“Fine. You entertain the woman you suspect of being a child seducer and I’ll go have a long talk with my grieving teenage sister about how maybe she shouldn’t trust her psychologist after all. Happy?”
He raked his hand through his thick dusty brown hair. “No. It doesn’t make me happy. But I’m thankful you’re willing to talk to her about it.” He returned to the dining room and before Taylor could gather her wits, Belle came out.
“You want to talk?”
“Yeah…come outside with me.”
“Okay.”
Taylor took her to the swing on the front porch, and they sat together. “So…Cooper’s not your boyfriend.”
“Nope.”
“Friend with benefits?”
She shrugged.
“You’re interested in boys?”
“We try not to label ourselves, Taylor.” Belle’s voice was dripping with condescension.
Taylor could hardly blame Belle. She also thought her questions were invasive and out of place. “It can be hard to know who to trust with your…with your heart…”
Belle laughed. “Don’t be gross. I know Hudson saw me last night.”
“What did he see?” Taylor stared into the distance, afraid of how Belle might answer.
“He saw me come out of Maddie’s room. I’m as embarrassed as you’d expect, but I was freaked out last night. Mom died here. She died, you know. And it’s an old place. It creaks and makes noises in the night.” Belle pushed the deck floor with her feet, and they swung back and forth. “I got scared. That’s all.”
“I’m sorry I made you stay here.” Taylor also pushed against the floor. Knowing Belle went to Maddie for comfort didn’t really answer the question. “So…what happened when you went to Maddie’s room?”
“She was asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up, so I just turned around and went back. I didn’t mean to wake up Hudson either.” She caught Taylor’s eye and grinned mischievously. “Though, since I did, maybe he could have made me feel better.”
“Belle…”
“If I’m going to engage in risky behaviors, I should aim a little higher than Cooper, or even Maddie, don’t you think?”
“Come on, Belle. Hudson was worried. I guess he was right to be. How many times do we see this crap come up in the news? Teachers, youth leaders, scouts, and stuff seducing vulnerable kids.”
“I’ll tell you one thing sister, I may be grieving but I’m not vulnerable.”
They rocked in silence for a few minutes.
“About this friends with benefits thing…” Taylor didn’t want to keep digging at this hole, but she figured she’d better since they were already at odds with each other.
“Yeah, it’s a wild world, isn’t it?” Belle said. “I let him use my library card and he lets me use his Netflix password.”
“And?” Taylor waited.
Belle hesitated. “Okay. We made out one time. Just once. I didn’t like kissing him. It felt like kissing a relative, a cousin or something. It wasn’t any fun.” Her voice was unnaturally deep.
“Okay.” The tension that had built up in Taylor’s shoulders dissipated.
“And the only inappropriate thing Maddie asked me was if she should give Hudson your number. Since I’m only two years away from being legal, I said she absolutely should not. Hudson seems like a patient guy.”
Taylor slugged her in the arm. “Not funny.”
Belle laughed again. A little, cynical laugh, but still, better than nothing.
“Can I go finish my poppy seed muffin? I want to freak out the school if they have a random drug test.”
Taylor groaned and followed her inside.
At the breakfast table Maddie was showing Grandpa Ernie pictures of herself and her husband Evan on their recent trip to Butchart, Gardens. It was such a normal, healthy married person kind of thing to do that Taylor wanted to laugh. But also, she promised herself she’d never again put Belle in that kind of situation.
Hudson was wrong about Maddie, but he was right to worry that Taylor didn’t have a sweet clue what she was doing as stand-in parent to a teen.
After breakfast had been cleared, Hudson and Grandpa went to the front room, which Hudson called the lounge, to watch golf and drink more coffee.
The girls went back to the dock.
“Tell me everything you learned from Hudson last night. Was he here the night Mom died?”
“He was just leaving when the ladies arrived, but Andrea, his aunt, called him when they found Mom the next morning, so he came back,” Belle reported.
