was he?
Stella tried to think straight. This had never happened before. Matty wasn’t the kind of kid who snuck out late, or didn’t leave a note. She’d taught him to always tell her exactly where he was, and what he was doing – and he never went out without his cellphone, either. She dialed Jenny, pacing up and down the hallways until she answered.
“Stella, hey—”
“Matty’s gone.”
Jenny inhaled in a sharp rush of breath. “What do you mean, gone?”
“I left him here with mac and cheese and his homework a couple of hours ago, and went to dinner with Aidan,” Stella explained, her voice rising in panic. “I just got back, and he’s gone. He left his phone, I don’t know where he could be.”
“Woah, take a breath, it’s OK,” Jenny said immediately. “He could have taken a walk, or gone into town…”
“For what?” Stella demanded. “Even the diner closes early in the fall. Nothing’s open to see!”
“Stay there, I’m coming over,” Jenny said. “Fraser can take a drive around, through the square, see if he can find him.”
“OK.” Stella gulped, feeling helpless.
“I’ll call the others,” Jenny added. “Don’t worry. I’m sure it’ll be OK.”
Stella wished she could believe her, but this was every parent’s nightmare. She called everyone she could think of, even Mrs. Johansson up in Boston, but nobody knew a thing.
“I’ll call the kids,” Rita reassured her. “Do you think he might have gone up to their school?”
“I… don’t know,” Stella replied, with a new chill. “He’s been talking about Hillcrest nonstop. He could have? I don’t know.”
“I’ll call the school now. If he goes there, you’ll be the first to know.”
Stella hung up, reeling. Matty was a smart kid, but he was still just a kid. She tried to picture him out there, alone on a bus, or train trying to make it across the state. Staying God knows where. Meeting God knows who.
By the time Jenny arrived, Stella was a bundle of panic and nerves. “Any sign of him?” she demanded, answering the door.
Jenny shook her head, and then pulled Stella into a hug. “Fraser’s out, driving around,” she said. “And I had Hannah call her friends, to see if there was anywhere the older kids were hanging out. She said some of them go to a spot on the beach sometimes, for a bonfire.”
“Where?” Stella asked, gulping back her fear. An illicit teenage party was the best-case scenario right now.
“Near the lighthouse. I called Alice and Jackson, they’re checking it out now,” Jenny reassured her. “And Griffin is driving over to the school, and Mackenzie and Jake are looking, too.”
“He might be trying to get upstate,” Stella admitted, her heart in her throat. “To that boarding school. I wouldn’t listen to him, he’s been trying to talk to me about it.”
“Shh, it’ll be OK,” Jenny tried to comfort her, but Stella was a livewire of panic, pacing back and forth.
“I should have listened.” Stella gulped. “He would never have gone anywhere if I’d just listened—”
There was a hammering on the door. “I’ll get it,” Jenny said. “You sit down, try not to panic.”
But it was too late for that. Stella hugged her arms around herself, her mind racing, full of dark, terrifying thoughts. What if he’d been hitchhiking, picked up by some stranger? What if he was lost; alone and scared—
“Stella.” Aidan strode in, looking disheveled. His hair was wet, and his shirt was buttoned up wrong, like he’d dropped everything to rush over. “I just heard. Is there any word?”
She shook her head, and he immediately crossed the room and swept her into a hug she hadn’t even known she needed. His arms were solid around her, he smelled like body wash and fall, woodsy and comforting, and Stella clung to him for dear life.
And just like that, she could breathe again.
“Shh, it’ll be OK,” he told her, stroking her hair. “We’ll find him. He’s fine.”
“You don’t know that,” she whispered, but Aidan held her even tighter.
“We’ll find him,” he said again, so determined that she couldn’t help believing him. “He’s a good kid, he wouldn’t have done anything stupid. Did you call the police yet?”
She shook her head. “He’s only been gone a few hours. They wouldn’t do anything—”
“Then we’ll make them.” Aidan cut her off. “Cassie, who’s that deputy you know?”
“Kyle. I’ll call him now.”
Stella looked up, and saw more people had arrived: Cassie, already taking out her phone, with Wes beside her, and Earl, too. “My favorite deputy,” Cassie cooed into