and lifted a hand to acknowledge an ex-girlfriend, but didn’t go out of his way to connect with anyone.
He was tired. He probably should have gone home instead of come to the party. As a rule, however, he liked to honor his commitments and he’d said he’d attend.
His thoughts drifted to the conversation he’d had with his mother earlier in the week. She’d asked him to meet her for lunch and then surprised the hell out of him by asking if he’d noticed anything “different” about his father, Adam, lately. She’d cited several instances of finding things in odd places around the house—the kettle in the fridge, shoes in the washing machine—as well as a number of memory or attention lapses on his father’s part. At the time, Flynn had been quick to assign his father’s slips to stress. His father’s property development business was closing a deal to build several apartment towers on government land in a former industrial suburb and his father had been working around the clock. Still, Flynn couldn’t get his mother’s concerns out of his head. She knew his father better than anyone, after all.
But his father was only fifty-eight. Way too early to be hitting the panic button over a few memory lapses.
Flynn stared into his empty champagne flute, brooding. He made a snap decision. He’d put in an appearance, done his duty. Now he was going home. Life was too short to waste time at parties talking to the same people about the same things, over and over. And he had a garden to view tomorrow with an eye to developing a design. If he was successful, it would be yet another win for Verdant Design, the landscaping firm he’d founded nearly three years ago.
He set his glass on the nearest flat surface and wove through the crowd. It took him five minutes to find his hosts to say goodbye, then he made his way to the foyer and out through the open double doors into the portico. He was about to start down the drive when he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye.
It was Mel, standing in the shadows beneath the carefully manicured hedge that bordered the driveway. She was facing the street, her husband’s tuxedo jacket draped over her shoulders. Gravel crunched beneath his shoe and her head swung toward him. They locked gazes across twelve feet of driveway.
There was no mistaking the unadulterated misery in the depths of her gray eyes. After a few short seconds she looked away.
He opened his mouth to say something—what, he had no idea—as his phone rang. He pulled it from his jacket pocket and saw that it was his father. He glanced at Melanie again. Her focus was once more on the driveway. Waiting for her husband to bring the car around, he guessed.
He hit the button to take the call. He kept his gaze on her tall, straight back as he spoke. “Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
“Flynn. Thank God. You have to help me. I’ve tried to get home but none of it makes sense. The roads have all changed…?.”
Flynn’s grip tightened on the phone as he heard the panic in his father’s voice. “Sorry, Dad. I don’t understand. Where are you?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I was driving home. But the roads are all changed. Nothing’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Dread thudded low in his gut. This man did not sound like the assured, confident father he knew. This man sounded scared and confused and utterly lost.
But he was only fifty-eight.
Flynn pushed his own panic from his mind. There would be time for that later.
“Okay, Dad. Listen to me. We’re going to work this out, okay?” Flynn said, keeping his voice calm and clear.
“Why can’t I recognize anything? Why has it all changed?”
“We’ll sort this out, I promise. I want you to look around. Are you on a highway or in a residential area? Are there houses around you?”
“Yes. Lots of houses.”
“Good. I want you to pull the car over. Turn off the engine, and walk to the nearest corner to find the street sign and tell me what it says.”
He could hear his father’s panicked breathing. He dug in his pocket for his car keys and started down the long driveway at a jog.
“I’ll be with you every step of the way, Dad. We’ll do it together, and I will be with you as soon as I can. No matter what happens, I will find you.