“Did he notice anything unusual about any of the ladies that afternoon?” Taylor watched the water flowing sedately in front of them. It made little, happy noises where it met rocks. It didn’t know the damage it had done to their family.
“Not that he could recall. They all seemed happy, laughing and comfortable. Amara had her canoe on top of her Subaru, but didn’t want help taking it down.” Maddie leaned on the dock post near the shore.
“The girls mentioned some other folks staying there at the same time. Did you learn anything more about them?” Taylor sat on the dock and traced that gash in the wood that may have been made by her mom’s sandal.
“The two other ladies were a mother and daughter. He checked the register and confirmed they’re Gina Croyden and Nancy Reese,” Maddie said.
“Melinda and Amara said they knew them when they were younger.” Belle turned to Taylor to confirm her statement. “The register said Gina lives in Troutdale and Nancy lives in Sisters.”
“So, they met halfway? Seems like there are more interesting places to stay than here.”
“Not if you’re headed home for a visit, but don’t have a house in the area anymore,” Maddie said. “This is a really nice location. Good views, good dock. Since Gina and Nancy were locals
“And that’s all we learned from the night. Maybe Andrea will come back today, and we can ask her more questions.” Belle sounded dejected. She was also staring at the water.
“You need to talk to Gina and Nancy.” Maddie’s tone was optimistic, though she might have been putting on a front for Belle. “Just knowing those names is worth it. I don’t think Hudson would have confirmed with the book if he hadn’t been here, getting to know us.”
“He did seem to hang out with us a lot.” Belle smirked at Taylor.
Taylor blushed, the levels of embarrassment were too thick to parse, but Belle hit all possibilities with her short sentence and impish smile.
“He kept asking when you were coming back. I think he might be interested.” Maddie smiled as well.
“Yeah…” Taylor caught Belle’s eye. Belle snorted.
Maddie frowned. “If you’re not interested…”
“You’re married,” Taylor reminded her.
“I wasn’t talking about me. I was just thinking there are more single girls around here than you’d suspect.”
“Should we be getting Gramps home?” Belle asked.
“I guess so. I’ll go take care of the bill.” Taylor walked slowly back, loath to take her eye off the water, as though it might change its character when she wasn’t looking and take someone else she loved.
Grandpa Ernie was asleep in a rose-covered wingback chair.
Hudson took her to the old-fashioned register at the check-in desk by the front door. “Everything okay?” he asked, real concern still etched into the fine lines that radiated from his eyes.
“Yeah. Belle said she went to Maddie’s room because she was creeped out. You know, her mother did die here.”
Hudson chewed his bottom lip.
“But Maddie was asleep, so Belle went back to bed.”
He nodded, seeming to process her story.
“She said she noticed you wake up and considered popping in there for a little comfort.” Taylor teased him a little. She couldn’t help it. He seemed almost too concerned. She wanted their loss to be taken seriously, and yet, she could only handle so much kindly empathy.
“She also said she’s legal in two years…”
He didn’t take the bait—just calmly wrote a receipt for her. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be more help to you, but I’m glad everything was okay last night.”
His hand brushed hers, and then lingered there as he passed her the slip of paper.
“Thanks.” Taylor shoved the receipt in her purse with the card she’d used to pay for the useless trip.
Later that afternoon, after they’d delivered Maddie to her office, helped Grandpa Ernie find Mayberry on the TV in his bedroom, and made Belle check her school issue iPad for assignments from her teachers, Taylor took the receipt out to file.
Hudson had written something on the bottom—his phone number followed by a note: For you, not Lolita.
Instead of saving the receipt carefully in a file of expenses related to Belle’s counselling, she crumpled it up and threw it away. How dare he call her baby sister Lolita?
Taylor needed an outlet for the anxious energy Hudson had drummed up in her so she hunted Gina Croyden and Nancy Reece on Facebook. She found them quickly, both accounts were mutual friends with her mom’s old Facebook account, and sent friend requests. If she was lucky, she could chat with both Gina and Nancy tonight.
