been pooling our intelligence to figure out where you would go, but you weren’t at the ice cream shop, and you left no clues on your desk, and we’re all really worried.”
Emma exhaled and leaned her head back against the rest behind her. She needed someone and something to hold her up.
Ginger’s there, she thought. Jess and Michelle and Hannah and Jill.
Ted’s face flashed through her mind too, and she had no idea why. He’d been in her life for two or three days.
But he’d looked at her with kindness, and he’d seen her years ago when no one else had. When Emma had been hiding from everyone, her picture had been in a folder, and he’d seen it. He’d seen it and remembered her, all of these years later.
“Emma?” Ginger asked.
“What did Ted tell you?” she asked.
“He told me about a blue truck,” Ginger said. “And some guy who’s been hanging around the homestead, and that you guys looked up who the truck belonged to.”
Emma nodded, but she didn’t volunteer anything.
“He said he thought you probably knew the guy, and that you’re afraid of him,” Ginger said. “And we want to help you.” A beep came over the line, and Ginger’s voice was less echoy when she said, “It’s just me, Em. No one else is listening, and I just want you to know that no matter what it is, we’re here for you.”
“I know that,” Emma said, her tears welling up again. She had not let them fall in all the time she’d been driving.
“Ted is ultra-concerned about you. He said he can’t help it, and Nate explained that he was a lawyer, and very used to working with victims, being their advocate, and getting justice for them.”
Emma nodded, though Ginger couldn’t see her. She had the very real feeling that Ted wouldn’t fight for her if he knew what she’d done.
In this case, she’d stolen something from Robert Knight. He was the victim, not her.