“Will you be back tonight?” I don’t want to sound like a needy child, but I’m not sold on the staying-at-Gran’s-by-myself idea.
“If Gran is stable and sleeping peacefully, I’ll head home. But I should stay here a while in case doctors have questions or the test results come back.”
“Let me know if anything comes up, okay?”
“Of course.” He gives me another hug, and I recognize that perfume again.
I want to say something witty and sarcastic, but it can wait. The fact remains that finding a dead girl, possibly seeing her ghost, and finding my grandmother on the floor is enough to shoulder. I will deal with my secretive father and his blonde bombshell doctor girlfriend later. “We’ve only been here for a little under a week.”
“I know. I’m glad we’re here though.”
“I’m sure you are,” I say a little too snottily.
“Virginia, please. We can talk about things later.”
I stare at him and shake my head. “Gran’s right. You are keeping secrets from me.” I spin on my heel, needing to leave immediately.
He calls after me, but I keep walking away before I say anything more.
Isaac’s playing a game on his phone when I call to him. He glances up and says, “Ready for a break?”
“Yes. Would you mind taking me home?”
“Of course not.”
I don’t say good-bye to anyone mostly because no one’s paying attention when we leave. I do make eye contact with Doctor Blonde Bombshell, and my frown deepens. I look away quickly and keep walking.
As we walk to the Jeep, Isaac grabs my hand. “How are you really doing?”
We stand next to my door. Isaac doesn’t release my hand. This time my insides do turn to warm liquid. And for some reason, I decide to be completely honest. “Just a week ago, I was in London, planning the greatest party of my life. Dad was going to be gone for three weeks to a conference, so Alisa had this huge adventure of parties and boys and…oh well, that seems very far away.”
“Don’t look at it as a bad thing,” Isaac says. “Think of everything that’s been accomplished since you’ve been here. We met each other, and I think that’s a good thing. You found that girl’s body…”
The thought makes me shudder.
“I know it was creepy, but now she can be properly buried. Her family can have closure. And if it wasn’t for you, how long would your grandmother have been on that floor? And that man might have taken it too far if you hadn’t stepped outside to defend her.”
His words do uplift me a little. “I guess. It’s a lot to process though.”
He opens my door. “We could always go mudding. That helps alleviate stress.”
I slide into the seat and think about how much fun we had before the Jeep stalled and the ghostly girl showed up. “It is daylight.”
“Exactly. The woods aren’t spooky during the day.” He shuts my door, goes to his door, and gets into the driver’s seat.
“How’s the jeep?”
“She’s purring like the well-oiled machine she is.” Isaac reaches out and pats the dashboard. Then he turns to me and starts to taunt in a sing-song voice. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have fun at this moment, but I realize how much I want it. I want nothing more than to spend the afternoon with Isaac. “Let’s do it.”
Isaac lets out a whoop and puts the jeep into drive.
***
Two hours later, the jeep has been baptized in mud, as have we. “It just had to rain.” I squeeze the water out of my hair and onto my Gran’s driveway.
“I could have put the top on, but what was the point.” Isaac is also wet and covered in mud. But not like me. I got the worst of it.
“There’s mud in my nose!” I lament, needing a tissue. And a shower.
“There’s probably mud everywhere. Just saying. Especially with you falling in it.”
“Ha, ha. You told me that the jeep purred like a well-oiled machine.”
“She does. The mud hole was deeper than I anticipated. The poor girl got stuck.”
“And this poor girl fell face first trying to push her out.”
Isaac starts laughing. I roll my eyes but start to laugh too. It’s hard to be upset when I had a great afternoon. Isaac was right. Mudding helps relieve stress.
“I’m going to clean up. Thank you for a great time. It definitely helped me forget things for a little while.”
Isaac steps closer to me and places his arm on my shoulder. At first, I think he’s trying to be romantic, and my insides release butterflies. Then he cracks a smile and tries not to laugh, but it escapes anyway. Romantic moment gone.
“Oh, shut up,” I say good-naturedly. I head over to the front porch. Isaac had a blanket that he let me use to clean the worst of it, but there is dirt residue all over my body.
“Want me to stop over after I wash up? I never did get to talk to you about what I was going to share.”
Alone with Issac?
“Yes,” I say quickly. “Come over.”
He waves and leaves, and I hurry into the house and up the stairs.
I wash as quickly as I can, not wanting to miss the knock on the door. I throw on the cutest top and shorts I own and opt to leave my hair down. I run downstairs and check outside, but he hasn’t arrived. I immediately call Alisa and beg her to pick up.
“Ginnie!” she yells into the phone. There’s music in the backdrop and a lot of chatter.
“Are you at another party?”
“Yes, hold up.” There’s a pause, then I hear her open and shut a door. The background noise is significantly muffled. “Hey there, my long lost best friend. Why aren’t you here keeping me from boredom?”
“That hardly sounds boring.”
“It is when you’re not here.”
Her words make me smile. “I wish I was there,” I say half-heartedly because, in all honesty, I haven’t thought about London all afternoon. “But I have to tell you something, and I have to hurry.”
“What is it?” I can tell by her voice that she’s intrigued.
“I met a guy.”