She put the books back and left her laptop on the bed. It was just about time for dinner and, if she recalled correctly, they were pretty much out of food. Tonight was as good as any to take the three of them to Rueben’s.
Grandpa lit up at the idea and offered to pay. “It’s my turn.” He slipped his feet into well-polished loafers and hunted for his wallet while Taylor hunted for Belle.
Belle wasn’t around and hadn’t told her she was leaving. With a grimace of annoyance, Taylor sent her a text. Then she called her. Then she called Cooper’s mom, Sissy.
“I don’t know why you think it’s best for her to be out of school.” Rather than answering the simple question about Belle and dinner, Sissy tore apart the only decision Taylor was actually proud of making. “She needs routine and friends and support. What kind of life is she going to have holed up in that house with her Grandfather?”
“I just want to know if she’s eating with you. That’s all.”
“There’s a lot more than that you should want to know.”
“Of course there is, Sissy, but what I need to know right now is if she is eating dinner.”
“She’s not here, and I’m not surprised you’ve lost her again.”
“Does she happen to be out with Cooper?”
“He said something about going out, but he didn’t mention her. I’m sure he’s with Dayton.”
“Maybe they’re all three together.” Taylor drummed her fingers on the counter and wondered if Sissy and her mom had gotten along. She couldn’t imagine it, herself. “Can I have Cooper’s number? Belle isn’t answering her texts.”
As Taylor asked, a text came through. “Never mind. Have a nice evening.”
But the text wasn’t from Belle.
“Reminder: you have an appointment with Maddie Carpenter Tuesday at noon. Respond “yes” to confirm.”
An auto text from Maddie’s office.
Taylor responded “yes” and then sent Belle another message. “Meet us at Rueben’s in ten minutes or you’ll pay.” It sounded threatening enough to her, but also like she could play it off as a joke. If she were a real mom, that’s the kind she’d want to be. Firm but funny, but firm. But funny.
“Come on Grandpa, Belle is meeting us at Rueben’s.”
Chapter Eight
Belle neither responded to her messages nor showed up at Reubens. By eleven o’ clock Taylor had run the full gamut of emotions from fear, to acknowledging the depth of her love for her sister and how devastated she’d be if anything happened, to laughing at memories of her own teen sneak-aways, to flat out anger after she remembered the kind of stuff she got down to when she’d snuck out as a teen.
How dare Belle pull that kind of nonsense?
She’d hit ‘numb’ by the time Belle snuck in at midnight.
“Hey.” Taylor’s voice was as excited as her feelings. That is to say, not even a little bit. This crap Belle had just pulled? The same all kids everywhere do, and not worth giving attention to. Especially since attention is what she was seeking.
Belle fell into the chair at the old kitchen table.
“Oh my gosh, wait till you hear what I have to say.” Belle raked her hand through her hair and whipped it into a quick ponytail.
Taylor yawned.
“Sorry it’s so late. My phone was turned all the way off. I couldn’t risk having it do anything at all.”
“Pity you brought it at all.” Taylor yawned. She knew the anger would come back but seeing Belle safe and alive in front of her seemed to tell her brain it could go to sleep finally.
“Yeah, if I had been thinking I would have left it in the car.”
“Who’s car?”
“Dayton’s.”
“I thought Dayton hated you.”
Belle laughed. “You talked to Sissy, then?”
Taylor shrugged.
“Dayton doesn’t hate me. Dayton is not in love with Cooper. Sissy has some ideas about their future because Dayton’s mom is Sissy’s best friend. But that’s all beside the point. Dayton and I were at the Kirby house tonight.”
Taylor sat up. If Belle was seeking attention, now she had it. “Oh?”
“She fed us dinner, and we talked for a long time. Family pictures, family history, that kind of stuff.”
“Must have been real fun for Dayton.” Taylor wasn’t proud of being snide, but it was better than screaming. Probably.
