Love Today (12 page)

“And suddenly you’re a socialite?”

“What?”

“You’re so afraid of guys that you deliberately avoid places where you’d meet them! You are so afraid of having a serious relationship that you choose to hide behind my daughter! You like it that way
! Poor Zack,
he thinks you’re just shy. That’s bull!”

“What does that have to do with anything? Honestly, you’re going to throw that in my f
ace? Well I’m not as sure of my
self as you are! We are nothing alike! I don’t want to make the same stupid mistake that you did!”

“How dare you!” she shouted at me.

I knew that I’d gone too far, but really… How long was she going to keep putting Maggie on the back burner?

“I don’t want to fight with you anymore,” I said. “I’m going out tonight and I really
hope you’ll
put your daughter to bed for once.”

I left the room before she could blow up at me again, but I wasn’t expecting to find Zack sitting on the couch with Maggie on his lap. She had her head against his chest, and even though she wasn’t crying or anything, I could tell she was
affected by her mom and her aunt fighting in the other room.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I just stood there for a
moment
, not knowing what to say. Zack said something to Maggie while she was cuddled against him, and then she nodded her head. It was kind of a tender moment, seeing them together like that, and it made feeling angry with my sister seem pretty pointless.

She
left Zack’s lap to give me a hug. I was very humbled by that, thinking she might have been upset with me for yelling in the other room. But I used the moment to apologize to her, and then I asked her to find her mom
to
give her a hug too. After all, Maggie was
the only reason I even saw
my sister
these days
.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” I said
to Zack
. I was embarrassed and disheartened at the same time, and it really made me feel vulnerable.

He
got up from the couch to meet me halfway,
and I was thankful to have someone to hold me during such a frustrating time. After a
moment
he said, “We can just stay here if it’s a problem.”

“No, I just can’t. I need to get out if you don’t mind.”

“Sure
.”

I found my coat and purse, wondering if I should check on
Rachel
and Maggie before I left. I decided not to. I’d made my case and it was
my
turn to go out for once.
Rachel
had gone out
the last
four
night
s
, so I was due.

Before we got too far, Zack stopped me at his Jeep. With a smile he pulled me close to kiss him, and I enjoyed having that
closeness
with him once again.
It helped me to relax and I was able to push the fight with my sister out of my thoughts.

We went out to dinner, taking our time
to enjoy
each other’s company. We did end up at his place, where I’d only been twice before but on pretty casual terms. However, tonight I was feeling a little more
affectionate
. I think Zack realize
d
that, but he was a gentleman about it, doing his best to make sure I knew what I wanted. For once I just wanted to have my own night with him and not have to worry about everyone else. I wasn’t upset about my sister anymore
,
and I knew that we’d work
it out, but
I just wanted to focus on Zack and how much I cared about him.

Of course I could get serious with him.
Rachel
was wrong.

It was two in the morning when my phone rang. The only person that could b
e calling me at that time was
my sister
, and if she thought she was going to interrogate me to find out where I was, she was sadly mistaken.

But it was actually Bethany.

“
…
She said eleven o’clock and it’s almost two…” was all I caught at first.

“Wait, what? She who? Where are you?”

“I’m at your house watching Maggie.
Rachel
said she’d be home by eleven
at the latest
, but I need
to get home because Ron
leaves for work at three. I have to get home to
Joshua
. I mean I can wake Maggie up and take her with me…”

I groaned to myself—or maybe it was out loud because Zack asked what was wrong.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I told her.

“I’m sorry; I
just
can’t get a hold of
Rachel
.
It just goes to voicemail.
”

“It’s not your fault. I’ll be there in about
twenty
minutes.”

I was rushing around to leave when again Zack asked, “Taryn, what’s going on? Where are you going?”

“My sister went out last night anyways,” I said angrily. “She left M
aggie at home with a babysitter
and still hasn’t come home yet. Bethany needs to leave.”

He was putting his shoes on along with me but didn’t say anything. Once we were in the Jeep heading out he still didn’t say anything to me. I think he knew how furious I was, but I also wondered if he felt our night had been ruined, too.

“I’m sorry,”
I had to say after a minute
. “And she wonders why I have no social life,” I muttered. “Well I guess ‘social’ isn’t really the word I’m going for…”

I could tell he smiled in the dark, but he took my hand and said, “Don’t be sorry. And I bel
ieve your social
life just got a jumpstart.”

That made me laugh, and really, why was I letting my sister ruin something for me again. I wasn’t going to let her this time; I wanted to remember my time with Zack because it was happy and I knew things
with him were good
.

