Finding Tessa by Jaime Hendricks (best ereader for comics .TXT) 📗

night. The next morning, Jace knew he needed more than just one cup of coffee. He woke at seven-thirty, Candy still sleeping with her back toward him, in Tessa’s spot. He turned over and spooned her, the way he usually did with Tessa every morning, and his heart broke in two. Actually, his heart had split in half every day since last Thursday.

“Hey, girl. Let’s get you some breakfast.”

Candy swiveled onto her back, all four paws in the air, as she usually did when she wanted her belly rubbed. Jace obliged for a while, longer than he’d planned, then plodded toward the bathroom for a shower. After throwing on a Rangers T-shirt and jogging pants, he went downstairs to the kitchen and started the coffee. His hair was still wet when he prepared Candy’s breakfast, mixing her wet dog food with her dry. He was refilling her water bowl when the doorbell rang, and Candy barked at the intrusion. He looked at the clock on the microwave, and it was only eight-thirty. Terrific, he thought. Reporters again.

He slowly made his way to the door and peeked through the window, trying to remain unseen, and indeed, there was a woman there who spotted him inside and waved. She had long blond hair and wore a casual powder-blue pantsuit with a white collared shirt underneath. Designer sunglasses with too-big frames were perched upon her sculpted nose. She smiled at him and waved maniacally and then, through the glass, spoke.

“Hi, are you Jace Montgomery? It’s me, Bella Johnson. For the interview.”

She was early. Jace undid the two locks and the chain and cracked open the door, making sure she saw him look at his watch, annoyed.

“You’re early.”

“We said eight-thirty?”

“Nine-thirty.”

“Oh.” Her smile disappeared, replaced with a self-deprecating expression while she pointed at her head. “Baby brain. I have a six-month-old at home. I mix things up all the time. I’m sorry. I can just sit here on the stoop until you’re ready.”

She made a move to crouch down on his front steps, but Jace stopped her.

“It’s okay.” He opened the door wide. “You can come in and wait.” He scanned her again as she stepped into his home, then looked down at his own attire. “I’m not exactly ready yet. And my lawyer Robert isn’t here.”

“That’s okay!” she said, overly cheery, and she entered the foyer as Jace gestured her into the kitchen. Candy investigated for a minute and barked at the stranger like the good protector she was, and Jace silenced her. She whined her high-pitched whine and wiggled her butt, but then went back to gobbling her breakfast. Food always won. “Cute dog!” Bella said.

“Thanks. We just adopted her a couple of months ago.” His words choked at the “we” and he swallowed it down. “Do you want some coffee? It just brewed.”

“Sure! Just a little milk, if that’s okay? If you have a nondairy milk, even better, but it’s obviously not a deal breaker. Almond milk, oat milk, even that soy milk, although I’d prefer my soy be organic. You should read about what they say about soy nowadays! It was supposed to be a healthy alternative but now it’s all GMO this and GMO that. I’m just trying to keep added hormones out of my body while I’m still breastfeeding.” She lifted both hands in front of her chest defensively. “TMI! I know. My husband thinks I talk too much. He’s always like ‘Bella, no one cares about you being a cow right now!’ Not that he thinks I’m a cow. It’s the breastfeeding, and the fact that I won’t shut up about the baby. You know what I mean. Right?”

Jace pressed his lips together. “Mmm hmm.” God, she was a talker. Her husband was right.

She plunked her purse on the table and then pulled out a chair and took a seat, scanning the backyard. “Wow. Beautiful property! Do you get a lot of kids playing in the lake out here? When we lived in Pennsylvania forever ago before my husband got transferred here, there was a lake in the neighborhood. All the kids used to ice skate on it, and I was always like ‘Oh my God, they’re going to fall in!’ and he said I worried too much. He’s afraid I’m going to helicopter the baby.” Jace’s face was blank, out of sheer shock that she was still talking. “You know, helicopter parents? Always hovering over their kids.” She held her arms out and made them spin, then made noises that Jace didn’t understand, her voice like she was imitating someone annoying, which he understood wholeheartedly at that moment. “Mer Meh Mer, don’t eat sugar, Meh Meh Mer, take off your shoes, Mer Mer Meh, use the hand sanitizer in your backpack.”

These were all too many scenarios, actions, and too much speech before he had his first cup of coffee. Plus, why was she so at ease? According to the media, she was alone in a house with a cold-blooded killer.

Maybe it was her defense mechanism. It was also the first time Jace considered homicide. Anything to get her to shut up for two minutes.

Although he shouldn’t joke about that. Not even to himself.

“Can I be so bold to ask for a tour? Maybe see some of Tessa’s personal things? It’ll be easier for me to connect and then plead for her return. And then I can be totally heartfelt, like, to tell a good story about her if I saw the types of clothes or jewelry she wore, or how she decorated the bedroom or whatever. Girls have that whole intuition thing, you know, it takes one to know one.”

Jace obliged, because he just wanted her to shut up. Candy followed them upstairs, and he quickly walked Bella through the bedroom, and she commented on Tessa’s taste when she saw how it was decorated. Even pressed on the mattress to see how Tessa liked to sleep, asking which side of the bed was hers. Too personal, Jace