I Came Home From Deployment Three Days Early… Then I Found a Notebook With My Name on It
Chapter 2
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Claire was wearing an oversized sweatshirt and holding a mug with both hands.
Ethan slowly closed the notebook.
“Apparently,” he said, “my timing is terrible.”
Claire didn’t smile.
She walked toward the counter and stopped a few feet away.
“How early?”
“Three days.”
Her face changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough for Ethan to notice.
“Why didn’t Mia tell me?”
“I wanted to surprise everyone.”
Claire looked down.
“Well, you definitely surprised me.”
Ethan glanced at the notes.
“What are these?”
“Nothing.”
“Claire.”
She sighed.
“They’re reminders.”
“About me?”
“Some of them.”
He picked up another note.
Check mailbox before Friday.
Another:
Don’t let Mia move the blue folder.
Another:
Ask Ethan about the cabin before Christmas.
Ethan frowned.
“The cabin?”
Claire took the note from his hand.
“That one’s complicated.”
“Everything here seems complicated.”
She placed the note back on the counter.
“Your sister asked me to keep an eye on things.”
“What things?”
“Your house.”
“That isn’t what these notes are about.”
Claire looked at him.
For the first time, Ethan noticed how tired she looked.
Not sleepy.
Worried.
“There was something Mia wanted me to tell you,” Claire said.
“What?”
Claire hesitated.
“She wanted to tell you before you came home.”
“Tell me what?”
“That she found something in Dad’s old storage box.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
Their father had died six years earlier.
The family rarely talked about his belongings anymore.
“What did she find?”
Claire looked toward the hallway.
“The blue folder.”
Ethan remembered the note.
He suddenly understood why Claire had been checking the mailbox.
“What was in it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said Mia found it.”
“I know.”
“Then why don’t you know?”
Claire’s fingers tightened around her mug.
“Because Mia disappeared before she could explain.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Mia disappeared?”
“Not like that,” Claire said quickly. “She’s fine. She went to her boyfriend’s place after an argument with me.”
“What argument?”
Claire looked away.
“About you.”