Alisa squeals. “An American? Oh, I’m positively jelly.”
“His name is Isaac, and he’s nineteen, and tall, and—“
“He sounds like a magnificent creature.”
“He is. And he’s coming over. Any minute. And I’m nervous!”
“Is your Dad there?”
“No, he’s at the hospital with Gran. So, I’m at Gran’s house. Alone.”
Alisa squeals again right as Isaac knocks on the door.
“I’ve got to go,” I whisper. “He’s here.”
“You must call me back and tell me everything.”
“I promise!” I end the call, take a deep breath to calm my nerves, and open the door to Isaac…and Ian.
14
“Oh, hello.” I try not to sound disappointed.
“Isaac said you fell in the mud.” Ian looked at me briefly before looking aside.
“He’s right. I was covered in it. And he laughed and laughed.” I glance over at Isaac, and his laughter from earlier has long left. He looks as disappointed as I feel. “Well, come in. My Gran has a ton of food she prepared for her friends.”
Ian comes in, and I point toward the kitchen. Isaac touches my arm before I follow Ian. “I am so sorry. Dad is still working, and mom had a ladies meeting at church. After what happened, Ian doesn’t want to be alone. I didn’t know what to do. Mom says she’ll pick him up in about an hour.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I mean the words. I may be disappointed, but Isaac’s relationship with Ian is one of the many reasons he’s a quality guy. “You should never have to apologize for being a brother.”
“It’s a little annoying.”
“We’ll survive. Now come on, there is a smorgasbord.”
The three of us set out all the trays and bowls from the refrigerator and discuss what to eat first.
“Do ol
d ladies need this much food?” Ian asks. He watches me as I pile a plate with pasta salad, ham rolls, a buttered croissant, and a handful of raw carrots.
“My eyes may be too big for my stomach, but right now, hunger wins.” I bite into a carrot and sit at the table.
There’s a lack of conversation mostly because our mouths are stuffed with food. We glance at each other and stifle a laugh. “It’s as if we haven’t eaten,” Isaac jokes and shovels another forkful of pasta salad into his mouth.
“Well, I had some mud earlier.”
We laugh again and keep eating.
The front door opens and shuts. “Virginia?”
“Dad?” I get up fast as if I’ve been caught.
He walks into the kitchen. “I’ve tried to call you all afternoon!” He sees Isaac and Ian and changes to a friendlier tone. “Hi, guys.”
The brothers say hello but find their food immensely fascinating.
“Can I see you in the other room?” Dad asks, then leaves without waiting for an answer.
“Are you in trouble?” Ian asks.
“Evidently.” I follow my father into the study. “How’s Gran?”
“She’s doing fine, not that you care.” The words are harsh, and they sting.
“Of course I care.”
“I’m sorry. I’m tired, and I’ve been calling you. You need to answer your phone.” When I don’t respond, he continues, “She wanted her yarn basket and her blanket from the bed. But since you never answered your phone, I had to leave the hospital and come get it myself.”
“Who’s with Gran?”
“Laura is sitting with her until I get back.”
“Well, then see there, you don’t need me.”
“What I need is for my daughter to answer the phone. That’s what I need. Got it?”
I can count on one hand the number of times Dad’s raised his voice at me. It’s rare, and it stings every time. “Is that all?” I say, with some bite to my words. “I have company.”
Someone knocks on the front door, so Dad walks past me to open it. “Hi, Charlotte. Come on in.”
“Hey Sam, I’m only here to pick up Ian. I promised Isaac I would get him as soon as I could.”
“Oh, Ian isn’t going to stay?” Dad turns and looks at me in irritation.
I cover my face with my hands. This is bad.
“No, I needed to run to ladies group tonight, but it didn’t last long. It’s not fair to Isaac to be the babysitter, especially when he had something special planned with Ginnie.”
Dad looks at me again. Now would be a good time for the earth to open up and swallow me whole.
Mrs. Fulton calls out to Ian to get his things and head to the car. She waves good-bye to Dad, sees me, and gives me a wink.
“Bye Ian,” I say, as he leaves.
“Bye. I’ll see you later.”
Isaac now stands in the front hall. Dad slowly turns to both of us. “Is this why you didn’t answer the phone?”
“Isaac took me mudding. For stress relief. I didn’t even hear the phone.”
“I’ll get going.” Isaac says to me, “I’ll call you later.”
“Don’t go,” Dad says the words before I do. “Not on account of me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get a few things for my mother.” He leaves Isaac and me in the front hall without another word.
Going to Isaac, I whisper, “I need to talk to him and make sure he’s all right. But don’t go.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to upset him anymore. He’s acting pretty intense.”
“He’s worried about Gran. Hold on. Let me talk to him. Stay put.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I go to Gran’s bedroom and see Dad’s already folded up her large quilt. It was one Gramps had specially made for her years ago. “How’s Gran?” I ask.
“She’s got a partially blocked artery, hon. We’re looking at a biopsy. It’s pretty serious, but she’ll make it. She wanted me to tell you how thankful she is that you came back and found her.”
“She’s awake?”
“Sleeping at the moment, but yes, she’s been awake and demanding to go home for pretty much the entire evening.”
