And when he’d spotted Dee at the back of the ambulance, clearly all right, the breath had returned to his lungs in such a gust that he’d almost choked. All he wanted to do in that moment was gather her in his arms and keep her safe and beg her not to get any more involved with this. He longed to take her home, cradle her close and keep her safe the rest of her days.
But she’s not mine to do that.
Instead, he’d returned home and reached for his running shoes.
A tug on the leash made him look down and back. Patty, whose energy sometimes seemed endless, looked up at him with pleading eyes. He slowed for a few moments, then stopped under a tree. Patty dropped down on the ground and rolled in the grass, then stretched out on her side, ready to rest. Tyler sat next to her, bracing his back against the tree. He scratched her belly, prompting her to twist onto her back to give him better access, her tail thumping wildly on the ground. He grinned. “You’re shameless.” She wiggled in response, then rolled back to her side.
Tyler drew his knees up and rested his arms across them, looking around the park. The tree sat atop a small rise, not far from a cluster of tree-shaded benches that was his usual retreat here. He preferred this section of the park because he could look down the slope into the heart of Mercer, then to the rolling hills beyond. Now those hills were a dappled carpet of various shades of springtime green, but he’d also sat here many times in autumn, surveying the bright colors that quilted the land in the fall. “Why would anyone ever want to leave this?”
Patty responded with a low woof, then sat up, watching him.
“She’s no longer the wounded bird,” he told the dog. Patty tipped her head to one side, curious about the words, his odd tone of voice. Tyler stroked her back but looked to the hills again. Would Dee leave when she healed, got fully back on her feet and restarted her writing career? That was why she was here, after all. To heal. To recover. To leave.
The thought chilled him.
Why? Why was Dee different from the other women he’d dated? There had been quite a few women in his life since his first kiss at sixteen. A couple even had almost been serious, at least in the eyes of the world. But the thought of them leaving had never soaked him in the dread that this did. Over the past few months, Tyler had come to realize that he didn’t just enjoy seeing her—he needed to see her. He didn’t just want to have lunch with her every day. He wanted to have lunch with her forever.
“Patty, I’ve got it bad.” He scratched her under the chin, and she nuzzled his hand. “I hope you like her.” He grinned. “I hope she likes you.”
He turned his gaze upward, focusing on the dashes of the waning sunlight and dimming blue sky he could see through the dense canopy of leaves over his head. “Lord, is this what it feels like to meet your soulmate? To want to be with her all the time? To think you’d go crazy if she left?”
The whispers of the spring leaves swirled around him as thoughts of Mercer and Dee blended in his head. They went nowhere, but they did calm him. A good thing. With a sigh he patted the peekapoo at his side. “Let’s go home.”
Back at his house, Tyler added cool water to Patty’s dish, and he left her lapping thirstily as he headed upstairs for a shower. Calmer, he found himself making plans. He wanted to take Dee out, have a real date. Maybe he’d take her to Portsmouth or Manchester to a fancy restaurant, show her that he could treat her like a princess as well as a friend.
Padding to his computer, his bathrobe soaking up the last of the dampness left on his skin from the shower, he intended to look at a few restaurants. Instead, he found an e-mail from Dee waiting for him.
Hi, Tyler,
I’ve attached my notes on my conversation with Bethany Davidson. I know it doesn’t reveal anything you didn’t already know, but I promised to send them. You were so silent on the ride back I didn’t think you wanted to talk about it then.
You got that right. He had been so flushed with anger and fear that he had not been able to speak on the short ride from the wreck site to the retreat. He just hoped he hadn’t scared her.
In light of that promise, I also wanted to tell you that I’m going to talk to Jenna Czock tomorrow afternoon about her finding the dress. Do you want to come along?
Are you kidding? I’m not letting you out of my sight again.
By the way, do you know if Bethany’s sister also has red hair?
