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“Mako!” said Cricket, leaning away from Joshua.
“I’m going out to find my wife. That guesthouse down the path. That light we saw, remember? Maybe that’s where she went. She didn’t take the car. She certainly didn’twalkdown the road in this storm, carrying all her stuff.”
“Mako,” Hannah said. “Wait.”
But then he was gone, slamming the door hard behind him.
“Oh my god,” Hannah breathed, as he disappeared down the steps.
“I’ll go with him,” said Bruce. He grabbed the jacket he’d left on a hook by the door, and moved over to her.
“No,” she said, grabbing a hold of her husband’s arm. “Just let him go. What if there’s someone out there?”
“Look, we’re fine.” Bruce kissed her head, moved toward the glass sliders. “Gigi’s fine with my mom. So, no worries there. Liza and Mako are just having a fight, obviously. Whatever you saw, who knows, right? You said yourself that your perception was altered. This storm will pass, they’ll clear the road and we’ll go home.”
The way he said it, it all sounded so simple, so light. Maybe he was right and she was overreacting.
“But we saw someone.” All her buzz, that pleasant loopy feeling was gone. She may have been a little high, but she knew what she saw.
“I’ll be careful. Let me go after your brother.”
“Okay,” she said following. She kissed him on the mouth.
“Bruce,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. For everything.”
He put a warm hand to her cheek and smiled.
“You never have to apologize to me.”
“Bruce—”
“I’ll be right back.”
Then he was gone, too, into the storm which seemed to pick up volume after he left. She could see the tops of the trees thrashing and waving, wild dancers against the night sky.
Cricket was sitting on the couch with Joshua, holding the ice pack to his head.
“Worst vacation ever,” said Cricket, voice a little wobbly.
So, Cricket and Mako’s on-again, off-again thing that Hannah pretended not to know about but did. Both of them had promised that it was over for good, but clearly it wasn’t. She wondered again if Mako and Cricket had been up to something and Liza had caught them. How many times had Mako cheated on Liza with Cricket? And others? Had they stopped when Cricket started seeing Joshua?
She flashed again on the blood stains on the white sheets, felt the cold finger of dread down her spine.
“What?” said Cricket. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like this ismyfault.”
Hannah sank into one of the plush oversized chairs, rested her head in one hand.
Her head ached, pain throbbing behind her eyes as she looked up at her old friend. Cricket wasn’t just her friend, or Mako’s, over the years she’d become part of the family. She kept in touch with Sophia independently of them, even had a yearly tradition of stopping by with gifts to leave under the tree for Christmas morning. She was the sister Hannah would have chosen, if you could choose such things. But like Mako, Cricket had a wild streak, aselfishstreak. She couldn’t always be counted on to do the right thing.
“Do you remember Libby?” asked Hannah.
Cricket’s eyes darted to Joshua, then back to Hannah. “Why would you bring that up now?”
“Who’s Libby?” asked Joshua, sounding a little groggy. Her first aid and lifeguard training kicked in. You were supposed to keep people with head injuries awake, right? Looking at Joshua more closely now, she wondered if they did have an actual emergency. Mako hadn’t even seemed to notice that Joshua was hurt. Because, truly, he didn’t care about anyone but himself.
