Chapter 2 #2
“How long are you staying? Is Maggie with you? How’s your mom doing?
You wouldn’t know where my dad or Piper are would you?
” He took a breath glancing at Mitch’s house.
“I tried to get into the house but the spare key isn’t where it usually is and the entire place is locked up tighter than Fort Knox. ”
Tessa blinked at him, slightly stunned. They were friendly, certainly. Family friends who saw each other a few times a year. But this level of enthusiasm was unusual.
“Ryan, slow down,” Tessa said, finding her voice. “One question at a time, please. I hardly got any sleep last night after travelling from Boston.”
He had the grace to look sheepish. “Sorry. I had a long drive, too much coffee, and now I’m starving and dying to see my father and niece, but I can’t get into the house.”
Tessa made a mental note to retrieve her mother’s spare keys from their hiding spots as Mitch was right to hide his spare key after what had been happening.
Carrie had two spare keys. One for her own use if she got locked out, and one for Tessa and Trent.
Both were hidden in different places around the property.
“Your dad isn’t here right now,” Tessa explained. “Piper is staying at a friend’s house and Mitch took her more clean clothes.”
“Oh.” Ryan’s face fell. “I was really hoping to see Piper today. It’s been months.”
“She’ll be back tomorrow, I’m sure,” Tessa said.
“Where is your mom?” Ryan asked. “How is your mom after the shooting?”
“My mom is actually away.” Then Tessa found herself explaining.
“My mom and her friend Lori Carlton from Florida traded houses for the summer. Mom’s down in Florida recovering and Maggie went with her.
Lori’s staying here at Seabird Cottage. Lori went with your father to Piper’s friend’s house this morning. ”
Ryan’s disappointment was visible, but he nodded. “That makes sense. Dad mentioned something about Carrie going to Florida for medical leave when we talked last week. I didn’t realize she’d actually gone through with the house swap.”
An awkward silence stretched between them. Tessa couldn’t just leave him standing on the porch to wait in his car for Mitch to return. That would be rude.
“Would you like to come in for coffee while you wait for your dad?” she asked, already regretting the invitation.
Ryan’s face brightened. “I’d love that. Thank you.”
She led him through to the kitchen, grateful she’d at least made coffee earlier. She poured him a mug and refreshed her own, then they stood at opposite sides of the kitchen island.
“So how long are you staying?” Ryan asked, wrapping his hands around the mug.
“A couple of weeks,” Tessa heard herself say. She hadn’t said it out loud until that moment, but there it was. The commitment made concrete. “I was only supposed to be here for a long weekend, but I’ve decided to extend my stay.”
“That’s great,” Ryan said, smiling. “It’ll be good to catch up. How’s Maggie liking Florida?”
“She loves it,” Tessa said, feeling herself relax slightly. This was safer territory. “Swimming every day, making friends, and enjoying herself.”
“That’s great,” Ryan said fondly. He’d always been good with her daughter, remembering her interests, bringing her small gifts from his deployments. “And Trent? How’s your brother doing?”
They fell into comfortable conversation. Ryan asked careful questions about Trent’s latest FBI case, the kind of questions that danced around classified information without directly asking about it. Tessa shared office gossip from her law firm, stories that made Ryan laugh.
He moved to stand at the kitchen window, looking out at the ocean while they talked. The morning sun caught the water, turning it into a sheet of silver and blue.
“This view never gets old,” Ryan said. “I miss it when I’m deployed. The sound of the ocean, the smell of salt air.”
“It is beautiful,” Tessa agreed, joining him at the window.
They stood there in companionable silence for a moment. Then Ryan went completely still, his whole body shifting into a different kind of alertness.
“Tessa,” he said quietly. “Do you have someone working in the yard? Or is someone coming to see you?”
“No, why?” She moved closer to him, following his line of sight.
That was when she saw it. A figure at the edge of the property, right where the lawn gave way to the rocky beach path. A man in a tan windbreaker, average height and build, sandy brown hair. He appeared to be looking at something on the ground.
Then the man looked up toward the house. Toward the kitchen window where she and Ryan stood in clear view.
The moment their eyes met, the man turned abruptly and bolted toward the beach path, disappearing from view.
“Not again,” Tessa hissed.
The words were out before she could stop them. Before she could think about what they meant or what they would reveal. She found herself running, her bare feet pounding across the kitchen floor, through the back door, across the yard.
“Tessa, wait!” Ryan’s voice came from behind her, but she didn’t stop.
She ran across the grass toward the spot where the man had been standing. Ryan caught up with her easily, his longer stride eating up the distance.
They reached the edge of the property together, where the ground dropped away in a steep, rocky path down to the beach. Tessa looked down, searching for any sign of the man.
Nothing. He had vanished completely, as if he had never been there at all.
Ryan crouched down, his eyes scanning the ground. She noticed him wince slightly as he stood back up, his hand going briefly to his side before he caught himself and dropped it.
“Are you hurt?” she started to ask, but Ryan cut her off.
His expression had changed. Gone was the friendly family connection. In its place was something harder, more focused. She had seen Trent look like that before when he was working a case.
“What did you mean ‘again’?” Ryan asked, his voice carrying a no-nonsense tone that expected honest answers.
“What do you mean?” Tessa’s brows drew together.
“When you saw that man in the garden you said, ‘not again’ just before you rushed out the back door.”
“Oh, that,” Tessa said. Shoot!
Ryan’s eyes bore into her. “My father doesn’t just lock up his house like Fort Knox for no reason or hide his spare key.” His eyes narrowed and he glanced around. “So can you tell me why your mother’s house is being watched by an obvious pro?”