“Do you need me to go with you?” I finally ask.
“No, stay here.” Dad busies himself with Gran’s basket of yarn.
“I don’t mind.”
“You have company.”
“Are you still mad?”
Dad sets the basket down and looks at me. “When you don’t answer your phone, I worry. You take hikes and don’t take your phone, and then you’re going on adventures only to discover a dead body, and then today, not answering for hours.”
“I’ve always been horrible with my phone. I remember my camera but not my phone.” It’s a pathetic excuse. “Sorry.”
“Just please answer your phone.”
“I will do better.”
“And I don’t care how old you are, you’ll always be my little girl. And that young man makes me nervous.”
“Isaac? He’s a nice guy. We’re friends.”
“I know. And I’m glad to see you’ve made friends here. But I’m not used to seeing guys around you.”
“Thanks.” I roll my eyes.
“You know what I mean.” Dad comes over to me. “It’s always been you and me. Two peas in a pod.”
“Two worms on a log,” I joke, reminding Dad of the tacky phrase he’d always say to describe us.
Dad laughs. “Virginia’s first boyfriend. I guess I better get my baseball bat ready.”
“He’s not my boyfriend. And if he was, he wouldn’t be my first.”
“Sure, Virginia. Scotty doesn’t count as a boyfriend.”
“Why not?”
“What were you? Twelve?”
“Eleven, but that’s beside the point.”
Dad laughs and so do I.
“All right, I don’t have lots of boyfriends, probably because half our house is decaying bugs!”
“They are not decaying, but it’s not exactly a charming hobby. Sorry.”
“Speaking of decaying bugs, who’s the blonde twit?”
“Virginia, be nice.”
“All right, who’s the blonde bombshell?”
“Her name is Laura Westgate, and she and I went to school together here, and then we went to college together at the University of Michigan.”
“Like together together?”
“No. In high school, she was a popular cheerleader, and I was a nerd with a bug fascination. We ran into each other at a frat party a couple of years after high school, and I had grown up a bit. At least I wasn’t hugely awkward. We hit it off, but then my internship started up in London. And the rest is history.”
“You met Mum, had a wild fling, found out she was pregnant, and got stuck.”
“I don’t look at it in that way, Virginia. I’ve never felt stuck with you. You’re not a burden or a bother. You’re my daughter. And nothing’s going to change that.”
I feel the knot in my throat because I hear the sincerity behind his words. “Well, are you dating Laura, or what?”
“We are restarting our friendship.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means stop asking so many questions.”
“So, we’re good?”
Dad leans over and kisses my cheek. “Go, have a good time with your friend. But not too good of a time. I’d hate for his life to be shortened on account of his hands being anywhere near my daughter.”
“Dad!”
He chuckles, then goes to retrieve Gran’s things.
I wait and follow him out of the room. Isaac, who’s been sitting at the table, playing on his phone, jumps up. “Need some help, sir?”
“Yes. Help me with this basket of yarn.”
Dad’s easily carrying the folded quilt and yarn basket, but Isaac obliges. I watch them as they go outside. They chat briefly, then Isaac runs back to the front door.
I open it for him. “He threatened your
life, didn’t he?”
“Pretty much. But I reassured him that you’re safe.”
“Ready for some dessert? I think my Gran has cookies somewhere. She was supposed to bake a cake, but then, well, you know.”
“Cookies would be great.”
We stare at each other for another minute, before I give an awkward laugh and go inside. I’m a nervous mess, and I fumble with some cookies from the jar. I am keenly aware of being alone with Isaac.
And then there he is, standing beside me, reaching for a cookie. “I have news about the body. If you think you’re ready for the information.”
“What’s the news?” I bite into a cookie to keep my mouth occupied.
“The body belongs to a girl.”
“So, the police are sure it’s a female?”
“Yes. An older child or a teen, if the teen was petite.”
“That’s sad,” I say, thinking about what might have happened for a girl to lose her life like that.
“I know. There was a girl who went missing about forty years ago. They’ve only done preliminary tests, but they do think it may be her.”
“Forty years ago?” I remember Gran saying something about moving to the area around the same time. I wonder if she would have any recollection of the disappearing. Suddenly, the older man from earlier today pops into my head. Would I be the second Indian you’ve killed? There can’t be any connection, I refuse to believe it, but it still destroys the rest of my appetite. I push the plate of cookies away.
“Don’t you think it was weird that the current brought us to that spot?”
“I’m having a hard time believing it was a coincidence.”
“Yeah, me too. Ian is positive it wasn’t a current.”
“He made that obvious.”
We make eye contact and smile.
“I’m starting to think there’s a connection to a lot of these details,” I say the words out loud.
“What details?”
I hesitate, wondering if I should share recent events. First, I dream about those beetles, then I see them at several different times and locations. When we went mudding, I saw a girl staring at me, and that’s not counting the cold wind I felt right before. Then there’s the blurry photo, the current leading us to the body, the same bugs being on the dead body—and on me—and now something happened forty years ago, the same time my grandparents bought property in this area. Instead, I ask, “If I show you something, will you tell me what you see?”
Lake of Secrets Page 11
