living room a few times before she found the nerve to call Martin. Stuck somewhere in the San Juan Islands—she wasn’t sure which one—she didn’t think she’d be back in time to teach her class tonight. She never backed away from her commitments and didn’t feel comfortable putting her class in the hands of one of his grad students. But she saw no other option at this point since she was stranded so far away from home. Thank God she’d emailed Steve her latest photos yesterday and didn’t expect to be sent out anywhere for a location shoot for the next few days.
“The islands, huh? Staying in a romantic bed and breakfast with him?” Martin asked.
“Him who?”
“Hello? Don’t play dumb with me. I know I didn’t fail at my little matchmaking attempt the other day, regardless of what you say. Having a nice time with Dom?”
“He’s actually not here. He was, but not now.” She wanted to add that she didn’t know if he was coming back and that she had to figure out how to get home, but she didn’t.
“Honey, what happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She tried to give her voice a casual lilt. “He had to leave suddenly. I just wasn’t sure I’d make it home in time to teach my class tonight.”
“Don’t pull that nonsense on me, babe. I can tell you’re upset. What’s wrong? What happened?” Martin asked.
“Nothing happened. I’m fine.”
“Well, you don’t sound fine. How are you getting home? Do you need a pick-up? I’ve got a full class load today but I can come later on tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. I must’ve been all wrong about him, Kenz. I’m sorry. I pegged him as a good guy. What did he do? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Martin’s concern was touching.
“God, no. He’s a wonderful man.” As tears formed on the backs of her eyes, she took a deep breath and hoped her voice sounded strong. “An emergency came up that he hadn’t expected and he had to leave. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from him soon, but I just wanted to make sure my bases were covered for tonight. No big deal. Really.”
Why did she feel she had to gloss over the ugly details? Of course she couldn’t tell him the whole truth about Dom, but she didn’t feel compelled to tell him that Dom had abandoned her, either. What did it matter if Martin knew she was stranded with no means to get home? Why did she care if Martin detested Dom or not?
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. He’ll be back soon, I’m sure.” She forced herself to sound chipper as she changed the subject. Divert and distract. “Oh, you should see it here, Martin. It’s gorgeous. I can’t wait to head out to the beach. I just wish I’d thought to bring along my sketch pad.”
“I can’t wait to see your pictures.”
She didn’t tell him she didn’t have her camera, either.
“Listen,” he continued. “I’m glad you called. Have you talked to Mary yet?”
“The department secretary? No. Why?”
“It’s probably not anything to get worked up about, but two odd fellows came to the university the other evening asking about you. They were quite the duo, both tall and skinny, and shabbily dressed.”
The room started to spin and she willed herself to breathe.
“Mary called me wanting to know if she should give out your contact information. Evidently they inquired about a Mackenzie Shaw, not Foster-Shaw, so she wasn’t sure if it was you or not. I told her not to tell them anything, so they insisted on speaking to me.”
She felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach with a baseball bat. The attack on her had been premeditated. She hadn’t just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those monsters had sought her out. She grabbed the edge of the counter for support.
The day her father hadn’t come home, had this happened to him? Her mother had prepared his after-work snack like she always did. Sliced dill pickles and black olives on the same yellow plate with a chip on the edge. It sat untouched on the coffee table for three days. The police officer who came to talk to her mother ate all the dried out, three-day-old olives. She had laughed about it later to her mother and couldn’t figure out why her mother cried. What was so sad about eating old olives? she remembered thinking. Funny what a kid remembers.