Good question. As he’d realized today, Tyler found Dee’s instinct about people and details to be insightful. For instance, Bethany’s alibis had struck him as “convenient” from the beginning, but they’d never been able to break them. She had been in the O.R. when Carly vanished, and she had a plane ticket to prove the trip to Colorado. Maybe the sister was the link.
I promised Maggie I’d help her with a few things around the retreat tomorrow morning, after I sleep late enough to rid myself of this adrenaline headache. After Maggie’s chores, I want to work on my writing for a bit. I have an idea for the next column, and an article I want to pitch to a parenting magazine that’s published me before. Also, I’ve started a blog. So I want to go to Jenna just before she closes the shop.
But…you’d better call me if you find Zach Riley! Don’t you dare go off to see him without me. :)
I’ll also have to deal with the wreck, I guess, the insurance and all that. Sorry you had to see me all bedraggled this afternoon. Sorry you were upset with me.
I missed you at supper, and will really miss you at lunch tomorrow. Hope you can make it to supper tomorrow. I think we need to talk.
Always,
Dee
Tyler leaned back in his chair, his gut tightening a bit, this time with a touch of anticipation. “Does she see it, too?”
OK, so maybe not a fancy restaurant. He smiled at the pretentiousness of the thought. Dee wasn’t much for “fancy.” They did need to talk, but where? What better place than the retreat? Or maybe even better…. He grinned as he hit the Reply button, typing quickly.
He had just sent his response to Dee when a thumping made him look down. Patty sat at his feet, a stuffed toy in her mouth. He scowled teasingly at her. “I thought I wore you out on our run.” She pranced backward, waiting. Time to play.
Tyler stood, his resolve once again giving him a sense of peace. It would work out. It would.
“You can’t just tell him you don’t want to see him anymore!” Maggie sprayed furniture polish on another cloth and tossed it to Dee. “You’re involved with Carly’s case now!” Maggie’s tone became even more frustrated. “Besides, I know you like him. My word, girlfriend, every time you look at him you light up like the proverbial Christmas tree!”
Dee turned to dust a set of shelves on the far wall of the great room so that Maggie couldn’t see the heat that stung her cheeks. “I do like him. I like being with him more than you can imagine. But when I’m with him, I feel as if I’m betraying Mickey. I didn’t start out that way, but that feeling gets stronger every time I’m around Tyler.”
“That’s because you’re falling in love with him.”
Dee clutched the cloth in both hands and rested her forehead against one of the shelves. “I just don’t think I can do this.”
Maggie paused, then went to Dee and tugged on her arm. “Come here.” When Dee resisted, she tugged harder. “Come sit with me a moment.”
Relenting, Dee followed Maggie to the sofa in front of the silent and dark fireplace. As they sat, Maggie pulled the cloth away and took both Dee’s hands in hers. “Answer me something. When you married Mickey, how many men had you dated?” Dee hesitated, and Maggie shook her hands. “How many?”
“Two.”
“Either of them serious?”
Dee shook her head.
“So Mickey was the only man you’d ever been with, the only one you ever loved. For most of your adult life, you’ve never thought of being with anyone else. And there’s always going to be a place for him in your heart. You don’t stop loving them just because they die.”
M
aggie’s own eyes moistened, and she reached up to brush away a tear. “But you also can’t close your heart off because he’s gone. What you feel is normal, but so is moving on with your life. That’s why you’re here, remember? I know you didn’t intend to fall for Tyler. I certainly know that neither of us expected it. Heavens, Fletcher once told me he thought Tyler would always be a bachelor because he was too set in his ways. But you two clicked. That’s rare. It’s special. Please don’t give up on that.”
Dee eyes stung with tears, but none fell. “I just intended to get on with my career.”
“I know. But you shouldn’t overlook opportunities right in front of you either.” Maggie straightened. “Now, didn’t Tyler offer to take you to Jenna’s shop?”
A grin spread slowly over Dee’s face. “Actually, his e-mail said he wanted to talk first, then we’d go to the shop. He didn’t ask so much as he told me he’d pick me up about three.”
