Page 10 of Christmas Homecoming Secrets

Jade didn’t know what to say or how to react, so she sipped her coffee. Coffee she no longer wanted. Say it. Tell him. “Bryce, there’s something you… I need to say… You have…” She stopped. “I told Frank to ask you to call me. Why didn’t you?”

His gaze locked on hers. “What?”

“I told him I needed you to call me. That’s why I’m so…well, angry.” And hurt.

Bryce frowned. “Frank never told me to call you.”

She gaped. “I told him several times. And each time he promised he would—and had. When I asked him why I hadn’t heard from you, he always gave me a pretty good answer why you hadn’t called. Why would he lie about that?”

Bryce shook his head. “I have no idea, unless…”

“What?”

“Unless he thought he was protecting me in some way.”

“Protecting you? From what?”

He raked a hand over his buzz cut. “From stress. Added pressure. From… I don’t know.” He paused, looked away. “I thought you’d hate me after that night. Your grandmother had just died and you were grieving. You looked to me for comfort and I…” He trailed off, swallowed and met her gaze once more.

“You didn’t take advantage, Bryce. We’re both responsible for that night.” And she really didn’t want to talk about that.

He seemed to sense her discomfort. “Why did you want me to call you?”

“I… It’s… I’m… Because…” She stopped. Why oh why couldn’t she simply say the words? But no, this wasn’t the place to blurt it out. Her mind was still spinning that Frank hadn’t passed on her request for Bryce to call her. “I think it’s time to get out of here.”

Confusion pulled his brows together. “What is it?”

“Nothing. At least right now. I can’t think straight. Come on, please. We need to see if Heather’s heard anything from Frank.”

“She would have called if she’d heard anything.” He dropped his gaze to the cup in his right hand. “I have a bad feeling about him, Jade,” he said softly. “And I don’t like or want that feeling.”

She blew out a low breath and blinked back a sudden surge of tears. “I know. I have the same feeling.”

He looked up. “I want to believe he’s alive.”

“Well, he’s not dead until…we discover differently. That’s why I wanted the cadaver dog out there.” She pressed fingers to her tired eyes, then dropped her hands. “Ready?”

“Ready for you to tell me whatever it is you’re finding so hard to spit out.”

She flinched. “This isn’t the time or the place.”

He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right. I can wait. What now?”

“It’s getting close to five o’clock, and I still need to buy a Christmas tree and take it home while we wait to hear from Heather or…someone who’s seen Frank.”

“Then let’s go.”

* * *

Bryce rode in silence while Jade drove to a Christmas tree lot on the outskirts of town.

He absently watched the sun sink behind the horizon while he tried to sort through the fact that Frank hadn’t told him Jade was trying to get in touch with him.

He couldn’t fathom that, but he also didn’t see Jade lying about it.

She’d been honestly perplexed and angry. And definitely hurt.

Unless he was right in his thinking that Frank thought he was protecting Bryce in some way, it made no sense that his friend wouldn’t have passed on Jade’s messages to call her.

But the whole protection angle didn’t sit right with him. He shook his head, wishing he could just ask Frank what he’d been thinking.

And why had Jade wanted him to call her anyway? He’d figured she’d never want to see or talk to him again after that night. Maybe he should just ask her like he wished he could ask Frank.

He slid a glance at her and noted her slim but strong hands on the wheel, the confident way she drove and the frown pulling her brows to the bridge of her nose.

Instead of broaching subjects that made them both uncomfortable, he took the safe route.

“How are you going to tie a tree on top of this SUV? Do you have some cables in here?”

“I do.” She shot him a sideways glance. “Which is where you come in since you have the honor of accompanying me.” Her tone was light, teasing, but her gaze was serious as it went to the side mirror, then the rearview one.

“Where I come in? How do you figure?”

“I’m going to let you help get it up there.” Once again, she checked the mirrors. He did the same and noted traffic, but nothing that warranted her vigilance.

“Oh.” He tried to figure out how he would do that with one good leg. In his mind, he pictured the process and thought he might be able to do it without looking like an idiot.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Nothing. The kids didn’t want to pick the tree out themselves?”

She laughed. A real laugh that shot straight to his heart. “I asked them that, but they said no, it was too cold and they’d be content with just decorating it.”

“Huh. Those sound like some interesting kids you’ve got living with you.”

