“What do you think it means?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know,” Maddie replied, conflicted. “I think someone is in trouble.”
“Did you hear anything besides crying?”
Maddie shook her head.
“Could you tell if it was a man or a woman?” Nick was in full cop mode.
“It sounded like a teenage girl,” Maddie said, racking her brain. “I didn’t hear anything but the crying. I literally have nothing to go on other than that.”
“Maybe we’ll find who we’re looking for down the river,” Nick suggested. “Maybe you got the flash because we’re supposed to be on the lookout for someone who needs help. I … does that sound plausible?”
“It’s happened before,” Maddie conceded. “When I was down in Detroit I heard a child crying. I kept looking and looking for the source, but I didn’t find it until I got home. There was a lost boy hiding behind the dumpster in the parking lot.”
“As happy as I am that you got a lost child home, the idea of you walking around a dark parking lot in Detroit makes me want to punch someone,” Nick admitted, rubbing Maddie’s cheek. “What do you want to do? I’m with you no matter what you decide.”
Maddie glanced around, studying the small inlet area. Most of the access points for kayaking down the Au Sable River were small. The woods weren’t thick and dirt roundabouts and outhouses acted as the only landmarks.
“I think we should go kayaking,” Maddie said finally. “There’s nothing here. I have to believe if we were supposed to stay back at the campsite that I would’ve heard the crying then. I think we’re supposed to go.”
“Okay,” Nick said. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. You do the same. If Sydney or Kelly cause any trouble … .”
“I’ll tip them over and laugh like a sea hag,” Maddie finished.
“Oh, you’re too cute to be a sea hag,” Nick said, kissing Maddie’s forehead. “You’re the mermaid of my dreams.”
“Smooth.”
“Do you think you can find one of those seashell bras?”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “I’ll get right on it.”
NICK kept his eyes fixed on the heavy underbrush to his left as he drifted. He wasn’t in any particular hurry. Maddie was close, although she straggled about twenty feet behind him. He considered slowing his pace to allow her to catch up, but ultimately opted against it. He had a feeling she wanted her mind clear in case she got another flash.
“I’m surprised you and Maddie haven’t hitched your kayaks together so you won’t be separated for more than five seconds,” Sydney said, purposely dragging her paddle until Nick’s kayak was even with her own. “You haven’t left her side since I arrived.”
“Oh, don’t kid yourself that I’m hanging close to Maddie because of you,” Nick said. “I like being around Maddie because she’s Maddie. You have nothing to do with it.”
“That’s not what your sister told me.”
Nick sighed, irritated. “Sydney, I honestly don’t know what you hoped to accomplish by coming here,” he said. “I know what Kelly hoped to accomplish. It’s not going to happen. I’m telling you that right now.”
“Kelly is worried about you.”
“Kelly is worried about everyone being happy but her,” Nick countered. “She’s miserable and she wants everyone else to be miserable because she can’t stand the idea of anyone enjoying life when she’s unhappy with her own.”
“That doesn’t sound like the Kelly I know,” Sydney sniffed. “She’s always been a loyal sister to you. She didn’t abandon you for ten years and then waltz back into town as if nothing happened.”
“Is that what Kelly told you?” Nick asked. “How do you even know what kind of person Kelly is? I wasn’t aware you two even hung out.”
“We ran into each other at a nail salon about six months ago,” Sydney supplied. “We’ve been meeting for coffee ever since. She thinks you and I would be a good match. I think so, too.”
“I already have my match.”
“You know, when we were dating I couldn’t stand hearing stories about your childhood because Maddie always had a starring role in them,” Sydney said. “Now she’s your leading lady again. Doesn’t it worry you that she’s going to walk away when boredom overtakes her a second time?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nick snapped. “I don’t really care what you say, though. My relationship with Maddie is none of your concern. She’s my present and future. You’re nothing but a really annoying memory that keeps popping up when my family goes camping.”
Sydney wrinkled her nose. “What did you just say to me?”
“Don’t bother acting hurt,” Nick chided. “You’re not hurt. You’re looking for an angle. You might have snowed Kelly about what your intentions really are, but I know differently. This is no different than the time you invited yourself on my family camping trip when we were dating.”
“I did no such thing!”
“Well, then you’re remembering it a lot differently than I am,” Nick said. “Here’s the thing, though: I don’t care. You’re not even a blip on my radar. I have everything I’ve ever wanted. There’s nothing Kelly can do about it. There’s certainly nothing you can do about it.
“You guys can play whatever games you want to play,” he continued. “At the end of the day today I’m still going to crawl into bed next to Maddie. Tomorrow morning, she’s the one I’m going to wake up next to. It’s going to be that way forever.”
“I am not playing games,” Sydney argued. “I … I’ve always had an idea in the back of my head that you and I would somehow find our way back together. I guess now that Maddie is back that’s never going to happen.”
“That was never going to happen regardless of Maddie coming home,” Nick replied. “You don’t seem to understand the reality of our relationship. I didn’t break up with you because I thought we needed space. I broke up with you because I was done. Heck, I had one foot out the door before we even started dating. Do you want to know why?”
