to the fact that Nora had held on long enough to reach Elaine.
I asked, “What happened to him?”
Elaine glanced back towards the cafe.
“She left the beach with a 19-year-old boy named Caleb.”
That name meant nothing to me.
And that only made things worse.
Elaine told me that Nora had been seeing him secretly for a few months.
He lived in another city.
They had met online after Nora lied about her age on a dating app.
Nora knew that Michael and I would never have accepted a 19-year-old boy dating our 16-year-old daughter.
So she hid it.
Caleb had been trying for a while to convince her to spend time alone with him.
That day, he convinced her to leave the beach with him.
Just for a weekend.
That’s what he told her.
They were leaving for two days.
A little adventure.
An opportunity to prove
