Ellen Prince Lane sighed. “That’s what we’re calling to find out. We thought you were going to call us when you arrived at the resort.”
“I sent you a text when I landed.” Audra scrubbed a hand across her eyes, wiping away the last remnants of fatigue.
“A text is not a phone call.” Ellen spoke with exaggerated patience. “How do we know that someone didn’t kidnap you and send that text to delay our reporting you missing?”
Audra rolled her eyes. Her mother read too many true-crime novels. Her father wouldn’t have suspected foul play was behind a text from her.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“This whole idea worries me.” Her mother made fretting noises. “Why couldn’t you have stayed in Brentwood to write your songs? Why did you have to go to some resort in Ohio?”
Audra wanted to laugh. No one would mistake Harmony Cabins for a resort. But this probably wasn’t a good time to tell that to her mother.
“We discussed this, Mom. Benita thought a change of scenery would cure my writer’s block.” And even though she had her doubts, Audra didn’t want to add to her parents’ worries.
Ellen tsked. “How long will you be gone?”
They’d discussed that, too. “About a month.”
“You’ve never been away from home that long.”
“I know, Mom.”
“You don’t even know anything about that resort.”
“Benita’s friend owns the cabins. I’m sure I’ll be comfortable here.”
“How will you eat?”
“There’s a town nearby. I’ll pick up some groceries in the morning.”
“What do they eat there?”
Audra closed her eyes and prayed for patience. “I’m in Ohio, Mom. It’s not a foreign country. I’m sure I’ll find something familiar in the town’s grocery store.”
Ellen sniffed. “There’s no need to take that tone.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Your father’s very worried about you, Audra.”
Yet her mother was the one on the phone. “Tell Dad I’ll be fine. The cabin is clean and safe. There are locks on all the doors and windows. I’ll be home before you know it.” She hoped.
Audra looked toward the windows beside the front door. She needed curtains. She didn’t like the idea of the windows being uncovered, especially at night. She’d feel too exposed. She checked her wristwatch. It wasn’t quite three in the afternoon. It wouldn’t be dark until closer to nine P.M. She had a few hours to figure something out for tonight.
Her mother’s lengthy sigh interrupted her planning. “Your father wants to talk with you. Maybe he can get you to see reason.”
Audra rubbed her eyes with her thumb and two fingers. This experiment was hard enough without her mother’s overprotectiveness.
“My Grammy Award–winning daughter!” Randall Lane boomed his greeting into the telephone. He’d been calling her that since February when she’d been presented with the award for Song of the Year. Before that, she’d been his Grammy Award–nominated daughter.
Audra settled back into the overstuffed leather sofa. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Will you be home in time for my birthday?”
She frowned. Her father’s birthday was in October. It was only July. “Of course.”
“That’s all that matters.”