Bethany left as soon as we got there. I paid her what cash I had, which was only
twenty
bucks.
But
even though she said
Rachel
could square it up with her later, Zack paid her the
rest of it
anyways.

I checked on Maggie the second I could. She was sound asleep, but I couldn’t help but feel really sorry for her. I wished so badly that she had a mom that put her first. I still couldn’t believe that
Rachel
left, even after all that we argued about.

Zack almost startled me when he entered the room. He held me for a few seconds and then
he quietly
said, “I’m gonna head out. Will you be okay?”

I really didn’t want him to leave. I wished he could just stay with me. We should have still been at his place, enjoying the time alone.

“I’ll be okay. But you don’t have to leave.”

I knew he didn’t want to stay over with Maggie and
Rachel
in the house, so I wa
sn’t surprised when he said, “I should go.”

“Yeah, you have work I guess.”

He kissed the side of my head and said, “Well last night I wasn’t planning on going to work in the morning…”

I smiled, and I did appreciate the gesture, but in a way it made me feel worse
that I had to miss out on it
. However, I just said, “I guess I’ll take a rain check on that.”

“Definitely.”

He kissed me goodbye after that, and
once
the house was secured for the night, I took myself to bed. It felt kind of lonely in the house, even though it was just Maggie and I a lot of the time
anyway
. But
Rachel
had never been out this late before. And usually she would
tell me if
she was going to be late, even if it was just
in
a
text message.

When I got tired of leaving her messages, I finally fell asleep. I expected her to be home when I woke up around seven,
but
when
she wasn’t, I started
to
panic
.

Chapter Eleven

“And you’re sure she didn’t stay at someone’s house last night?” the
police officer
asked for the third time.

“I don’t know,” I repeated for the third time. “I don’t even know who she went out with last night, or where she went.”

“Does she do this a lot? Stay out all night?”

“No. I mean she has a few times, but not without letting me know.”

“Give me some names and we’ll go from there.”

It was nine in the morning, and after I still couldn’t get a hold of my sister, I
had
called the police. I felt like something was wrong, but at the same time, I
wondered if
Rachel
was
just
doing this to spite me. I didn’t think she’d do something like that to Maggie, but I was actually hoping she’d just made some stupid irresponsible mistake instead of there being something seriously wrong.
She had the tendency to do
stupid
things
when she was angry.

Zack came over as soon as
he knew she
still wasn’t home. I’d called all of her friends, her co-workers,
and
her boss… No one had seen her. I even went through her papers and her calendar to see if I could find a name or a number or just…
anything
.

As soon as the police arrived
Zack
took Maggie into the family room to watch a movie, and then when Lexi came over, she sat with Maggie while Zack kept
me
calm.

My parents were on call for anything new. By noon there was still nothing and they headed to the airport to book the first available flight. I was glad they were coming, but at the same time, I really didn’t want to deal with any of their differences with my sister.
Rachel
didn’t get along with them, and even though I knew they all loved one another, it was always hard no matter what was going on.

Two
detectives had remained at the house, going through it with the hopes of finding something that I couldn’t.
Detective Bronson came out of the den as she put her phone away, and by the look on her face, I knew I had lost my sister forever.

“They’ve found
Rachel
’s body,” is what she said.
No pause, no beating around the bush. It was just the plain and simple, upfront and to the point truth.

“Oh my God,” I
mumbled
, covering my
mouth
with my hands, and Zack had to hold me up. Maggie came out of the family room at that point and I remember saying, “Get her out of here,
get
her out of here…”

I barely made it to
a seat
while he went to Maggie and took her to the other room. I dropped onto the couch and didn’t say anything for a minute, trying to understand how my life could change so fast. And Maggie… What about Maggie?

When I was as ready as I could be to hear more, Detective Bronson sat across from me and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Are you sure it’s her?” I asked, even though I felt there was no longer hope.

“Yes, we’re sure. Her
fingerprints
are
a match
. Um, a family member will need to confirm it once, um, it’s a better time…”

“What happened
?” I barely
whispered
.
I was imagining a horrible car accident and hoped that Rachel hadn’t been driving upset and reckless.

“It’s unclear at this point, but it appears that she was strangled to death.”

I almost choked, and it was because all of the air had been sucked out of me. Finally I managed to get out, “She was murdered?” just as Zack sat down next to me.

“We believe so.
”

“Oh God,” I whispered
shakily
, not sure if I was even processing anything at all.
I laid my head against Zack and let the tears pour out. My sister had been
strangled
to death?
I didn’t even…I couldn’t even…

“What’s going on right now?” Zack asked the detective.

“We’re canvassing the scene—”

“What scene? Where was she at?”

“In the parking lot by Marine Park.”

“At the marina?”