the house.
Coco processed it, though, and instantly started to whine. “I can’t make any statements without her!”
“Wait a minute. Wait.” Will held up a hand to silence her, just as he caught Guy’s picture in the middle of the TV screen with some reporter talking. What the hell?
A bad, bad feeling crept through his gut, but he tamped it down and stayed focused on Lacey and Clay. “Where are they?” he demanded.
“We don’t know.” Clay said, a protective arm around Lacey, who looked pale and as stressed out as Coco, only she was quieter about it.
“I have to talk to Jocelyn,” Coco insisted. “I’m not going out there until I talk to her. I have to—”
Zoe swept in and practically scooped the actress away, and Tessa instantly leaped to Coco’s other side.
“Let’s get you in the back and calmed down, Ms. Kirkman,” Tessa said.
“Yeah,” Zoe added, leaning close to Coco. “ ’Cause, honey, you could really use a little makeup before you get in front of any cameras.”
Will shot them a grateful look and turned back to Lacey, Clay, and Slade. “Someone tell me what the hell is going on.”
As they explained, only certain words really took hold. Guy had been missing since yesterday. Woke up and Jocelyn was gone. Silver Alert got the media here.
And they had plenty of questions of their own, but the need to find Jocelyn and Guy shot like liquid mercury through his veins.
“We have to find them,” he said simply, marching to the door, ready to take on every damn reporter and an army of deputies to get his woman back. And her father.
Damn it, they all belonged together. They all—
“William!”
He froze at the sound, the punch of relief making his gut drop. He turned toward the patio to see Guy hobbling across the grass with Jocelyn next to him, both of them soaked, bedraggled, filthy, and absolutely the most beautiful sight Will had ever seen.
Ignoring the noisy reaction of the others in the room, Will strode to the sliding glass door and threw it open, running across the patio and practically tearing the screen door off its hinges to wrap these two people he loved so damn much in his arms.
Guy might have sobbed and Jocelyn let out a soft, sweet moan, but for the space of one breath of joy they all held each other and no one said a word. They just stood together in complete union.
Finally Guy pushed away. “Where’s Nicey?”
“What the hell happened to your face?” Guy was covered with welts, his glasses damn near collapsed, his clothes filthy and wet.
Jocelyn was just as wet, her face streaked with dirt and tears. “He spent the night on an island in the canal,” she said, her voice cracking. “He got… lost.” She closed her eyes and dropped her head against Will’s chest. “We have to take care of him. Please, Will. Please don’t put him in a—”
“Shhh.” He quieted her with a kiss on her wet head and a finger to her lips. “We won’t. I promise. We won’t.”
“Where’s this hostess?” Guy broke away from them and started toward the house. Will turned to follow, but Jocelyn grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Will, he isn’t the same man.”
“I know,” he admitted. “And neither am I.”
She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“No more waiting. From now on, I act. And don’t be too surprised, but I brought someone back from L.A. with me. She wants to come clean, clear your name, and help other abused women. You don’t have to live this lie for her anymore, Joss.”
“Oh, Will.” She leaned into him for another embrace. “I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe…” She pulled away, searched his face, confusion making her frown. “What about the coaching job?”
He snorted. “I turned that down before I left Mimosa Key. I’m not going to L.A., I’m staying right here, building things that last. Like villas and houses and a life with you.”
She put her hand on her mouth like she couldn’t contain her happiness. “Here?”
“Right here.” He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. “Right here where you belong, Bloomerang.”
She answered with a salty, sweet, straight-from-the-heart kiss on his lips.
Chapter Thirty-two
Will took over caring for Guy while the five women somehow squeezed into the hallway bathroom Jocelyn had often locked herself in during Guy’s episodes, shaking with fear, hating her life, wishing him dead.
Coco was the one shaking with fear now, perched on the toilet seat so Lacey could fix her