Chapter 17
GRANT
G rant’s heart pounded against his ribs as the Jeep disappeared from his sight. In a place she’d grown up in, he had no doubt she’d seek and find whatever comfort she needed or wanted. Comfort she couldn’t get from him.
Comfort he’d ripped away from her.
He slid his eyes closed as his temples throbbed.
Why had he said the things he’d said? He should have heard her out.
He should have listened, but his anger, driven by his jealousy and desperation to hang on to her, sent him spiraling.
And probably cost him the person he’d been so focused on not losing.
The hurt in her eyes as she stormed from the house haunted him. So did her words. They sliced him deeper than he thought he could be hurt. Maybe we shouldn’t be married .
Did she really mean that? Was she on her way back to Luke now?
The pain in his head increased as he imagined her meeting him at the boat named after her. She ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. And then he’d kiss her and promise her to make her happier than Grant ever could.
The thought turned his stomach, but now it was too late. She was gone.
He stared through the trees where her car disappeared.
Every laugh they’d shared, every touch, now all seemed like a fading dream.
He recalled the first time they’d watched a movie together, how he’d teased her about her choice, how her laughter had filled the room.
That all echoed hollow now in his heart, a stark reminder of his repeated failures in love.
Was it all a charade for her? His heart ached with the possibility of never seeing her smile again.
With a sense of disbelief as the shock of her loss set in, he slowly closed the door.
“Daddy!” Sierra shouted at him again, making his head throb worse.
“Sierra…”
“No, Daddy! Go after her.”
“She’s gone,” he said as he stepped closer to his daughter.
“No,” she said, her features twisting. He recognized the pain; he felt it, too.
“You heard what she said. She doesn’t want this anymore.”
Her lips tugged into a frown, and she desperately tried to stop her lip from trembling as she wrapped her arms around herself. “But you can’t just give up. You have to go after her. Change her mind.”
“Baby, I don’t think I can.”
Sierra’s forehead creased as she refused to look at him.
She wrapped her arms tighter around herself, her eyes betraying a vulnerability Grant rarely saw.
“No, Daddy, you can’t just give up. If you won’t do it for you, do it for me.
I need Julia. She’s…like a mom to me.” Her voice cracked with a mix of anger and desperation.
He wrapped his arms around his daughter and pulled her closer, stroking her hair.
He needed her, too. But he’d have to learn to live without her.
While he tried to face that, he desperately clung to the hope that she wouldn’t completely abandon his daughter.
Sierra had grown attached to Julia. It would be cruel to rip that relationship away from her.
He couldn’t imagine Julia being cruel, though he also couldn’t imagine seeing her from time to time with Sierra.
It would kill him. Visions of her sweet smile, visiting them with a new ring on her finger, danced through his mind.
She’d give him that half-shrug. “He proposed the night I left. I…said yes. We’re getting married next month.
We just want something simple, but Sierra’s insisting on helping me plan. ”
“No,” Sierra said again as she pushed away from him. “Why won’t you go after her?”
“Sierra…” His mind slid backward to a time when they were happier. He recalled dinners where Sierra’s genuine laughter filled the room, a stark contrast to her upset now.
“Tell her…tell her she’s still under contract. Tell her she has to come back for that or…you’ll sue her.”
“Sierra, I don’t want to do that.”
“You don’t have to do it, Daddy. She’ll probably come back if you just threaten it.” Her plea remained desperate despite her plan.
“And resent us. I don’t want that. I don’t want her in New Orleans hating us for the next eight months. All that does is prolong this until she leaves again.”
“But…” She tipped her chin to stare up at him. “Maybe she’ll stop resenting us once she’s away from here, and it’ll all go back to normal.”
“Oh, baby, I don’t think so.”
Her features twisted, her arms stiffening as she lowered her fists at her sides. “You are such a coward, Daddy. I thought you were so strong, but you aren’t. You’re just going to let her walk away without a fight.”
A cool breeze rushed past them, sending a chill up his spine. Lydia strode into their foyer. His stomach turned over at the sight of her. She was the last thing he needed to deal with right now.
Lydia arched an eyebrow as she eyed the scene in front of her. “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing that concerns you, Lydia,” Grant said, venom lacing his voice as his frustration poured out toward her.
Lydia leaned to peer around him. “Sierra? Has something happened?”
“Like you care,” Grant said.
“Of course, I do.”
Her threat to ruin Sierra loomed in his mind as he shook his head at her, ready to tell her to get out. How dare she pretend to care about Sierra?
“Sierra, darling? What is it? What has Daddy done to upset you?”
“I didn’t–”
“Julia left Daddy!” Sierra shouted as she flicked away a tear that had escaped.
The shock on Lydia’s face was obvious, though it quickly mixed with amusement. “Well, isn’t that an interesting development?”
Grant slid his eyes closed as he clenched his hands into fists. Her taunting voice was like salt in his wounds.
“So, she’s finally had enough of you. I must admit, I thought you would leave her, but I suppose that delicious-looking sailor proved to be just too much temptation.”
He resisted the urge to lunge at her and throw her out of the house. Dealing with Julia’s departure threatened to crush him without Lydia’s taunts.
“I cannot believe Little Miss Perfect finally fell from grace.”
“Get out, Lydia.”
Lydia snapped her gaze up to him, her lower lip jutting out in a pout. “Oh, Grant. Come on, now. She was wife number five, you should be used to it. Your relationships don’t last. They’re all…fleeting.”
She clicked her tongue. “You always were too blind to see anything beyond you.”
More cutting words that struck at his soul. She was right. Something was wrong with him. He thought it was his choice in women, but…Julia proved him wrong. It wasn’t the women, it was him.