Sydney’s green eyes were murderous.
“I had one foot out the door because that foot was always planted in Maddie’s world,” Nick said. “You never had a shot.”
Eleven
“Do you want to tell me about your conversation with Sydney?” Maddie asked, stretching to remove the kinks from her legs as she stood next to Nick on the bank of the Au Sable. “I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but you didn’t sound happy.”
“I just made sure she realized there was nothing here for her,” Nick replied, instinctively reaching for Maddie’s lower back so he could rub it. After two hours on the river, their muscles were sore from being cramped inside the kayaks. “I also made sure she realized there was nothing for her then either.”
Maddie stilled, her sea-blue eyes conflicted. “What do you mean?”
“Maddie, everyone knows I’ve always wanted you. It’s not a recent thing. It’s not something that’s going to go away. I wanted you then and I only dated Sydney because I couldn’t have you. I’m not playing some middle-school game with her because Kelly has been filling her head with nonsense.”
“I kind of already figured Kelly told her stuff to make it easier for Sydney to go after you, but knowing she really did do that is kind of frustrating,” Maddie admitted. “I want to blame her dislike on the fact that I left – because I deserve hatred for that – but she didn’t like me even before then.”
“Oh, no one could ever hate you, love,” Nick said, kissing the tip of her nose. “I tried and look what that got me.”
“A freshly renovated bedroom and Granny?”
“Oh, you’re so cute, Mad.” Nick tickled her ribs and pulled her in for a hug. “I got everything I ever wanted … and I’m never letting it go.”
“That’s good. I don’t want you to let any of it go.”
Nick pressed a kiss to her lips before separating. “I have to go to the bathroom. Do you need more water or anyth
ing? I have some in the bag in my kayak.”
“I’m good,” Maddie replied. “I’m actually going to walk around a little bit and really stretch before going to the bathroom. I’ll meet you down by the river in a few minutes.”
“That sounds good.”
NICK was confused when he joined everyone at the riverbank ten minutes later.
“Where is Maddie?”
“She left with the first group,” Kelly replied, handing Hayley a bottle of water. “Uncle Chester was talking her ear off and I don’t think she had much of a choice.”
Nick frowned. “She said she was going to wait for me.”
“I guess she got antsy and took off without you,” Kelly said. “Again.”
“Knock it off, Kelly,” Nick warned, extending a finger. “I’m only going to put up with so much and you’re already teetering on the edge of my patience. If you don’t stop getting digs in at Maddie … .”
“You’ll what?” Kelly challenged. “Are you going to arrest me, officer?”
“No.” Nick was matter-of-fact. “I’m just going to cut you out of my life.”
Kelly was taken aback. “Seriously? You’re going to pick Maddie over your own sister?”
“If that’s the way you want to phrase it, I guess I am,” Nick answered. “Maddie is my future. She’s going to be my wife. She’s going to be the mother of my children. You can either accept that or stay away from us. I don’t care which one you choose right now. I can barely stand to be around you.”
“I … .” Kelly bit her bottom lip and averted her gaze.
“Oh, leave her alone,” Sydney ordered. “She’s your big sister. It’s a big sister’s job to look out for her baby brother. That’s all she’s doing. There’s no reason to be all … growly.”
“Yes, well, you’re not a part of this conversation,” Nick shot back, forcing a grim smile. “Are you sure Maddie already left?”
“I’m sure I saw her with Uncle Chester and her kayak is gone,” Kelly said.
Nick glanced at the empty spot next to his kayak. Maddie’s boat was next to his when he got out of the water, but it was nowhere to be found now. “I’m going to have to hose Uncle Chester down if he doesn’t stop fawning all over her,” he muttered. “Well … come on. If we’re the last of the group, we should get going.”
“It will be fun,” Sydney suggested. “We can go together.”
“I’m partnering up with Hayley,” Nick replied, tugging on a strand of his niece’s hair. “She’s the only one here worth talking to right now.”
Kelly and Sydney exchanged a look that wasn’t lost on Nick. He refused to acknowledge it, though.
“Come on, Hayley. We’ll catch up to everyone and I’ll show you how to use your paddle to tip people over.”
Hayley brightened. “Finally something I actually want to do.”
MADDIE stretched one more time after leaving the outhouse, reaching down to touch her toes before planting her palms flat on the ground to lengthen her hamstrings. When she straightened again, she realized it was unnaturally quiet down by the river.
She peered around the side of the outhouse, furrowing her brow as she realized the shoreline was empty. Everyone – boats and gear included – was gone. She moved to the riverbank, her mind muddled as she tried to grasp what was happening. Did everyone leave me? Did Nick leave me?
“Is something wrong?”
Maddie jumped at the voice, turning swiftly to find a strange man carrying his own kayak down to the water’s edge. He looked relatively young, maybe mid-thirties at the most, and he seemed worried about Maddie’s reaction to him.
“I don’t know,” Maddie admitted after a moment. “I … well, I was with a group of people. I think they left me, though.”
The man arched an eyebrow. “They left you? How many people are we talking about here? I have to think they would notice if they were missing you.”
