seen us hanging out together in town even though the meeting was innocent enough. I guess she didn’t like to see us together in any capacity.”
Rusty grimaced. “I’m so glad I never touched her in any romantic way. She wanted to be intimate, but the thought of touching her literally made me ill. Do you know we ran into that bitch and she had the nerve to brag about what she did? I have been raised to never lay a hand on a woman and that was the only thing that saved her life that day because I literally wanted to kill her. Thankfully Cash was with me or I actually might have wrung her neck. Besides, she was the least of our problems at that time. We had to find you. ”
Alex sniffed . “So what then?”
Rusty got on his feet and cupped her face between his palms. “We dipped into our savings and hired a detective to search for you. We figured they have better luck at finding you than we did . He reported to us that you were living in a youth hostel close to the college you were to attend. I don’t know how we missed that place when we went there on our own. Maybe because it was one town over and we didn’t think of going there, but we were so thankful to know you were safe. Could you tell us how you came to be there?”
“Well, when my grandmother kicked me out, I only had a half hour to pack my belonging and get out. I had a lot of things I’d purchased to take with me that I had to leave behind. I stayed in the motel that night because I couldn’t leave town without going to the bank so that I could withdraw my savings. I was going to need it to find cheap lodging because I wouldn’t be allowed to move into the dorm for some weeks. I got my money and bought a bus ticket. I learned about the youth hostel when I arrived at my destination and I stayed there for about a week until I saw a flyer for a room that was closer to campus and it was in a safe area.”
Cash relinquished his hold and turned her around until she faced him. “Finding that room wasn’t a coincidence, Alex.”
Her eyes grew big. “What are you talking about?”
Cash gently wiped away the tracks of her tears with his thumb. “ As luck would have it, one of our father’s old fraternit y brothers lived in the area so we called in a favor to get him to help you find a place until you could move to the dorms on campus. He knew someone who rented out rooms in their house to college students on the cheap. That mysteriou s flyer you found advertising that room you wound up in, came from the guy we hired. Since the PI’s report, w e’ve known exactly where you’ve been all along, making sure you were okay. So you see, we never really left you. It’s how we knew how to find you, how we’ve always known how to find you.”
“But , I contacted you both. I called and I sent you emails and neither one of you responded. I gave up trying when I got a response saying your phones were out of service. I figured you blocked my number. ”
“ We would never do that you. It wasn’t until we began this discussion did I realize what actually happened and why we didn’t answer our phones . Neither one of us could figure out why that was, but then I remembered around that time, we had switched service providers where we got a cell phone and internet service in one package . Our emails changed and we weren’t able to keep our old phone numbers. We did that before leaving town and didn’t get a chance to tell you. In all the fuss of Rusty getting ready to go off to college and me deciding to take a few summer courses, we completely forgot to give you the new ones. But we did call you. ”
She gasped . “ If you had new numbers it’s no wonder I never answered your calls. I had a serious crappy cell phone plan at the time and I didn’t want to waste my minutes answering calls from unknown numbers. I got quite a few of them around that time and didn’t think for a second that they could be you.”
Rusty frowned. “But we left
Rusty grimaced. “I’m so glad I never touched her in any romantic way. She wanted to be intimate, but the thought of touching her literally made me ill. Do you know we ran into that bitch and she had the nerve to brag about what she did? I have been raised to never lay a hand on a woman and that was the only thing that saved her life that day because I literally wanted to kill her. Thankfully Cash was with me or I actually might have wrung her neck. Besides, she was the least of our problems at that time. We had to find you. ”
Alex sniffed . “So what then?”
Rusty got on his feet and cupped her face between his palms. “We dipped into our savings and hired a detective to search for you. We figured they have better luck at finding you than we did . He reported to us that you were living in a youth hostel close to the college you were to attend. I don’t know how we missed that place when we went there on our own. Maybe because it was one town over and we didn’t think of going there, but we were so thankful to know you were safe. Could you tell us how you came to be there?”
“Well, when my grandmother kicked me out, I only had a half hour to pack my belonging and get out. I had a lot of things I’d purchased to take with me that I had to leave behind. I stayed in the motel that night because I couldn’t leave town without going to the bank so that I could withdraw my savings. I was going to need it to find cheap lodging because I wouldn’t be allowed to move into the dorm for some weeks. I got my money and bought a bus ticket. I learned about the youth hostel when I arrived at my destination and I stayed there for about a week until I saw a flyer for a room that was closer to campus and it was in a safe area.”
Cash relinquished his hold and turned her around until she faced him. “Finding that room wasn’t a coincidence, Alex.”
Her eyes grew big. “What are you talking about?”
Cash gently wiped away the tracks of her tears with his thumb. “ As luck would have it, one of our father’s old fraternit y brothers lived in the area so we called in a favor to get him to help you find a place until you could move to the dorms on campus. He knew someone who rented out rooms in their house to college students on the cheap. That mysteriou s flyer you found advertising that room you wound up in, came from the guy we hired. Since the PI’s report, w e’ve known exactly where you’ve been all along, making sure you were okay. So you see, we never really left you. It’s how we knew how to find you, how we’ve always known how to find you.”
“But , I contacted you both. I called and I sent you emails and neither one of you responded. I gave up trying when I got a response saying your phones were out of service. I figured you blocked my number. ”
“ We would never do that you. It wasn’t until we began this discussion did I realize what actually happened and why we didn’t answer our phones . Neither one of us could figure out why that was, but then I remembered around that time, we had switched service providers where we got a cell phone and internet service in one package . Our emails changed and we weren’t able to keep our old phone numbers. We did that before leaving town and didn’t get a chance to tell you. In all the fuss of Rusty getting ready to go off to college and me deciding to take a few summer courses, we completely forgot to give you the new ones. But we did call you. ”
She gasped . “ If you had new numbers it’s no wonder I never answered your calls. I had a serious crappy cell phone plan at the time and I didn’t want to waste my minutes answering calls from unknown numbers. I got quite a few of them around that time and didn’t think for a second that they could be you.”
Rusty frowned. “But we left
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