Before he could answer, Sierra stomped her way toward the door.
“Sierra?” he asked.
“I’m going out.”
“Where?” Lydia asked.
“Anywhere!”
“Wait, darling, I’ll come, too. I want to hear more about this…scandal.” She flew out the door after Sierra. It slammed shut behind her, the noise sending another arc of pain through his head.
“Well, Dad, she’s kind of right,” Kyle’s voice said from behind him.
“Shut up, Kyle,” Grant said, unable to take any more goading.
“I’m sorry, but they both had points. Although to be fair, you may be right. It’s probably too late. You should have done something long ago. You wouldn’t listen.”
He twisted to face Kyle, his jaw clenching. “You lost, too.”
Kyle pressed his lips together as he stared down at the floor. “Yes, I did. For now. I’m not giving up. I want her back.”
Grant scoffed at his words, shaking his head. “So what? You’ll go after Luke? Make Julia’s life a living hell until she finally breaks, or you get rid of him? Do you think she’ll actually turn to you?”
“I know who she isn’t going to turn to,” Kyle said, raising his icy blue eyes to Grant.
His son’s words were like a physical blow to him.
“But you can’t really be that surprised. Your relationships are all shallow. You deserved this. It’s all about you all the time. And this time, someone finally made it about them.”
Kyle strode past him toward the door. “I’m going for a walk before the storm. Have fun being alone.” Kyle swung the door open, clinging to it before he focused his gaze on Grant again. “I’d get used to the feeling.”
He stood for a moment, letting the silence of the house envelop him before he shuffled to the dining room, sinking into a seat at the table as he flicked his gaze out the window. The dark clouds gathering on the horizon mirrored the turmoil within him.
He sat there until a few drops of rain hit the glass, each one a reminder of his failures. Wind churned the sea into an angry beast, sending sprays toward the sky as the water pounded onto the rocks.
The front door opened and clicked shut. He wondered if maybe Julia had returned. Kyle joined him a few moments later. Had his son seen her?
“I guess she didn’t come back, huh?” Kyle asked.
“No,” Grant answered, his voice still raw with emotion.
“I couldn’t find her. I thought maybe I’d see her in town, but I couldn’t find her.” His voice sounded as disappointed as Grant’s.
Grant glanced down at his phone, sadly silent. “I can’t believe Sierra’s not back.”
“Maybe she left, too. Wouldn’t that be ironic? If you were only left with me.”
The thought made him even more depressed. He tapped his phone and called Sierra. It went to her voicemail. With a shake of his head, he gritted his teeth and dialed Lydia’s number.
She answered on the second ring. “Hi, Grant. If you’re calling to beg me to come back to replace Little Red Riding Hood, you can forget it, I–”
“I’m not,” he said, disgusted by the conversation already. “Is Sierra with you?”
“No. She isn’t with you?”
His heart skipped a beat. “No. I thought maybe…she was still upset, and she’d gone to the hotel with you.”
Lydia sighed on the other end. “No. We…got into a massive argument five minutes into the hike she insisted we take. She stormed off, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“What? When was this?”
“Mmm, a few hours ago. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“Lydia, there’s a storm coming. She could be lost and get stuck in it.”
“Have you called her?”
His panic built with each passing second. “Yes. No answer. Where did you last see her?”
“Umm, we were on some strange path. It went through the trees–”
“They all go through trees, Lydia. Think. This is important.”
“Um, Wasp’s Mountain or something like that.”
“Wasp’s…never mind. I’m going to try to call her again. If you hear from her, let me know.”
Grant’s chest tightened as he ended the call and scrolled back to Sierra’s name.
“What’s going on?”
“Sierra took off on Lydia hours ago. No one’s seen her since.”
“Surely, she’d know to come home with the storm coming.”
Grant pressed the phone to his ear, his hands trembling. “Unless she’s lost.”
A few seconds later, her voicemail sounded. He pulled the phone away, ending the call as his heart sank. He couldn’t lose both of the women he loved on the same day.
Kyle shuffled toward him. “Try Julia. Maybe Sierra got lucky and ran into her. Maybe they’re together.”
Grant nodded as his shaky fingers typed a message. Sorry to bother you, but Sierra’s missing. We can’t get a hold of her. She stormed off into the woods after an argument with Lydia. I’m worried about her with the storm coming.
He stared at the phone, praying for a response but not expecting one. Julia was likely otherwise engaged and not watching her phone for his messages.
To his surprise, a bubble appeared, indicating her forthcoming response.
How long has she been gone?
His heart thudded faster as he typed a response. Sierra wasn’t with Julia. Hours. No one’s seen her in hours.
The chat bubble appeared right away. Go to the police station. I’m calling Ally.
The response was a double-edged sword. Panic swirled inside him as she treated it seriously enough to notify the police. But the fact that she was willing to help gave him hope. At least for Sierra’s relationship with her.
“Julia says to go to the police station.”
“I’ll come with you,” Kyle said as Grant hurried toward the door, grabbing the keys along the way.
As they stepped outside the wind howled, bending trees into submission. Each gust reflected the chaos in his heart, the storm’s fury mirroring his own turmoil.
Grant’s stomach twisted into knots at the idea of Sierra out in this. He slid behind the wheel as Kyle slipped into the passenger’s seat.
Within ten minutes, he was pulling into a spot outside of the police station. He raced inside as a few splotches of rain landed on the sidewalk.
He glanced around, searching for a familiar face. Thunder boomed overhead as a hand clapped his shoulder. He turned to find Ethan offering him a consoling smile. “We’re back here.”
As they strode to a conference room, rain pounded against the roof. Grant raised his eyes to the ceiling, his stomach clenching. Was Sierra out in this? And how would they ever find her?