Everyone but Alex, that is. “Heard what?” he asks.
Steph glances over at him, her cheeks wet with the tears that had been threatening since I arrived, the idea that Matt might have overheard such life-altering news enough to cause them to finally spill over. She sniffles, then opens her mouth, but doesn’t respond. Clearly, she doesn’t know how to respond, and she certainly doesn’t have the bandwidth to get into it with him at this moment.
“It’s nothing,” I answer for her, moving my hand down her back in slow soothing strokes.
Alex snorts his disbelief. “Right, sure. Sounds like nothing,” he sneers.
“Just— we’ll talk about it later. For now, we need to focus on finding your brother. Can you think of anywhere he might have gone?”
He shakes his head sullenly.
“Alright,” Jack interrupts, thankfully diverting the conversation and getting down to business. “I need a list of all his friends. Anyone he might go to—reach out to. If you don’t have numbers, we’ll start with names. Noah and Aidan,” he turns to my brother and his partner, standing side-by-side, alert and ready for their orders. “Start running them down. Luke should be at the station by now, too. Have him pull addresses for you, and you go check them out one by one.”
“We’ll text you,” I say. Noah gives a curt nod before turning away to get to work. Aidan sends me a reassuring look and follows quickly after him.
“I’m gonna head in and help Mark with coordinating a search.” Jack continues, meeting my mother’s eyes, and then mine. “We’ll send guys out to the high school, the burger barn, the arcade, the beaches, and the marina. Does he have access to any boats?”
I look to Steph, who shakes her head, swiping at her tears with the back of her hand. “I don’t think so.”
“Okay. I’ll get some other guys to run up the West side of Gryff by the resorts. I doubt there are many empty cottages this time of year, but you never know. We’ve had grifters crash in deserted cabins and teens partying and camping on vacant lots up that way before. I’ll also get Mark checking out his social media. He’s good with computers.”
“What should we do?” Steph asks.
“Stay here for now and keep your phone line open.”
“But—”
He raises a hand, cutting her off. “I know it’s hard, but you should be here in case he comes home.”
Steph’s shoulders drop, but she nods once more.
The chief says his goodbyes, promising to keep us updated, then strides from the room. My mom follows, walking him out and returning a few moments later. She takes a seat at the table with Piper and Lucy. I walk Steph over and gently push her down into a chair, moving to stand behind her with my arms on hershoulders. Lucy passes her a notebook from the counter, and a pen, and she gets to work making the list while I massage her shoulders, at a loss for how else to help her, what else to do. My mind is racing with the implications of Matt knowing the truth, as I’m sure Steph’s is. I just pray we find him and that he’s okay … that he’ll give us a chance to explain.
She finishes the list and I take a photo, shooting it off to my brother. Steph still grips the pen, trembling. Mom reaches over, gently taking it from her, then grasps her hand, smiling comfortingly.
“It’ll be alright,” she murmurs. “If he knows, then he’s probably in shock. He just needs some space to work through his feelings, and then I’m sure he’ll come home so you can talk about it.”
“Nora’s right,” Piper agrees. “That kind of revelation would be difficult for anyone to hear. Not that it’s the same, but I ran away a few times as a teen. It was after my parents died, and I went to stay with my aunt. I had a lot of big feelings I didn’t know how to deal with.”
“Where would you go?” I ask, a glimmer of an idea taking root at the edge of my mind.
“I always went to the same place.” She smiles. “This one library branch where my mom had once worked. It was in an old building, and because she’d worked there, I knew about this secret space located off the boiler room where nobody would think to look. I’d hide in there at closing and then would have the libraryto myself all night.” She shrugs. “It made me feel closer to her, and it gave me space to sort through things.”
Steph’s shoulders go rigid beneath my hands, and I know her mind is headed in the same direction as mine as I recall our conversation the first night I came over here. The one where we both spoke about our special place … the place we used to go when we needed to be alone.
The place that’s helped us both deal with our troubles over the years.
Her head drops back, and our eyes lock, the realization hitting us at once as we say in unison, “The ridge.”
42
Steph
Hereweareatthe ridge once more.
I stare out through Riley’s bug-splattered windshield at the rocks, the trees, the sister lakes nestled in the valley below with our town tucked securely at their apex. The sun is shining brightly this morning, so at odds with my roiling emotions. These gorgeous views have served as the backdrop to happy memories, intimate moments, and quite a few difficultconversations.
As we pull in and park alongside Matt’s old beater of a car—the one he saved for and bought, with my help, for his seventeenth birthday, the one Noah and Aidan offered to help him restore on that fateful Thanksgiving holiday—I prepare myself for yet another difficult conversation.
