Chapter Twenty-Three
THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA .
Holly actually felt happy for the first time all day as she stuffed some pajamas into her favorite tote bag.
Spending time with her family was exactly what she had needed to lift her sagging spirits, to remind her that she came from strong people who had endured things she couldn’t even imagine.
Both of her parents had come from broken, abusive homes and both had managed to stop the pattern with their own family, helping their children become decent, caring humans.
Were they perfect parents? No. But she had never for one single moment doubted that she was loved and she knew each of her siblings would say the same.
She was packing a few basic toiletries when the doorbell rang.
Who would be coming for a visit on Christmas Eve? All of her neighbors had already delivered small gifts and her close friends were enjoying Christmas with their own families.
She zipped up her bag and carried it down to the living room before she looked through the window next to the door.
To her complete astonishment, Ryan stood on her porch holding a couple of gift bags.
She opened the door. “Ryan! What are you doing here?”
He held up the gift bags. “I had a few little things I wanted to give you and Lydia. It’s not much. Just a couple of books I thought you both might like. I planned to leave them on your porch since I thought you would still be at your folks’ place, but then I saw your light.”
She was deeply touched, not only that he had bought gifts for them but that he had traipsed through the snow to deliver them.
“I decided to stay overnight there. We’re all staying, except maybe Micah. He’s our oldest brother and he likes his creature comforts. I only came home to grab a few things.”
She looked up and down the street in vain for a vehicle. “How did you get here? Don’t tell me. You parachuted from Santa’s sleigh.”
He smiled and she couldn’t seem to look away. Something seemed different about him. He seemed... lighter, somehow. She couldn’t explain it.
“Nothing so exciting, I’m afraid. I needed some exercise after our huge dinner so I decided to take a walk. It’s a beautiful night and you’re only a few blocks from Kim’s place.”
It was a lovely night. She was ashamed that she had been so caught up in missing her daughter that she hadn’t paid nearly enough attention.
Christmas lights twinkled along the eaves of neighboring houses, their warm glow reflecting off the fresh snowflakes drifting lazily from the sky. It was the kind of night that felt like magic, the kind she used to dream about as a little girl. Peaceful, perfect and full of hope.
“Come in,” she said. Even as she issued the invitation she questioned the wisdom of it. She had already fallen hard for him and her feelings only deepened with every moment she spent with him.
“Kim fixed dinner? Was it only the three of you?”
He shook snow off his coat and stamped his boots. “Dad and Diane came, too.”
“Is that why you felt the need to take a walk on a snowy night? You needed an excuse to escape because your dad was there?”
“Actually, no. The opposite. Things are... better between us.”
“Oh, Ryan. I’m so glad!”
“We cleared the air a little. It’s going to take me time to release all that pent-up bitterness, but I’m working on it.”
She was genuinely delighted to hear that. “I’m happy for both of you. Clearly, your father wants a better relationship with you.”
“We still have a lot of work to do.”
“You can’t expect everything to be fixed after one good, honest conversation between you.”
“Exactly. But at least we are talking. That’s a big step, right?”
“Huge.” She smiled. “Does that mean you might be spending more time here at Lake Haven?”
He angled his head, giving her a searching look. “What would you think about that? If I were to spend more time in the area?”
She blinked. “What does it matter what I think?”
Ryan was quiet for a moment, his gaze steady. The air between them felt taut, as if the slightest movement might snap it. Then, his voice, low and rough, broke the silence. “It matters. You matter. I can’t stop thinking about you, Holly,” he said.
Her breath caught and she could feel her pulse hammering in her ears.
Before she could respond, before she could think , he stepped closer, his hand brushing her cheek, his touch warm against the cool air lingering in the doorway.
His lips found hers, soft and insistent, and the quiet night outside seemed to vanish, leaving only the two of them in the golden glow of the Christmas lights on her tree.
Ryan’s kiss was everything she hadn’t let herself admit she wanted: warm, certain and full of an aching tenderness.
