Shadow Creek (16 page)

“No.” Her shoulders slumped forward in disappointment.

The girl smiled at Gary as she walked by.

Val’s cell phone began ringing. She grabbed it from her pocket and flipped it open, raising it to her ear, hearing it crackle. “Hello?”

“Just me,” Melissa said over the static. “I take it you haven’t seen her?” At Val’s urging, Melissa and James had returned to their room, in case Brianne called.

“No,” Val said. “I take it she hasn’t phoned?”

“No.”

Val sensed a “but” in her friend’s voice. “But …?”

“Evan did.”

“Thank God. Is he on his way?”

“Apparently he’s been delayed again,” Melissa said. “It looks as if he won’t be able to make it until tomorrow.”

“Did Jennifer tell him about Brianne?”

“No. She said that he had enough to deal with at the moment, and that there was no need to worry him unnecessarily.”

“No, we’d never want to do that.”

“He promised to be here before noon, even if it means he has to get up at the crack of dawn. Poor baby,” Melissa said, managing to make the two words sound like an expletive. “Do you want James and me to come down and keep you company?” The cell’s reception was getting weaker. Melissa’s voice on the line kept going in and out.

“No. It’s okay. Gary’s here.”

“Who?”

“Gary Parker. You met him this morning.”

“Diamond-in-the-rough Gary? Gary Parker’s with her,” Val heard Melissa tell James over the increasing static.

“Please tell me she’s finally going to get laid,” came James’s immediate response.

“I’m thinking of calling the park rangers if Brianne’s not back in the next ten minutes,” Val said.

“If Brianne’s not back in ten minutes, Val’s going to call the park rangers,” Melissa repeated to James.

“What? No. That’s ridiculous,” Val heard Jennifer cry before the line went dead in her hands.

Val returned her cell phone to her pocket. “Apparently my husband’s girlfriend doesn’t think that’s a very good idea,” she told Gary.

“Screw her.”

“Thank you, but I think my husband’s doing a pretty good job of that already.”

Gary laughed.

“Sorry. I don’t mean to sound bitter.”

“Sounds pretty normal to me. What can I do to help?”

“You’re doing it. Thank you.” A few minutes later, Val was on her feet. “Okay, that’s it. I’ve waited long enough.” Gary was at her side as she cut across the lobby toward the manager’s office.

“Wait,” a familiar voice called after them.

Val spun around to see Jennifer rushing toward her, long blond hair bouncing around her attractively flushed face, Melissa and James following close behind.

“Where are you going?” Jennifer demanded of Val. “What are you doing?”

“Look, Jennifer,” Val said, resisting the impulse to grab the other woman by the throat and hurl her into the fireplace. “I know you think I’m crazy, but I have every right to be concerned. Brianne is
my
daughter, not yours, and she’s been gone for too long.”

“Brianne is fine.”

“I really don’t have time for this.”

“Make time,” Jennifer said adamantly.

Val stared into Jennifer’s cool blue eyes. “What are you trying to say?”

Jennifer took a deep breath, exhaling it in one long rush. “I’m saying that Brianne is perfectly okay. I’m saying that I know where she is.” She looked to the ceiling, as if asking a higher power for help. “I’m saying that you’d better sit down.”

S
HE’S NOT GOING TO like this, Jennifer was thinking as she sat down on the sofa opposite Val. She’s not going to like this one bit. She already hates me, not without reason, and this is going to push her off the deep end, dragging me along with her. I’ll be lucky to get out of here alive.

How did I get into this mess anyway? she asked herself, nervously smoothing out the wrinkles in the beige linen pants she’d changed into after her shower. A torrent of hot water had brought a much-needed few minutes of peace and then it was right back into the maelstrom. She’d barely had time to finish blow-drying her hair before the Dynamic Duo had returned, mercifully without their revered leader.

Jennifer steeled herself to look at Evan’s soon-to-be ex-wife, who, as usual, was glaring back at her with a combination of
curiosity and contempt. Jennifer adjusted the heart-shaped topaz necklace Evan had recently bought her; she was careful not to snag it on the beige silk blouse he’d also selected. She wondered what a man as stylish as Evan would make of the loose khaki shorts and garish orange T-shirt Val had purchased this morning to go hiking. Not to mention the orange-and-white argyle socks folded over the top of her new boots. God—those socks.

