Page 103 of Hot for the Younger Man

“Hey, Dawn,” I said.“How’s it going?”

“Hey, Dawn-Dawn!”Spencer said.

“Am I on speakerphone?”Dawn asked, her voice with a hint of surprise.

“Yeah, I’m just at the distillery visiting Spencer.”

“Oh!”More surprise.“Hi, Spencer.”

“Hi, Dawn-Dawn.How’s my second favorite mom in the world?”

“Fine, dear.Just fine.”

She wasn’t fine.Not with that tone.

I debated taking it off speakerphone.“What’s wrong?”I asked.

“I, uh …”

“I can go,” Spencer said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder.

“Is it about …” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Spencer knows.Just tell us.”My nerves resembled a beehive without a queen.Pure buzzing chaos.My knee started to bounce, and I had to link my fingers together and cradle the back of my head just to open my chest so I could get a deep breath.

“She’s crossed state lines,” Dawn said on an exhale.“She requested a move to Alabama to live with her sister, and the judge granted it.She said she couldn’t get a job in Tallahassee, and her sister would hire her in her salon in Cedar Bluff.”

“Okay, so she’s getting a job and a new address in another state.She’s setting down some roots.That’s a good thing, right?”I appealed to Spencer with a look.

He shrugged and shook his head.“Seems like it to me?”

“I can’t keep tabs on her there though, honey,” Dawn said.“At least in Tallahassee, I knew where she was.I had people I could call to keep track of her.I knew her parole officer.I asked if they’d give me her parole officer’s information in Cedar Bluff, and I couldn’t get a straight answer out of anybody.”

Ah.

Now I better understood her fear.

And it was starting to ramp up fear inside of me too.Maybe Cedar Bluff, Alabama was just a cover, and Kyla was heading out West.Did she have any inkling as to where we might be?Who would tell her?

Spencer’s lips twisted, and I could tell he shared my frustration.“Do you have a restraining order against her?”he asked.

I nodded.“There’s been one in place since she went to prison.”

“She’s also a registered sex offender,” Dawn added.

“I just wanted to keep you updated, honey,” Dawn said.“Her former PO just called me to tell me she’s moving to Cedar Bluff, so I wanted to tell you.I don’t want to say everything will be okay, because we don’t know that.Ihopethat it will.That she’ll stay in Cedar Bluff, start a new life, and leave you and Mabes alone.”

“That’s the hope,” I murmured.

“Just stay vigilant.Stay off social media.No photos.You know the drill.”

“I know.”

“Nothing to link you or Mabel to the island, or Washington state.”

Spencer nodded.