Her hands found their way to his shoulders, her fingers curling against the fabric of his shirt, holding him closer as her thoughts swirled.
A slumber party with her family might have been fun. A slumber party with Ryan suddenly seemed a far better way to spend Christmas Eve.
She was trying to remind herself of all the reasons that wasn’t a good idea when the shrill ring of her phone cut through their embrace, its sharp tone jolting them apart.
Holly blinked, her breath unsteady, as the moment shattered around them like a glass ornament tossed at a wall.
“Can you ignore it?”
She shook her head, feeling incapable of stringing two coherent thoughts together. “That’s Troy’s ringtone. Lydia might be homesick.”
It was all she could manage. She grabbed her phone off the table in the entryway with fingers that trembled.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other end wasn’t her ex-husband or her daughter. It was Brittany and she only said Holly’s name before giving a panicked-sounding sob.
Fear clutched at her. “Brittany? What is it? What’s wrong?” Holly asked.
The other woman didn’t answer for a long, unbearable moment as she seemed to be trying to control her sobs.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know how but... but Lydia is missing.”
Icy fingers crawled up her spine. “Missing? What are you talking about?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure what happened. I was feeding Hudson and putting him down to sleep.”
“Tell me what you do know,” she ordered harshly when Brittany’s voice trailed off into another sob.
The other woman seemed to be trying to pull herself together. If Holly had been in the same room with her, she would have been more than happy to slap her if necessary, in order to yank her back to the moment. Instead, she could do nothing but wait in an agony of worry.
“The kids were all down watching a movie while everyone else was playing a game upstairs in the dining room,” she said after a strangled pause while Holly’s nerves stretched to the breaking point.
“At some point, Lydia must have... must have come upstairs. Nobody saw her leave but... somehow she did. When her cousin came up to get a drink, she was surprised to see Lydia wasn’t in with the adults. That’s where the other kids thought she had gone.”
“But she hadn’t.”
“No,” Brittany wailed. “Troy said he hadn’t seen her since she went down to watch the movie.”
Holly felt like she might be sick. How was it possible to go from the magic and wonder of Ryan’s kiss to this heartrending fear in the space of a heartbeat?
“She has to be there. Have you looked in all the rooms? Maybe she’s hiding.”
“We’ve looked everywhere. Under the beds and in all the closets. The garage. Everywhere. We’ve all been searching for the past fifteen minutes. She’s not here!”
She paused and when she spoke, her words chilled Holly to the bone. “Holly. Her coat is missing.”
Dear God. It was late December, frigid, snowing. And the Moores lived on the shores of Lake Haven. If Lydia had gone outside, anything could have happened to her. A hundred horrible scenarios, each worse than the one before, played out in her mind.
How could this be happening? How could they have let her out of their sight for an instant? Every five-year-old child needed supervision and Lydia was a five-year-old with developmental delays. She couldn’t be left alone.
“Susan and Norm have called the police,” Brittany went on in a rushed voice. “An officer is here now. Troy didn’t want to tell you yet, not until we know more, but I... I thought you needed to be told.”
“Thank you for that.” She wasn’t quite ready to completely forgive Brittany for having an affair with a married man but she was grateful for this at least, that she had gone with her instincts and reached out to Holly.
Right now, nothing else mattered but Lydia.
“I’ll be there as fast as I can drive to Haven Point.”
“You don’t have to come. There’s nothing you can do, really.”
“I’ll be there,” she said, ending the call and rushing for her boots.
“What happened?”
She had almost forgotten Ryan’s presence. “I... I have to go. Lydia’s missing. Her coat is missing, too. I have to...”
Lightheaded suddenly from the shock and fear, she started to sway. He grabbed her, his strength the only solid thing in her world right now.
“I’m sure she didn’t go far. We’ll find her. I’ll drive you to the Moore house and on the way I’ll call my dad. He can meet me at his hangar and we can take his bird up to look.”
She nodded, feverishly wishing this were all a bad dream and she could wake up back in his arms, worrying about nothing but a broken heart.