“Ha, you’re telling me.” He caught her sideways glance. She opened her mouth, then shut it, did another mirror check and frowned.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Just being careful.”

“You see something I need to be concerned about?”

She looked again. “Not right now.”

“Okay, then what were you going to say just a minute ago?”

Jade shrugged. “I was thinking about asking if you’d like to come help decorate it, but it would entail hanging out with the children.”

He sighed. “I don’t dislike children as long as they belong to other people. And I’d love to come help decorate if I can bring my dog.”

“You have a dog?”

“I do, but don’t worry. She’s well trained and great with kids.”

“Then both of you are welcome to come,” she said, pulling into the lot. “Assuming we find a tree under all that snow.”

“We’ll find one.”

She got out of the SUV and pulled on her gloves and hat.

Bryce slammed the passenger door shut and rounded the front of the vehicle, noting the rows and rows of trees.

The sun had completely set, blanketing the area in darkness, but the lights strung from post to post created a festive air of anticipation.

A gust of wind whipped around her and she shivered.

“I think I’d like to make this a quick shopping trip,” she said.

“I’m with you.” He pulled the collar of his coat tighter around his neck and slipped his gloves on.

“Howdy folks.” An older man in his early seventies who looked immune to the cold approached.

His thick red-and-black-plaid hat was pulled low over his ears, and he had the matching Sherpa-lined coat buttoned to his chin.

“I’m Clay Foster. Let me know when you find what you need.

I’m a little short on workers tonight, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

” He looked around. “Not many people want to get out in this.” He clasped his gloved hands together, then rubbed them.

“Shorter trees are to the left. Taller to the right. When you find the one you want, just let me know. I’ll be in the office in front of the heater. ”

“Thank you, sir,” Jade said.

He nodded and wandered back to the fifth wheel he’d called his office.

Bryce looked around. “This place is huge. You could get lost in here.”

“Maybe once we’re in the middle of the trees, they’ll shield us from the wind.”

“Good idea.” It helped, but not much. Bryce followed her from one tree to the next, noting she looked at her phone every few minutes. “Nothing about Frank, huh?”

“No.”

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad?”

“Both,” she muttered.

Good in that they hadn’t discovered a body. Bad in that no one had found Frank. Her phone rang, and she swiped the screen. “Heather? Are you okay?” She listened for a moment, then nodded at Bryce. “I understand. Yeah. And nothing? Right. Thanks. Stay in touch.”

“What’d she say?”

“That she hadn’t heard from Frank, but that she learned he’d stopped by their church yesterday around lunchtime, asking to talk to the pastor who was going to marry them.”

“About what?”

“She didn’t know and neither did the pastor—which is where she’s been.

She turned her ringer off to talk to him and didn’t notice my call until just now.

Anyway, the pastor wasn’t there when Frank dropped in so the church secretary, Donna, scheduled an appointment for tomorrow at ten in the morning. ”

“Wedding ceremony questions or something else?” Bryce muttered.

“No one but Frank knows that right now, but at least we know where he was later in the day after you talked to him.”

A particularly hard gust of wind broke through the line of trees, and Bryce shuddered. He was freezing. And he didn’t want to admit it, but his leg was killing him. He started to say something and noticed her attention to a particular tree. “That one?”

“Yes. This one. It’s perfect.” She checked the price and grimaced but waved to Clay.

He nodded he’d be there in a minute, and Bryce breathed a sigh of relief.

The tree wasn’t that big and shouldn’t be too hard to handle even with his damaged leg.

She rubbed her temple, and he noted the strain around her mouth along with the tight jaw.

“Head hurting?”

“Yes. I think I need to take more ibuprofen.”

“Y’all need help?”

Bryce nodded to the worker. “That’d be great.”

“I’ll pay while you guys get the tree taken care of, if that’s all right,” Jade said.

“Great,” Bryce said. At least if he fumbled the tree, she wouldn’t be around to witness it.

He looked at Clay. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it.”

* * *

Jade headed for the office, pulling her wallet from her purse and doing her best to ignore the increased pounding in her head.

Pounding caused by more than her physical injury.

His words continued to echo even as she tried to plan to tell him about Mia—which was part of the reason she wanted to invite him to help with the tree.

He didn’t mind children as long as they belonged to other people.