He joined her at the table, straddling the chair from behind. "What's wrong besides all the obvious things?" he asked.
Somehow she managed to laugh. "Would you believe me if I said everything's fine?"
One side of his mouth lifted in a half grin. "No."
"I miss you," she said, her voice low and husky, her meaning obvious.
He reached out and toyed with the lapel of her robe, his fingers dipping below the thin fabric to tease her skin with soft circular caresses. "I miss you, too."
She leaned forward. He followed until their foreheads touched and their lips were mere inches apart. She sensed his warmth and heat and smelled his musky, morning scent.
They remained connected that way for a long silent moment, so innocent and yet so very sensual. Her heart sped up in her chest and her pulse pounded in her throat.
Suddenly his lips brushed hers and lingered, until she tasted sweetness, longing and temptation.
"Talk to me," he urged and sat back, before Sam could walk in and catch them.
She sighed, but knew he was right. Just as she knew she had no choice but to talk about what was on her mind. Drawing a deep breath, she dove right in. "Did you notice anything strange about your uncle's interest in Sam's necklace?"
His back and shoulders stiffened. His completely casual stance, and the sense of happiness she'd briefly sensed, fled. "He tried to make her feel welcome by buying her a gift."
"A necklace."
Ryan raised an eyebrow. "So?"
"He seemed very curious about the one she already wears," Zoe said. So much for gently leading him to the subject. Well nobody had ever praised her for her tact or delicate way of phrasing things, she thought.
Ryan moved his head from side to side, stretching his suddenly tense muscles. In seconds flat, he'd gone from surprisingly relaxed considering the episode last night, to wound tight.
He just couldn't believe Zoe could accuse Uncle Russ of anything underhanded. "Those old keys are odd looking. Anyone in their right mind would ask about them," he said, hating he had to defend his uncle to the woman he loved.
Loved?
He paused in shock. Long enough to think and let emotion wash over him. Long enough to realize he did love her. The feelings had been growing for a while, he now knew, building the more he got to know and admire her.
But he couldn't deal with that primal emotion right now, not when she was questioning the one stable thing in his family life.
Damn, why couldn't one thing in his life be easy right now?
"Sure, anyone might ask about the keys— once," Zoe said, interrupting his thoughts. "He asked about them once and Sam answered. Then he bought her a necklace that she refused to take, but he didn't leave well enough alone. He pushed. He offered to put those keys away for safekeeping. It was like he wanted to get his hands on them." Zoe pulled her robe tighter.
"Uncle Russ was being his usual solicitous, kind self." Ryan rose and picked up his cold coffee and poured it into the sink. "You're reaching. I don't know what you have against Uncle Russ, but he has nothing but my best interest at heart. Which means he has Sam's best interest at heart too. God, he's the only one I can turn to."
"I know." Zoe came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "That's what makes this so hard." She exhaled and he felt her breath warm against his back. "But Ryan, how do you explain what the guy said to you last night? That you should find the key to the mystery?"
"For God's sake, it's an expression!"
"It's too much of a coincidence," she insisted.
He blinked, everything inside him rejecting the notion because it would rip apart the foundation of the only security he'd had. Uncle Russ, who'd come to all his graduation ceremonies, who'd never missed a birthday, who called him the son he never had.
"The last thing I want to do is upset you." She hugged him tight. "But if I agree to put Uncle Russ and any agenda I might imagine aside, would you do something for me?"
"What?" he asked.
She urged him around until he faced her. "Just look into the keys. We'll talk to Sam, we'll get a good look at them and we'll see for ourselves if we can figure out what they lead to. How could that hurt anything?"
Ryan didn't buy her wide green-eyed stare for a minute. She wanted to find out if his uncle somehow had a vested interest in those keys. Still he had to admit, Zoe had gotten him curious and if his uncle was as innocent as he believed, why not see if they could figure out what Faith had used the keys for? Why she'd kept them and passed them on to her daughter.
"I think it could be a way for Sam to learn more about her mother," he said, thinking Zoe's idea through.
Zoe nodded. "It's a long shot that we'll ever know the truth about her necklace, but at least we'll have looked into the last link to your sister."
"I can live with that," he told her.
She smiled, obviously happy with his agreement. At least one of them was. Now that she'd raised the specter of his uncle's odd behavior, her notion lingered in his mind. He only hoped Sam's keys held answers that put her suspicions about his uncle to rest.
* * *
JUST AS ZOE HAD THOUGHT, once they explained to Sam that the keys might provide more insight into her mother, she willingly handed them over to Zoe. All it took was a cursory examination for Zoe to discover the words Wayham Bus Depot, which it turned out was located in a small town about twenty minutes from Ryan's family home.
The big question was what to do with Sam, since neither Ryan nor Zoe wanted to take the teenager along and subject her to potential disappointment or upset if the keys turned out to be a dead end or something disturbing like a drug stash. There was also the fact that someone did want something from Sam and she couldn't be left alone for even a second.
Fate intervened in the form of Ryan's mother. To their surprise, she called to ask if she could spend time alone with Faith's daughter. Zoe's gut instinct was to rebel against the notion, but in her heart she understood that this woman was Sam's grandmother and any form of bonding was best for all involved, especially Sam. The teenager knew little about her mother's life growing up. After Ryan gave his mother a stern lecture, the older woman agreed to choose her words carefully when she spoke to Sam about her mother.
With luck, Vivian could help Sam feel a part of this family and make her feel more grounded when it came to her past. With luck, Zoe thought, still not completely trusting any members of the Baldwin family other than Ryan.
It took some convincing to get Sam to go back to the Baldwins' without Zoe and Ryan tagging along, but Ryan promised her she could pick her favorite food for dinner and then during the week go shopping at Baldwin's.