Chapter 9 Ryan
RYAN
Ryan checked his wristwatch for what had to be the twentieth time in the past hour, then let his gaze drift across the lawn toward Seabird Cottage.
The sun was starting its descent toward the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink that should have been beautiful but instead felt ominous.
Where were Tessa and Misty?
She should have been back hours ago. He’d already been home from town, gone to the hospital to get his stitches repaired, driven back to Pelican Bay, and now the meat on the grill was almost ready.
His father kept giving him questioning looks whenever he caught Ryan staring at Seabird Cottage instead of paying attention to the conversation around him.
The worry gnawing at Ryan’s gut was getting harder to ignore.
Tessa had said she was going to pick up Misty from the vet’s doggy daycare and get bread from the bakery.
That shouldn’t have taken more than an hour, maybe ninety minutes if she’d gotten caught up chatting with someone.
But it had been well over three hours now.
Something was wrong. He could feel it.
Right on cue, as if summoned by his growing anxiety, Lori appeared at his elbow.
“Ryan, have you seen or heard from Tessa?” she asked, her voice tight with worry that mirrored his own.
“Not since I saw her this afternoon in town,” Ryan told her, turning away from the grill to give her his full attention. “I was actually about to come ask you if she’d contacted you.”
“No,” Lori said, shaking her head. Her hands twisted together nervously. “She has Misty with her, so I thought maybe she’d taken her for a walk or something, but...”
Just then, Lori’s phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket, glanced at the screen, and her eyes widened. “It’s the vet,” she said, her voice going up slightly with alarm. “Hello?”
Ryan knew he was being rude, but he couldn’t help himself. He stepped closer to Lori, close enough that he could hear the voice on the other end of the line.
“Hello, Lori, how are you?” The vet’s cheerful voice came through clearly. “I was wondering where Tessa was. She was supposed to pick up Misty hours ago.”
Lori frowned, her eyes finding Ryan’s. He beckoned urgently for her to hand him the phone.
“One moment,” Lori said into the phone. “Ryan wants to have a word with you.”
She passed the phone over, and Ryan pressed it to his ear.
“Hi,” he greeted the woman he’d known for years, someone who’d treated every family dog the Brandons had ever owned. “Is there a problem?”
“Well, Tessa was supposed to fetch Misty hours ago, and she hasn’t turned up,” the vet explained. “I’m getting ready to close up for the evening, and I’m not sure what to do with Misty. It’s not like Tessa to just not show up without calling.”
Ryan’s blood ran cold. The fear that had been a quiet whisper in the back of his mind suddenly roared to the forefront.
“I was with her in the park about three hours ago,” Ryan said, his mind racing back through the afternoon. The ice cream. The kiss. Their fight. The way he’d stormed off, angry and hurt. “She said she was on her way to fetch Misty after that.”
“She hasn’t shown up,” the vet confirmed. “And she’s not answering her phone. I’ve called twice.”
Ryan’s free hand clenched into a fist at his side. He forced himself to think rationally, to push past the rising panic. There had to be a reasonable explanation. Maybe she’d run into someone she knew. Maybe she’d stopped to help someone. Maybe...
Maybe she’d gone to see Jake.
The thought hit him like a punch to the gut.
Of course. The two of them were tight, practically joined at the hip whenever Tessa visited Nantucket.
She always made time to visit Jake, always laughed at his jokes, always seemed so at ease with him in a way that made Ryan’s teeth clench with an emotion he refused to name.
Jealousy. The word forced its way into his consciousness despite his best efforts to ignore it. Hot, irrational, utterly inappropriate jealousy.
“I’ll come fetch Misty,” Ryan said, his voice coming out rougher than he intended. “Give me twenty minutes. I’m leaving Pelican Bay now.”
“Thank you, Ryan,” the vet said with obvious relief. “I’ll wait for you.”
Ryan ended the call and handed the phone back to Lori, who was watching him with wide, worried eyes.
“Ryan, is there a problem?” she asked. “I can’t believe I didn’t even realize Tessa had been gone so long. I’ve been so caught up with everything that’s been happening. She did say she might stop in to see Jake...”
Yes. He knew it. She’d gone to Jake.
The anger that surged through Ryan was white-hot and completely unreasonable.
She’d kissed him in the park. She’d melted into his arms. He’d told her he loved her, that he’d loved her for years, and she’d thrown it back in his face by comparing him to her worthless ex-husband. And then she’d gone running to Jake.
