Page 34 of Her Forever SEAL

“Well, you do own the bakery a few blocks away,” Kayla said slowly.

“Yeah… but it was still kind of weird.”

“That’s why you’re having the aunts check into her?”

“That, and the fact that when I talked to them at your game, Mandy’s mom didn’t even know that Coach had taken her out of the game, she was so focused on her conversation with Lettie. They were both drinking out of Bay Brew coffee cups.”

“Not Yetis?” Kayla asked.

Sophia shook her head.

Angie turned to Kayla. “What do you have?”

“Mandy has been freaked out about something. I’ve known her since first grade. She tells me everything. I mean everything. But something big is bothering her, and she won’t tell me what it is. I asked her at school, at our study group. Then today, Coach announced that Bree is off in Temecula visiting her grandma for a week. Mandy didn’t look just freaked, she looked scared to me. When I asked her again what was wrong, she said nothing again…” Kayla looked down at the food on the island.

“What, honey?” Sophia asked gently.

“She told me that the world doesn’t revolve around me.”

Angie sucked in a deep breath.

“She didn’t mean that,” Sophia assured her.

“That’s the problem, Mom. At that moment, she was doing everything she could to push me away. I’ve got to help her. I’ve got to help both of them.”

She watched as her mother exchanged looks with Angie and Lydia. “What?”

“I don’t know, Kay-Kay. Angie, did you find out anything?”

“Yeah, both of their fathers are working on the same top-secret project.”

“I thought they were mechanics,” Sophia said.

Angie looked around the island, and her gaze rested on Kayla. “They are mechanics, but they are the best of the best, and sometimes they’re called in to do quality control. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“You’re not going to say anything more because I’m here, right?”

Angie winced, then nodded.

“If it’s top-secret how do you know about it?”

Kayla watched her mom cross her arms and arch her eyebrow. “Yeah, Angie. How do you know about it?”

“Years and years of investigative skill. Let’s leave it at that. But rest assured, I don’t know specifics.”

“Well, that’s comforting.”

“If it’s top-secret, could someone have taken Bree to get information?” Kayla asked.

All teasing stopped.

“The first thing we’re going to check is Bree’s whereabouts. I’m almost sure she’s at her grandma’s,” Lydia assured her.

“We need to do more research,” Angie said. “And I forgot that Declan has a paper due that I promised to help him with. So I better get going.”

“Yeah, I need to go too.”

“Don’t forget the brownies,” Sophia said.