Twenty One (Love by Numbers Book 2)

The Love by Numbers series

Nineteen

Twenty-One

Three
(Coming Soon)

Fate kept placing Emma Campbell and Jake Fox in each others paths.

Fate also kept putting overwhelming obstacles in their way.

What fate didn’t realise is that Jake and Emma share a connection that is stronger than circumstance.

An intense bond that threatens everything they thought they knew about themselves, one that is only made stronger by a perfect day.

A perfect day where they both surrendered to the force of their feelings for one another.

A perfect day that ended in darkness and tragedy.

Jake is missing.

Emma is lost.

Lost in grief; lost in hopelessness.

Will fate finally grant them a chance to be together or will it tear them apart?

This is the second part in the “Love by Numbers” series and is a continuation of the story that began in “Nineteen”.

It is not to be read as a standalone

Let my heart be bound with the string of hers

– A Maori saying

To G for being my soul mate and my best friend; trust I seek and I find in you.

To L, G & A for inspiring me to be better.

To P for being the best big brother a girl could ever want. I miss you.

Grief - keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.

W
e are all grieving.

It has been twenty one excruciatingly long hours since Jake left me at Agua Secreto.

Approximately one thousand, two hundred and sixty agonising minutes filled with despair, anguish and heartache.

He never made it back to the main shoreline.

Never came back for me.

I
was rescued the following day by the coastguard.

Max, the owner of the boat Jake hired, was found on deck, his yacht just offshore, having suffered a massive heart attack that took his life.

The coastguard checked over his passenger logs and luckily for me, Max was a very diligent record keeper. They knew exactly where to come and find us but when they arrived, they only found me. I pleaded with them to leave me there to search for Jake, begged them to make sure he was safe and prayed to God he’d made it back.

My poor Spanish skills and frantic rambling didn’t help. They ignored my pleas, bundled me onto their boat and we sped off to return to the marina.

The entire journey back my eyes scoured the calm, Mediterranean Sea and any small bays we passed.

Shapes or shadows on the water caused my pulse to spike, my heart to pound and my throat to open ready to scream for Jake but they were just shadows.

Figments of my imagination and false profits of my hope.

A
ll of Jake’s family were there waiting for us, their enthusiastic waving as the boat pulled in to dock was like a sucker punch to my solar plexus.

It was Liv’s face that fell first after taking in my forlorn appearance. Her eyes searched my weary and tear stained face and she broke away from Nate to gather me in her arms before my feet fully hit the deck.

I sobbed out words, my cries wracking my body in pain, my pleas escaping like a prayer.

“Liv, he’s gone. We have to find him, help me find him Liv? They won’t listen to me. We
need
to find him, make someone find him.”

She soothed me by gently stroking my hair while my body shook in her embrace, whispering promises, telling me everything would be alright.

Her promises fell on deaf ears. Nothing was alright. Not until Jake was found would anything be anywhere close to alright.

Her words didn’t calm me, they angered me.

I didn’t deserve her gentle touch, didn’t want her empty promises, I wanted Jake.

F
orcing my way out of Liv’s arms I looked at the faces surrounding me.

Mr and Mrs Fox-Williams were grief stricken, both seemingly holding the other upright. Their faces were deathly white and fraught with worry.

I wanted to say something to ease their heartache but what could I say? I knew no more than they did. The simple fact was I returned to them, while their son had not.

He was still missing and we were all standing around doing nothing.

My focus was drawn to Nate; he was standing right in front of me, his face filled with the same rage that flowed through my veins.

S
eeing my anger reflected in his stony eyes caused mine to pour from me.

“Why are you all standing here? Why aren’t you out looking for him? For Christ’s sake stop standing there and make someone FIND HIM!” the last words left me in a roar, shocking myself and those around me, into silence.

Nate’s face morphed into pure steel, his emotions locked tight behind an impenetrable door.

“We
will
find him Emma, you need to tell us everything that happened and then we will stop at nothing to bring him back.”

I
t didn’t take long for me to divulge the little information I had that might help.

Nate and his father immediately left us to speak to the Coastguard and Police, wanting to find out exactly what they were doing to find Jake.

They returned a few moments later flanked by the head of police and the search and rescue chief. Both men wore an air of authority like a second skin and both proceeded to question me on anything and everything to do with Jake, our trip and what state of mind he was in when he left me.

“What state of mind was he in?” I repeated disbelievingly. “If you are implying he left me to take his own life, you are wasting precious time in finding him and bringing him back to us. He was going to get help you bloody idiots, not going for a midnight swim.”

Liv was instantly by my side again, wrapping one arm across my shoulder to calm me.

“Sorry Miss Campbell, we have to investigate all possibilities.” The tall, tanned, police chief informed me, sympathy filling his dark brown eyes.