Maggie stood. “Yep, that’s Tyler. He’s nothing if not direct.” She checked her watch as a sleepy wail sounded from down the hall. “You have about fifteen minutes to put some lipstick on. I need to get David a snack.” She stepped away from the couch, then paused. “Promise me you’ll give him a chance.”
Dee hesitated, then nodded, and watched Maggie head down the hall toward her son. She stood herself and headed down the other wing to her room. “Lipstick,” she muttered, entering her bathroom and staring into the mirror. “As if any makeup would help this face.” With the tip of her finger, she lightly traced each small cut, the fading bruise around her eye. “I look like I ran through a barbed wire fence.” Dee sighed and backed away. Then she paused, stared at herself a bit longer, then reached for the light bronze tube of lipstick on the sink.
Tyler’s cruiser pulled up in front of the retreat lodge promptly at three. When Dee stepped out, Tyler took off his hat and held the car door open for her. She settled in and he joined her. As he pulled out of the long driveway, he cleared his throat. “So what did you want to talk about?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “Nothing important. It can wait. Have you heard anything new on Zach Riley?”
Tyler’s brow furrowed and his mouth tightened, as if that wasn’t what he expected her to say. “No, and yes. Nothing new on Carly, and I did speak to the school again. I talked to the secretary, who insists Riley is in Canada, says she got a postcard from him.”
“Hmm. Like work colleagues never lie for each other.”
He shrugged. “I told her if I didn’t have a call from him by this afternoon, I was going to call the RCMP and have them find him.”
She faced him. “You’re going to sic the Mounties on him?”
“I’m tired of being evaded by someone who’s increasingly becoming a person of interest in this. While we wait to talk to Mr. Riley directly, Wayne is talking to his neighbors, more of the folks he worked with.” He paused. “Which I didn’t get a chance to do yesterday.”
Dee looked down at her hands. “Sorry.”
“I’m just glad Mom alerted me as well as the regular patrol.” He took a deep breath. “Wayne’s also researching the names of black SUV owners in this and the surrounding counties.”
“That’ll take a while. It’s a popular car around here. One tailgated me when I was headed to Portsmouth. I had to pull over to let him get by.”
He glanced at her, alarm growing in his eyes. “Did you tell the officer this yesterday?”
Dee looked at him, confused. “Why should I?” Then her stomach tightened as recognition hit. “You don’t think it was the same driver, do you? They would have had to follow me all the way to Portsmouth and back. Why not just hit me then?”
Tyler’s hand tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened. “Where did you pull off?”
Dee thought back to the double brick pillars with their elegant bronze plaques. “Oak Hill Estates.”
He nodded. “That’s not far from the 101. Too much traffic from there to Portsmouth. Too many potential witnesses. They may have just waited until you returned.”
Dee pushed back in her seat, annoyed and a little worried. Her sense of security had started to return since she’d been staying in the new room at the retreat, and she’d almost decided to resume walking into town.
“I guess it wouldn’t have been a good idea to walk to Jenna’s this afternoon.”
Tyler made a noise that sounded as if he’d swallowed a goldfish, and he glanced at her, his eyes narrow with worry. “No.”
His reaction almost pushed Dee to giggle, which she knew he wouldn’t find amusing. “You wouldn’t worry, would you?”
Tyler turned up Fifth Street, skirting the walking mall of the Fourth Street arts district and Jenna’s floral shop, and brought the cruiser to a halt in front of the park’s bandstand. To the left of the bandstand, his favorite cluster of park benches sat in the shelter of some of Mercer’s oldest trees, towering oaks that cast a wide, dense shade, even in mid-spring.
“Do you mind if we sit here for a few minutes before we go to Jenna’s?”
Dee looked out over the quiet, sunny park and almost sighed. “It looks peaceful.”
“And we haven’t had a lot of peace lately.” He got out, then walked around to open her door. Dee got out, and as he shut the door, she took his arm, realizing it felt like the most natural thing in the world to do.