“So?” Val asked impatiently. “Where is she?”

“Brianne is fine.”

“So you’ve said, but I didn’t ask you
how
she is. I asked you
where
she is.”

“What difference does it make, as long as she’s okay?” Jennifer knew she was only delaying the explosion that was sure to follow.

“Don’t make me have to kill you,” Val said.

The man beside her laughed. Who the hell is he? Jennifer wondered.

Melissa, sitting to Val’s right, mumbled something out of the side of her mouth—a word that sounded, strangely enough, like “kindness”—while James perched at the far end of the sofa, leaning forward expectantly. Four against one, Jennifer thought, not liking her odds. If only Evan were here to even things out. Although if Evan
were
here, none of this would be happening.

Damn you anyway, Evan Rowe, Jennifer thought. It was Evan who’d made all the arrangements, who’d persuaded her this little excursion would go a long way toward cementing her budding relationship with his daughter. How many times had he told her he couldn’t wait to share one of his favorite places on earth with her?

What he’d failed to mention was that all his previous visits
to Shadow Creek had been with Val and that it was one of her favorite places as well. Or that she might end up sleeping in the next bed! Although, to be fair, nobody could have predicted
that
.

And who was this other guy who’d turned up out of nowhere? Jennifer glanced over at him. He was a big man, handsome in a just-past-his-prime, rough-hewn kind of way. What was he doing here? Had Val already notified the authorities? Was he a park ranger? Or was he something else altogether?
Please tell me she’s finally going to get laid
, she’d heard James squeal. Was it possible that this man and Val were romantically involved?

From your mouth to God’s ear, Jennifer prayed silently, repeating one of her mother’s favorite expressions. Is that all it would take to make a believer out of me again? she wondered with a shake of her head. For Valerie to find herself another man?

Certainly it would go a long way toward clearing her own conscience.
Yes, I might have stolen another woman’s husband
, she could tell her sister,
but look at how much happier Val is now
. Which would mean that she could stop looking over her shoulder, knowing the ghost of Valerie was lurking somewhere in the shadows, just waiting for her to slip up and make a mistake. She wouldn’t have to be constantly checking her rearview mirror for Val’s condescending gaze. Evan could stop feeling guilty; he could stop worrying about how she was doing; he could stop feeling responsible for her; he could stop mentioning her name at least three times a day.

Does he even realize how much he talks about her? Jennifer wondered.

So, yes, it would be wonderful indeed if Val actually had another man in her life.

’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished
, she recited silently, recalling the line from
Hamlet
. Funny thing to be remembering now, she thought, turning the word
consummation
over on her tongue, thinking back to the afternoon that Val had returned home earlier than expected and found her in bed with Evan, her legs wrapped around his broad shoulders.

Evan had been too distracted by his own pleasure to hear the front door open and his wife’s footsteps on the stairs. For a second, she’d considered alerting him—what if it was Brianne?—but then she’d remembered that Brianne was in rehearsals for a school play and wouldn’t be home until much later. So it must be Valerie, she’d deduced correctly, turning her head to one side and opening her eyes an imperceptible sliver, bracing herself for fireworks as her lover’s wife appeared in the doorway.

But instead of an explosion, there’d been only silence. Val had backed away from the door without so much as a word. “I think I might have heard someone come in,” Jennifer whispered when they were done. “Maybe you should check.”

“No,” Evan said moments later, returning to the bed. “There’s no one.”

The next few weeks had brought only more silence. Jennifer had begun to suspect she might have imagined the whole thing. “What kind of woman walks in on her husband making love to another woman and doesn’t say anything?” she’d asked Cameron.

“The kind of woman who loves her husband and doesn’t want to lose him,” her sister had answered.

It doesn’t bode well
, she heard her father say.

“Okay, that’s it,” Val said now, jumping to her feet. “I’m calling the park rangers.”

“She’s with her boyfriend,” Jennifer said quickly.

