Goodbye Isn't Forever by Melanie Blake Page A

her.  So, in his attempt to be vague about his
weekend plans, he had only succeeded in making Alex a little suspicious. 
And Zand’s surprise trip to North Carolina had ended up being an even bigger
surprise: a last minute business trip with Jackson to London, England,
instead.  Any other time, Zand would have been thrilled to go there, but
not now.  And even less when Jackson shared that they would be gone at
least two weeks, if not more.  He hadn’t talked to Alex the day before
because he was afraid that, in his excitement, he would tell her he was coming
to see her.  Now, thanks to Jackson, Zand would be lucky if he was able to
catch Alex at all due to the time difference.  This was the first time
they hadn’t talked every day since the night Alex had left.
    Jackson
had planned his meetings with care.  He encouraged Zand to attend with him
because it involved their company and Zand would be doing this in the near
future.  He had taken in the time difference and knew that correspondence
with Zand’s North Carolina friend would be nearly impossible.
    And
it was.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
    Zand
finished talking and Jennifer stared at his bent head.  Leave it to
Jackson to interfere.
    “Okay,
Zand.  You were only gone two weeks, so what happened when you came back?”
 Jennifer asked.  “You called her, right?  And told her what an
ass Daddy can be?”
    “Well,
it was more like two and a half.  And…not exactly.”
    “What
do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”
    Zand
looked grim.  “I mean, no, I didn’t get to tell her anything. Apparently,
while we were on this important business trip to London, Alex’s Gran passed
away.  I had all these messages on the answering machine when I got back.”
    “Oh,
no, Zand!  Did she understand when you finally reached her?”
    “That’s
just it, Jennifer.  I never did reach her.”
    Jennifer
looked at Zand as if he had suddenly grown horns.  “How is that
possible?  Couldn’t you have given a message to someone that knew how to
reach Alex?”
    “It apparently
happened the day before we left.  The first day that Alex and I hadn’t
spoken since camp and her grandmother dies!”
    Jennifer
closed her eyes at the turn of events.  “I’m sorry, Zand.  That must
have been hard to accept.”
    “By
the time that I returned and was able to call, they were gone.  Alex and
her parents, just gone.”
    “What
do you mean?  No one was at the house?”
    “Just
a phone service or something was there to disconnect the line.  He said
that the house was being closed up for a while and that the family had already
left.”
    “I
sent a few letters anyway, hoping they would be forwarded to wherever Alex
lived.”
    “Good
idea, Zand.  Do you think that she got them?”
    Zand
shook his head, “I got them back stamped ‘Return to Sender’.”
    Jennifer
was amazed at the sheer misfortune.
    “So…”
    “So,
nothing, Jennifer.  I was angry and hurt and mad at myself and
Jackson.  I confronted him and told him what had happened.  He
pretended to try to reach her parents, but said that they had gone abroad and
couldn’t be reached.”
    “You
believed him?”
    “Of
course I did.  I was eighteen, Jennifer.  I didn’t want to believe
that my dad could be that contriving and heartless.  Would you?”
    “No,
I suppose not.  Even though he is, I guess I would have given him the
benefit of the doubt at that age.  But, you live and learn, right?”
    Zand
stared at Jennifer.  All of the frustration and sadness of his past with
Alex was evident in his eyes.  “I did that, I suppose.  I lived and
learned.  Just not the way that I had envisioned it.”
    Jennifer
sighed.  “It never is, Zand.  It never is.”
    Zand
stood up and stretched.  He grabbed his coffee cup and empty plate and
took them to the sink.  He walked back over to where Jennifer was still
seated, lost in thought.
    He
leaned down and gave his sister a hug.
    “Thanks, Jennifer.  I guess I had a