Blaze of Winter: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance by Elisabeth Barrett Page B

All right. See you then. ’Bye.” Terminating the call, she shoved her cell phone in her pocket and sighed heavily, leaning against the table.
    “What was that about?” Kate asked.
    “One of my old clients, a woman named Wanda, disappeared a week ago. Her mother has already called the police to report her missing, but they want to meet with her caseworkers. Yvonne thinks it’ll be helpful if I’m there.”
    Kate frowned. “I thought you were taking time away from the Center.”
    “I know,” Avery said, rubbing her eyes. “I am.”
    “Couldn’t someone else meet with Wanda’s parents?”
    “The caseworker she was assigned to after I left already met with them, but they want me, too. I get it. She was my client. I might be able to help in some way. I’m going to think back through our sessions together, see what I can dredge up. Maybe she mentioned something to me that could be useful.” She met Kate’s concerned gaze. “Look, if it weren’t a dire situation, Iwouldn’t be going in. She’s got a son, but she’s only nineteen. They think she’s relapsed and at this point, she’s been alone on the streets for a week. They wouldn’t have called me if they weren’t desperate. The least I can do is help.”
    “Just take care of yourself, dear. I worry about you.”
    “I worry about me, too,” Avery muttered, just as Kate began to cough. “And now I’m really worried about you. When did you start coughing?”
    “Oh, it’s nothing,” her aunt said. “I’m sure it’s just something in the air.” Silently, she slipped out the door.
    Avery looked after her aunt with concern. She’d have to keep an eye on her—she was clearly less worried about herself than she should be. Kate needed rest, and Avery would make sure she got it. It had been tough getting her aunt to slow down after her last chemo treatment. She’d been raring to go within a few days, but Avery—with Emma’s help—had convinced her to take it easy for another week. Now, she forced her protective instincts back down. Kate had said it was nothing, so she’d have to take her words at face value for the moment. If her aunt kept coughing, she’d worry more.
    In the meantime, she returned her focus to her own situation. What did it mean that this was the second of her clients who’d had serious issues after she started working with them? It wasn’t unusual for clients to be tough, but having one die and another disappear within a few weeks was not exactly normal.
    Wanda MacGreeley had been one of her more challenging cases, not least of which was because she was whip smart. Like many of her other charges, Wanda was a single mom referred to the rehabilitation program by Family Services so that she could keep custody of her child. But unlike so many of the others, Wanda seemed to have the genuine desire to get better—to kick the addiction and her demons—and graduate from the program. Just like Mia . Wanda had been doing so well when Avery left the Center. She was keeping clean, and she truly seemed to bemotivated to stick with the program and get her son back permanently. What had made her deviate from the positive path she’d been following?
    Avery went up to her room on the second floor. Because Kate had acted like a second mother to her and Emma after their mom had died, any place her aunt lived felt like home. Kate had moved to Star Harbor nine years ago, when Avery was in her freshman year of college. It was the year her mom finally succumbed to the cancer. Kate had set aside rooms in her new house for both her and Emma. The small, cozy bedroom was really hers, not some temporary space set up in an unused guest room.
    Crossing the room, she made a beeline for her desk, where she kept a writing pad and lots of pens. Then she tossed the pad on the quilted coverlet of her queen-sized bed and jumped on after it. Lying there on her stomach, she began to think. It would be easier if she had Wanda’s case files to flip through, but