Give him a chance. Maggie’s words echoed in her head, and Dee fought the urge to sigh. She would try. And the warmth and strength of his arm under her hand did feel…comforting.
Tyler curled his own fingers over hers, and she glanced up at him. “You forgot your hat.”
He looked down at her, startled. “What?”
She pointed at his head with her free hand. “You always wear your hat when you get out of the car.”
His mouth jerked in amusement, as if he were enjoying a private joke. “I don’t think I’ll need it here.”
They both fell silent as they walked to the bench with the best view of the park. As they settled, Dee looked around at the luscious scenery, raising her chin a bit as the wind brushed her hair away from her face. The town lay before them like a Norman Rockwell painting, small, historic and perfectly American. The mill pond at one end of Main Street glistened in the afternoon sun, like a pool of liquefied gold. The granite city hall at the other end anchored the town with a solid, unmoving permanence. The hills beyond reminded her in many ways of the hills of Tennessee. They were part of the same mountain chain, so she shouldn’t be surprised that the rise and fall of them felt familiar, almost like home. He must love this place. It’s probably where he comes to relax.
“So…do you come here often?”
It was out of her mouth before she could stop it, the oldest pickup line on the planet, heard in bars all over the world. Tyler’s eyebrows shot up and his eyes gleamed with humor. “I beg your pardon?”
Heat scalded her cheeks. “No. I mean…I didn’t mean it like…” Shut up, Dee! She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh.”
Tyler Madison threw back his head and laughed. The sound burst from him like the suddenness of a refreshing spring shower. At first, the heat in her cheeks increased and tears of embarrassment stung her eyes, but then she gradually began to giggle, relaxing as his laughter slowly subsided. Tyler wiped his eyes, then turned to her, gripping her hand in both of his.
“You have always been able to make me laugh.”
“Because I’m an idiot when I’m around you?”
He shook his head. “Anything but.” He let out a long breath. “Look, Dee, I don’t know what’s happening between us, but since you’ve been involved in this case, you’ve made me crazy.”
A pinprick of disappointment stung Dee, and she knew it showed on her face. “But I thought I was helping.”
Tyler’s eyes widened. “You are! No, that’s not what I meant.” He stopped, looked down, then took a deep breath before looking at her again. “You didn’t join this case by choice. You were thru
st into it the minute you found those sandals. But every move has put you in some kind of danger. I can’t get away from that. It distracts me. I can’t focus on Carly because I worry about you so much. And that’s not like me. I’ve been obsessed with finding Carly since the day she disappeared. I just don’t know—” He broke off and looked away into the distance. “I’m not saying this very well.”
She squeezed his hand. “I think you’re doing just fine. My turn.” He met her eyes, and she faltered a bit, but went on. “This afternoon, I told Maggie that I was going to suggest we not see each other for a while.”
His eyes took on a slightly panicked look as his face paled. “Now, wait—”
She held up her hand to stop him. “I changed my mind. But don’t you see, we’re thinking along the same lines.” She fought to keep a touch of desperation out of her voice. “Whatever is happening between us, Tyler, has been building just the way we needed it to. Slowly, over time. Neither one of us makes a move quickly, and there’s some part of me that still feels as if I’m betraying Mickey when I’m with you.”
“Dee—”
She plunged on. “This case shoved us together. It made you worry about me, and made me realize I had to get past that feeling. I thought some time apart might help.” She paused, shaking her head. “But I can’t walk away from Carly any more than you can. We have to get a grip on us so we can find her.” She shook her head slowly, looking down at their clasped hands. “Mickey will always have a place in my heart. He was the first man I ever truly loved. But I have to move on and find a way to love again. To love another man.”
His smile was gentle, with a loving sweetness to it. “Any chance I could be that other man?”
Dee’s eyes burned as she reached up and touched his cheek. “I think you already are.”
The Taking of Carly Bradford Page 13