“Hi. What’s going on?” Autumn asked, her voice croaky and deep.
“Is Griff with you?” Lucas looked over her shoulder. She noticed a tic in his jaw.
“No.” Autumn frowned. “He’s supposed to get here a little after midnight.”
Lucas’s face paled. “It’s three a.m.”
Three a.m.? She looked over her shoulder to the clock on the driftwood side table, but couldn’t make out the hands.
“I fell asleep.” She frowned. Had he changed his mind? “Come in. Let me check my phone.”
She pulled her robe tightly around her as Lucas followed her inside, all too aware of how little she was wearing underneath. Not that Lucas would look – he was too in love with Ember to even notice another woman – but she was embarrassed at being caught wearing so little.
Her phone was next to her bed, and she quickly unlocked it with her thumb. There were no messages at all, just three big numbers telling her it was exactly 3:21 a.m. More than three hours after he’d promised to be here.
“He hasn’t left any messages,” she told Lucas as she walked back into the living room. She pressed the phone symbol next to his contact details. “I’ll try calling him.”
“I’ve been trying for the last hour. I went to his place and let myself in with the spare key. He’s not there.”
“You went to his place to look for him?” she asked, frowning. “Why?”
“We got a call from the Coast Guard. They found a boat half submerged about five miles off the coast. It belongs to one of Griff’s dad’s old friends, and I wanted to let him know before anybody else does.”
“Was there anybody on it?” Autumn asked, her voice tight.
Lucas shook his head. “They said it was empty.”
She swallowed hard, rolling her lips between her teeth. “Griff said he was crewing for an old friend tonight. Helping him take a boat up the coast.”
“Did he say who it was?” Lucas asked urgently.
She shook her head. Her throat felt so tight it was hard to talk. “He just said an old friend. You don’t think…”
“It was Sam?” Lucas blew out a mouthful of air. “It seems too much of a coincidence not to be. Let me talk to the Coast Guard, okay. Tell them there are two people missing.”
Missing. She covered her mouth as Lucas talked with a low voice into his crackling radio. His usual easy-going demeanor was completely absent, replaced by tight lips and narrow eyes, his back stiff as he held the handset to his lips.
“Okay, I’ll meet you there.” He clipped the radio back on his belt and blew out a mouthful of air. “They found Griff’s sweater in the water about a mile away from the wreck. I’m heading down to meet them. They’ll need an EMT crew if they find him or Sam.”
“If,” she repeated the word, tasting the bitterness on her tongue.
Lucas ran his palm over his buzz cut. “I meant when,” he said, his voice tight. There was a dimple in his cheek from where he was grinding his teeth together. “I’ll call you when we hear anything, but try to get some sleep. Hopefully everything will be cleared up by morning.”
“I’m coming with you,” she told him. “Just give me a second to get changed.”
His eyes flickered over her silky robe and bare thighs. “Okay.”
She turned on her bare heel and ran to the bedroom, narrowly avoiding tripping over the new shoes she’d planned to wear for Griff. Only one side of the bed was messy, a new occurrence for her. After her separation, she’d made it a point to sleep starfish in the middle of her king size mattress. When had she started sleeping on the left again?
Ugh. She didn’t have time to think about that. Shucking off her robe, she grabbed a pair of yoga pants and a tight hooded sweater, pulling them over the stupid lingerie that wasn’t going to see any action tonight. Then she twisted her hair into a messy bun and slipped her feet into a pair of sneakers.
Lucas was by the door when she emerged from the bedroom, talking fast into his cellphone. “No, sweetheart, you stay at home. Arthur needs you, and there’s nothing you can do here.” He glanced up at Autumn. “Yeah, she’s here.” Another pause. “Okay.” He held the phone out to her. “It’s Ember. Can you walk and talk?”
“Yep.” She took the phone from his gentle grasp and lifted it to her ear. “Hi, Ember. You’re up late.” She followed Lucas out of the house, slamming the door closed behind her.
“Arthur was awake so I thought I’d check in with Lucas,” Ember said, her voice trembling. “Oh god, Autumn, I can’t believe what’s happening with Griff. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she lied. “I know he’s going to be fine. This is Griff we’re talking about.” She tried to laugh, but it came out strangled. “No ocean would mess with him.”
“Are you sure I shouldn’t come and meet you? Or you can come and wait here with me while they search. You shouldn’t be alone.”
“That’s so kind of you,” Autumn said, as Lucas opened the passenger door and she climbed inside. “But I want to be there when they find him, you know?”
“I know. When this is all over I’ll tell you about the time Lucas disappeared for days fighting forest fires. I had to be there when he came back. My heart couldn’t take it if I wasn’t.”
Her heart. That’s what the strange aching in Autumn’s chest was. It felt like the muscle had expanded to fill her ribcage, pushing on her lungs until she could barely keep a breath.
Arthur let out a wail. “He’s teething again,” Ember said, making a cooing sound. “I should go, but call me as soon as you know anything, okay?”
“Of course.”
“And tell Lucas to be safe. He’s usually so calm, but he didn’t sound it a minute ago.”
Autumn glanced to her left. He was holding the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were blanched, and that tic was still pulsing at the edge of his jaw. “I promise,” she said before they ended the call.
The streets were empty as they headed out of Angel Sands, Lucas driving his truck past the Silver Sands Resort toward the rockier coastline where Griff’s sweater had been found. She twisted her fingers together and stared out of the window, trying not to notice how dark and foreboding the ocean looked.
It was just her imagination. It always looked that way at night. But she couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of Griff being out there somewhere.
“He’s a strong swimmer,” Lucas murmured as he parked his car on the grassy lot that led down to Cutter’s Cove. It was like he was reading her mind.
“Yeah. And he knows the water like the back of his hand.”
“He’ll be fine.” Lucas climbed out, Autumn scrambling after him across the rocks toward a group of people standing at the beach. Somebody had set up a row of spot lights, enough for her to see the faces of the people standing there.
Jackson and Breck looked up at them as they walked across the sand. Lucas left her standing with them while he went to talk to a man wearing a blue uniform, his cap pulled down over his brow.
“You okay?” Jackson asked Autumn as she watched Lucas walk away.