Booktree.ngIt-Starts-with-Us-Colleen-Hoover

Josh doesn’t look at me. He scoots food around on his plate for a
moment, and then says, “Your restaurant.” His eyes slowly journey back
over to mine. “You have a really comfortable couch in your office.”
“You’ve been sleeping inside the restaurant? For how long?”
“Two weeks.”
I’m in shock. “How have you been getting in?”
“You don’t have an alarm at that one restaurant, and I finally figured out
how to pick the lock after a few tries. Your other restaurant was too hard to
get into, though.”
“You know how to pick…” I can’t help but laugh. Brad and Darin are
going to love saying I told you so. “Why’d you go from sleeping there to
vandalizing it?”
Josh looks at me reluctantly. “I don’t know. I guess I was mad.” He
pushes his plate away and leans back in his chair. “What now? Do I have to
go back to her?”
“What do you want to happen?”
“I want to live with my dad.” He scratches at his elbow. “Can you help
me find him?”
I want to find Tim about as much as I wanted to find my mother, which
is not at all. “Do you know anything about him?”
“I think he lives in Vermont now. I just don’t know where.”
“When’s the last time you saw him?”
“A few years ago. But he doesn’t know where to find me anymore.”
Josh looks every bit his age right now. A fragile kid, abandoned by his
father but refusing to lose hope. I don’t want to be the one to rip that from
him, so I just nod. “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do. But for now, I need to let
your mother know you’re okay. I have to call her.”
“Why?”
“If I don’t, this could be considered kidnapping.”
“Not if I’m here willingly,” he says.
“Even if you’re here willingly. You aren’t old enough to decide where
you want to live, and right now, your mother has legal custody of you.”
He grows visibly irritated. He stabs at his breakfast with a scowl, but
doesn’t take another bite.
I step away to call Sutton. I unblocked her number after she left my
restaurant last night in case she needed to get in touch with me. I dial her