But to Lori, he forced a smile that felt like it might crack his face.
“Well, she forgot to fetch Misty,” Ryan said, keeping his voice carefully neutral.
“Oh, no,” Lori said, her hand flying to her mouth. “Please tell the vet I’m very sorry. This is my fault. I should have kept track of time.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ryan assured her, barely containing the anger and that other hot emotion he was absolutely not going to name again. Not now. Not ever. “I’ll be back soon.”
He left before anyone could ask him any more questions, climbing into his newly repaired truck and heading toward town.
As he drove, he tried to calm the storm of emotions raging through him.
Anger at Tessa for making him care so much.
Anger at himself for being stupid enough to fall in love with someone who clearly didn’t return his feelings.
And underneath it all, a gnawing worry that something might actually be wrong.
As he passed the bakery in the center of town, he spotted Tessa’s car parked in the small lot beside it. His hands tightened on the steering wheel. He pulled into the vet’s parking lot, forcing himself to focus on the immediate task at hand.
The vet met him at the door with Misty on a leash. The German Shepherd’s tail wagged enthusiastically when she saw Ryan, and she jumped up to put her paws on his chest in greeting.
“Hey, girl,” Ryan said, scratching behind her ears. “Sorry you got left behind.”
“No problem at all,” the vet assured him. “Misty’s always a pleasure to have here. I just got worried when Tessa didn’t show up. It’s so unlike her.”
“I know,” Ryan agreed. “I’ll make sure she gets home safe.”
He thanked the vet again and headed back to his truck with Misty trotting beside him. But as he was about to climb into the driver’s seat, he found himself pulling out his phone instead.
He dialed Tessa’s number, half expecting her to answer with some perfectly reasonable explanation for where she’d been.
The phone rang once. Twice. Three times. Then it went to voicemail.
“You’ve reached Tessa Ryder. I can’t take your call right now, but leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
Great. Just great.
The anger that had been simmering beneath his worry suddenly surged to the surface. His finger hovered over Jake’s number in his contacts for a moment before he jabbed it with more force than necessary.
Jake answered on the second ring.
“Hi, Ryan,” Jake greeted him, his tone curious. “Is everything okay?”
“Is Tessa there with you?” Ryan asked, the words coming out as more of an accusation than a question.
“What?” Jake sounded genuinely confused. “No. I’m at Glory’s house. Why would Tessa be here?”
Ryan felt the first real tendrils of fear start to wrap around his chest. Jake was at Glory’s house. Glory Gains, an ex-member of his team in the military and now a forensics expert.
“Why are you...” Ryan started, then shook his head. This wasn’t the time. “Never mind. Where is Tessa? Have you seen her today?”
“I don’t know where she is,” Jake told him, and now there was concern creeping into his voice. “I haven’t seen her since I fixed the fuse box at Seabird Cottage a few days ago.”
“Has she got any other friends in Nantucket that she’d go visit?” Ryan asked.
“Not that I know of,” Jake admitted.
Little waves of shock were starting to tingle through him, replacing the anger with something much colder and more frightening.
“Is everything alright?” Jake asked when Ryan didn’t answer him.
“I’m not sure,” Ryan said honestly. “Thanks, Jake. Sorry to trouble you.”
He hung up before Jake could respond, his mind racing.
Tessa wasn’t with Jake. She wasn’t at the vet.
Her car was at the bakery, but she wasn’t answering her phone.
He glanced at his wristwatch, knowing the bakery was closed at this hour.
A terrible feeling was creeping over him, cold and relentless.
“Come on, Misty,” he said to the dog, who was watching him with intelligent brown eyes that seemed to sense his distress. “We’re going for a walk in the garden.”
He drove to the town park, his heart pounding harder with each passing second. He parked near where he and Tessa had sat that afternoon under the big oak tree, the place where everything had gone so wonderfully right and then so horribly wrong.
As soon as he let Misty out of the truck, she started sniffing the ground furiously, her nose working overtime as she traced back and forth across the grass. Ryan followed her, watching as she moved with purpose toward the area where he and Tessa had parted ways.
Suddenly, Misty stopped and started whining, a high-pitched sound of distress that made Ryan’s stomach drop.
He crouched down beside her, fear ripping through him like a blade.
There, half-hidden in the grass, was a set of car keys with a small photo charm attached to the ring. A picture of Maggie, smiling at the camera with her gap-toothed grin.
Tessa’s keys.