“Dayton’s a sport.” Belle’s lips curled in a smile. “We drank a lot of juice and had to take turns going to the bathroom, over and over. And every time we slipped away, we snooped.”
“What thoughtful guests you were.”
“Taylor…what’s the matter?” Belle’s shoulders slumped.
“You didn’t come home. You didn’t answer your phone. You disappeared without telling me. What do you think is the matter?”
“You’re kidding, right? I don’t have to check in with you, and…I did this for us.”
“Oh, spent a happy family evening with your…with Colleen as a favor for us?”
“Yes. As a favor, or did you not remember we are trying to find out if she killed our mom?” Belle’s face went red. She drummed her fingers on the table, and her knee was shaking.
“You’re my responsibility. Can you imagine what I was thinking while you were missing?”
“Excuse me, Taylor. I am sixteen years old. I’ve got almost two years of college out of the way. I hardly think I need you to babysit me.”
“You’re a junior in high school, what are you talking about?” Taylor pressed the ball of her hand to her eyes. Was her sister delusional?
“You’ve never heard of dual credit? I’ve been taking classes for college credit since eighth grade. Some schools don’t know what to do with kids like me, but Comfort is okay. I stick the high school out for three years and leave early with an associate degree. Surely Mom told you I’m starting college next year as a junior. Or don’t you pay attention when she’s not talking about you?”
The vitriol in Belle’s voice was deserved. Taylor hadn’t known that Belle was gifted. Belle was their girl and brilliant at everything she did, but Taylor had sort of assumed they were seeing her through rose-colored glasses. That the giftedness was the same kind all families saw.
“So, if you think I’m going to report to you every time I pop out to see a friend, you’re nuts.”
“Fine.” Taylor was tired of apologizing. She was tired of finding out she had no idea what was going on in Comfort, Oregon. She was tired of being a stranger in the house she had grown up in. “What did you learn at the Kirby’s?”
“The house is huge, like four of ours stacked together. Her little boys each have a room, there’s a gu
est room and an office and a room set aside for me. It was kind of child-like, but still sweet, I thought.”
“She sounds like a fortunate woman.”
Belle ignored the sarcasm. “Part of me thought it was sweet, but the other part thought it was highly suspicious. Don’t you? Why have a room ready for me if you aren’t sure, I mean really sure, I’m moving in? And how could she be so sure?”
“I suppose if the adoption was just a handshake, she could come get you whenever she wanted, even if Mom was alive.”
Belle pressed her lips together and inhaled. “I wondered about that too. It looked like she really wanted me.” She dropped her eyes to her lap. “But if the adoption wasn’t legal, why did she never come back for me?”
Taylor swallowed. When she was in middle school, her mom had read her a book about kids of adoption to help her understand what Belle might wonder about as she grew up. This was one of them. The main one really. The book had suggested they say that biological families who keep distant, do so because they want what’s best for their babies. She opened her mouth to say it, but couldn’t. Instead, she shrugged. “Who can ever know what someone else is thinking?”
“If…if she didn’t kill Mom, I’d like to ask her.”
“She didn’t say anything about it while she poured out all the old family stories and stuff?”
Belle shook her head.
Maybe Colleen hadn’t read the same book they had. But it seemed to Taylor, if she had set a room aside in hopes a kid would pick her family over the one she’d grown up with, she’d have some kind of answer for why she had never actually invited her to move in. “So, did your spying pay off?”
“Maybe. We learned Colleen is on Abilify. I recognized it from commercials, but Dayton and I confirmed with Google that it’s an anti-psychotic commonly used for bi-polar disorder.” Belle seemed to find strength in reporting facts.
“Interesting. How did she seem?”
“Really, really hyped. I don’t know if I’d call it manic or anything, but she seemed both excited and scared. Like how you feel on a first date or something.”
“Which makes sense, since this was kind of a first date with you. Are you sure the Abilify was hers?”
Assault and Batting Page 8