Maddie knew the statement was probably meant as a compliment, but it left her feeling exposed. “There were about thirty of us total.”
“Ah, well, that explains it,” the man said, lowering his red kayak to the ground and glancing around. “Shouldn’t you have a kayak … or inner tube … or something? Were you sharing a canoe with someone?”
That was a good question. “I had my own kayak. It was blue.”
“Did someone take it?”
“I … .” Maddie broke off, biting her bottom lip as she contemplated what he was asking. “I don’t see why anyone would. It was rented. It wasn’t an expensive model.”
“Well, don’t panic,” the man said. “My name is Darrin Grimes, by the way. Maybe your boat floated down the water a little bit and got caught up on some trees or something. Your group might have left without you and not even realized it because your boat was gone. What’s your name?”
“Maddie.”
“Well, Maddie, we should look around a little bit before we lose our heads,” Darrin said. “Come on. I’ll help you look.”
Maddie was reluctant to accept the man’s proffered aid, but she didn’t see where she had a lot of choice in the matter. “Thank you.”
“YOU need to tell Mom that I’m old enough to wear makeup,” Hayley said. “She’ll listen to you.”
“Your mother has never listened to me,” Nick countered, tilting his head up so the sun could hit his face as he lazily drifted next to his niece. “She’s certainly not going to start now.”
“She doesn’t listen to anyone.” Hayley pushed her lip out into the patented pout perfected by teenagers the world over. “She’s a horrible person.”
“Your mother isn’t a horrible person,” Nick countered. “She’s … unhappy. You know that as well as I do, Hayley. She doesn’t mean to be harsh. She just can’t seem to help herself.”
“Everyone my age wears makeup,” Hayley argued. “I should be allowed to wear makeup, too.”
“If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you want to do that, too?”
“I hate it when you say things like that,” Hayley grumbled. “I don’t want to wear a lot of makeup. I don’t want to be ugly, though, either.”
Nick sighed. Having a female best friend who went through an awkward period at the exact same age prepared him for some of this stuff. Of course, it was different when he was a teenager trying to bolster his best friend’s neglected ego.
“You’ll never be ugly, Hayley,” Nick said, choosing his words carefully. “Your early teenage years are hard on everyone. You’re growing in leaps in bounds. You have hormones making you all wonky. It takes a little while to grow into your looks.
“I know you’ll find this hard to believe because I’m the handsomest man you know, but I went through an awkward period of my own,” he continued. “I had zits. I felt like my arms were too long for my body. I took forever to grow chest hair. Your body catches up eventually.”
Hayley wrinkled her forehead. “I’m not really looking for a chest hair pep talk,” she said. “I do wish I would get some boobs, though.”
Nick cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation. “The point is that you don’t need makeup to be beautiful,” he said. “Maddie is the most beautiful woman in the world and I like her best when she’s not wearing makeup.”
“Yes, but Maddie looks like a model,” Hayley countered. “I don’t look like a model. In fact, I’m never going to look like a model.”
“You don’t know that, Hayley,” Nick said. “Let’s say it’s true, though. There are many different kinds of beauty. Maddie had a really rough couple of years when she was a teenager, too. She didn’t always look like she does now.”
Hayley leaned forward, intrigued. “Really?”
“Really,” Nick confirmed. “She had braces … and zits … and she was embarrassed because she hadn’t developed either. All of that eventually changed.”
“Did you fall in love with her when she changed?”
“I’ve always been in love with Maddie. It just took me a littl
e bit of time to realize it.”
Hayley knit her eyebrows together, conflicted. “Mom says that Maddie is a bad person who broke your heart. If that’s true, why are you with Maddie now?”
“Maddie is the best person I know,” Nick replied. “Maddie was … struggling … after high school. She had a lot of stuff to deal with and she didn’t know how to do it. She ran away … and she regrets that. Do not let your mother poison your opinion of Maddie. She’s a wonderful woman.”
“And she’s going to be my aunt one day, right?”
“She is.”
“That makes me feel kind of bad about what we did,” Hayley said.
Nick swiveled, his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”
“To Maddie back at the bathroom stop,” Hayley said. “I didn’t want to do it, but Mom and Sydney said it would be a funny joke.”
“What did you do, Hayley?” Nick’s heart pounded. He had a feeling he was about to lose his temper in a big way.
“Mom and Sydney hid Maddie’s kayak in the trees and then lied about her leaving with Uncle Chester,” Hayley said, her eyes widening as Nick’s fury took hold. “I told them not to!”
“Are you telling me we left Maddie behind?”
Hayley nodded, miserable.
“Son of a … !”
“THERE’S something blue over there,” Darrin said, pointing into a thick clump of trees.
Maddie moved toward the space he indicated, frowning when she caught sight of her kayak. “This is mine.”
“Here.” Darrin grabbed one end of the boat and Maddie grabbed the other. It took them about a minute to carry the kayak out of the woods and rest it at the water’s edge. “It looks okay. Is all of your stuff in it?”
“I only had a bottle of water,” Maddie replied, her mind busy as she tried to work out a plausible scenario for how the boat ended up where they found it. “We’re camping and I left all my other stuff back at the campground.”
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