Val immediately sat back down. “What?”

“She’s with her boyfriend,” Jennifer repeated, understanding that Val had heard her fine the first time, but that she needed to hear the words again for the message to sink in.

“What are you talking about?” Val’s initial shock was quickly giving way to anger.

Jennifer noted that Melissa, James, and this other person, whoever he was, were all leaning forward, waiting for her to continue. “His name is Tyler Currington.”

“Tyler Currington? Never heard of him.”

“They’ve been going out for about a month.”

“A month?”

“Take it easy,” Melissa cautioned Val.

“Look. I really don’t know a whole lot.”

“And yet you know so much more than I do,” Val said, interrupting.

“Apparently she met him through her friend who works at Lululemon.”

“Sasha?”

“Sasha. Yes, that’s right. Anyway, this girl Sasha introduced them, and they hit it off, and they’ve been, you know, seeing each other.”

“When?”

“Pretty much every chance they get.”

“Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”

Jennifer knew the question Valerie was really asking was
Why do you know about this and I don’t?
“Because she was afraid you wouldn’t approve.”

“Why wouldn’t I approve?”

“Because he’s a little older than Brianne.”

“How much older?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Take a guess,” Val said, her voice flat.

Jennifer breathed deeply, exhaled slowly. “Four, maybe five years.”

A brief pause, a narrowing of Val’s eyes, then, “You’re telling me my sixteen-year-old daughter is dating a twenty-one-year-old man?”

“I don’t know for sure he’s twenty-one.”

“But you
do
know Brianne is only sixteen,” Val said, accusingly. “What does Evan say about this?”

“He doesn’t,” Jennifer said.

Val pounced, like a dog on a bone. “What do you mean, he doesn’t? Are you saying he doesn’t know about this?”

“He knows she has a boyfriend.”

“But he doesn’t know how old he is?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what Brianne’s told him.”

“What have
you
told him?” Val asked, clearly not about to let go of that bone.

Jennifer hesitated. Oh, hell, she decided. What was it her father used to say?
In for a penny, in for a pound
? “I haven’t told him anything.”

“You haven’t told him
anything
?” Val repeated.

“That’s right.”

“So let me make sure I understand this. You didn’t tell your fiancé that his sixteen-year-old daughter is dating a twenty-one-year-old man?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Do you mind my asking
why the hell not
?”

“Because I didn’t think it was my place.”

“Interesting,” Val said. “You never worried about that when you were screwing my husband.”

Jennifer decided to ignore Val’s latest dig. What could she say in her own defense, after all? It was true. “Brianne told me
about Tyler in confidence,” she said, despising the quiver she heard in her voice.
Don’t you dare cry
, she thought, noting that several people in the lobby had slowed their steps and were lingering nearby, listening. “I didn’t want to betray that confidence,” she said quietly.

“I see. So you pick and choose your betrayals. Is that right?”

Jennifer fought to retain her composure. “If you wouldn’t mind lowering your voice. Not everyone in the Adirondacks needs to hear our conversation.”

Both Jennifer and Val glanced toward the bystanders, most of whom quickly dispersed. Only one person held her ground, the teenage girl who’d given them the finger the night before. The girl smiled at Jennifer, as if to tell her she understood and supported her position.

Jennifer returned her attention to Val. “Look. I know you hate me, but—”

“I don’t hate you,” Val said quickly. Then, “Well, no, maybe I
do
hate you, but that’s beside the point.”

“Exactly what
is
the point?”

“The point is that a sixteen-year-old girl has no business dating a twenty-one-year-old man. And you should know that. And you should have told me. At the very least, you should have told Evan. He’s going to be furious when he hears about this.”

“Which should make you very happy.”

“You think anything about this situation makes me happy?” Val demanded.

“I think you’re blowing this whole thing way out of proportion. That’s what I think. A five-year age difference is not the end of the world.”

“It is when you’re sixteen. God, I can’t believe I have to tell you this.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything. Just like I’m not obligated to tell
you
anything,” Jennifer continued, angry now, as much as embarrassed. “I know you don’t understand this, but I’m in a bit of an awkward position here—”