He yanked the phone away from his ear, wondering if his eardrum was still intact. And while he totally deserved to have his ass kicked, her yelling at him wasn’t terribly helpful.
“There weren’t supposed tobeany fireworks at the party. I asked ahead of time to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem. But one of the guests decided to set off fireworks and we didn’t know anything about it until it was actually happening.” Despite her pissed off mumbling, he plowed ahead.
“He sort of lost it—and then, after he calmed down, my mother put two and two together, and she blew a gasket about our relationship and there was a lot of yelling and shouting and cursing.” He wasn’t sure if he should have told her that, since it didn’t help in locating Tanner, but he needed to get it off his chest. “We got home, and he seemed better, but he had nightmares all night and—and—I,” his breath suddenly caught on a sob. Was he about to fucking cry? Jesus Christ! He coughed and cleared his throat. “He wasn’t here when I woke up this morning. He didn’t text me, didn’t call—I’m—I’m just worried.”
Cameron took a deep breath.
“Okay, no need to panic. He probably just went for a drive or something,” she said, and it sounded like she was trying to convince him and herself. “I’m sorry about what happened with your mother.” Her sympathetic tone and depth of sincerity surprised him.
“It’s fine,” he dismissed quickly.
“It’s really not. She has no right to treat you so badly,” she countered, making it clear he had a right to be upset. “I’ll call around. I know a few places he likes to hang out. I just tracked his phone, but it looks like he left it at your place.”
Fuck. Well, at least that explained Tanner’s radio silence.
“Okay, thanks. Let me know what you hear—” he said, feeling a little breathless as the stress of not knowing where Tanner was made his heart race. Why was he so fucking panicked? Tanner was a grown man. He could take off anytime he wanted to. It didn’t mean he was doing something stupid, or something terrible had happened.
Then again, the statement made by the little girl’s father haunted him. The man’s heartbreak over the tragic loss of his friend was painful to witness.
Five tours in the Middle East and he took his own life two months after being discharged.
Tanner wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t—things had been bad last night, but notthatbad, right?
“Of course.” Cameron answered. “I’m sure we’re both being obnoxious mother hens over nothing.”
But her sisterly platitudes did little to alleviate his anxiety. He thanked her anyway, and they hung up.
He looked for ways to kill time while he waited for updates about Tanner. He took a shower, put away his clean laundry, cleared out the dishwasher, and sorted through the mail. After doing all that, he stopped for another cup of coffee. He still couldn’t stand the thought of food. He checked the clockon the microwave again. He’d managed to kill just one fucking hour. He sighed, gradually going insane in his suddenly too big house. He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone finally buzzed. He jumped for it, pressing accept call mid-flight.
“Hello?” He didn’t check the caller ID.
“Hey Lance, I called everywhere, and no one has seen him all morning,” Cameron informed him in a shaky voice.
“Fuck!” Lance began pacing anxiously around the living room. “What do we do?”
“I’m not sure there’s much to be done. Can’t report him as missing unless it’s been 24 hours.”
“But he’s a vet with PTSD, doesn’t that make him more—”
“With no history of suicidal thoughts, they won’t budge,” she cut him off, like she’d been there, done that.
“Fuck!” Lance exclaimed viciously. Panicking was not normal for him. Panic was a loss of control, and Lance never lost control. Not like this.
“Mark and I are going to go tour the neighborhood—I’m not sure it’ll do any good, but I can’t—” Lance stopped listening the second his front door opened, making the alarm system beep. Tanner strolled in and closed the door behind him.
“He’s here!” Lance exclaimed.
“Tanner? Is it Tanner?”
“He just walked in. He’s here. I gotta go, Cameron. I’ll call you back—” He hung up and tossed the phone onto the couch.
He didn’t exactly run to Tanner, but it was damned close.
“Cameron?” Tanner asked as Lance rushed up to him.
“I lost my mind a little,” Lance confessed as he body slammed Tanner, hugging him tightly.
Tanner chuckled and returned his hug, squeezing him hard and then resting his chin on his shoulder.
