Grace wakes to the strained rhythm of her own heart. The room is still dark, the blackout curtains drawn. Last night hurls into her consciousness. Lee’s reaction. Her confession. The way she’d disappeared, angry and upset.
She doesn’t know how she will explain herself this morning, or where she’ll begin. She sighs into the bleak, dark room, realizing that probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon; things are going to get even tenser before they get better. She needs to pee but can’t see in the dark. She flicks on her bedside lamp and squints into the sudden bright light.
Lee’s bed is empty.
It would be just like her to sleep on the couch, or even outside, just to prove her point. Despite her own confession, she thinks of what Lee told her about the man in the dark, the secret she’s harbored all these years. She doesn’t understand how a man could ever do that to someone else.
Grace rubs her hand over her belly. She takes a quick shower and heads downstairs. She checks the living room and kitchen. In the sink, the wineglasses sit, half-filled with soapy water. Outside, the skewers from the s’mores have been wiped clean and placed on top of the stack of folded blankets. The worry eases. Lee probably cleaned up and headed out for a walk this morning to clear her head.
She knows walking helps Lee sort through everything, just as it does for her. She fires off a text anyway. Good morning. Can we have coffee?
She inhales the clean, humidity-free air. She walks to the front, through the aquamarine gate, and to the edge of Lake Tomahawk.
Couples are already out, walking or jogging, and she wishes she had a cup of coffee and a book. She pans the path around the lake for Lee. A buzz vibrates her hip: Noah. She gives him an update and says she’ll call him later. Lee’s dark secret bubbles through the peace of the morning. Does Noah know about Mason’s real father? Have they ever discussed it? It makes her sick to think of Mason being conceived out of something so depraved. How another human could take advantage of someone like that …
“What are you doing out here so early?” Alice, clad in expensive workout gear, jogs toward her.
“Me? What are you doing? Going for a run?” She approves of the expensive gear. “You look like an ad for Lululemon.”
Alice strikes a pose. “Am I hired?”
Grace laughs. “Not when you pose like that.”
“I’ll work on it.” Alice pauses by the bench and props up a leg to stretch her hamstring. “So, did you tell her?”
Grace sighs. “Did I ever.”
Alice stops stretching. “Went that well, huh?”
Grace massages a temple. “She was outraged. Not that I’m surprised, but I shouldn’t have told her like that.” Grace thinks again about the confession Lee made and the selfish timing of her own. “I think I screwed everything up.”
“She’ll get over it,” Alice says. “She has a crush. I’m sure it’s hard to see through that. It’s the first guy she’s liked in a long time, right?”
Grace nods. “As long as I’ve known her.”
“Right.” She switches legs and folds over her quadriceps. “I’m sure she’s just jealous, but you’re her best friend. She’ll be happy for you eventually.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so.”
Grace glances at the house behind her. “Carol still asleep?”
Alice releases her leg and shoves her hands into her puffy vest. “Snoring like a trucker.”
Grace laughs. “I’m so glad Chad never snored.”
“Me too. Fred doesn’t either. Does Noah?”
“What? Snore? No, thank God.”
Alice sits and gently elbows her. “I’m super happy for you, by the way. Luca will be over the moon about having a brother or sister.”
“You think so?”
“Of course. If I didn’t think I’d lose my mind by adding another human to our household, I would have done it already.”
Grace tries to think about holding a baby in her arms again after all these years. “Yeah, but there’s something special about having just one too.”
“True. Less expensive, at least.” Alice slaps her thighs. “Should we go for a walk?”
Grace hesitates. “I really want to find Lee.”
“Is she not sleeping?”
“She wasn’t in the room when I got up.”
Alice stands. “Maybe give her some space? It will do you some good to clear your head too.”
They navigate the short path around the lake. Grace searches the stray jogger or walker, hoping one of them will be Lee.
“So what did she do when you told her?”
“Well, let’s see. She yelled. I listened. She told me I basically ruined her family. I finally went inside because I just didn’t want to fight. But then I couldn’t sleep, so I went and looked for her, but I couldn’t find her.”
“What do you mean?” Alice glances at her.
“She wasn’t on the deck when I came back out.” Grace recalls standing out there, searching into the black night.
“She probably just needed to process what you told her, don’t you think?” Alice asks.
Grace shrugs. “That’s what I was hoping, but what if she never came home?”
“Where else would she go? Clubbing?” She snorts.
A blast of sirens pierces their conversation. Two police cars whip down the curvy streets, to the base of the mountain Carol and Alice hiked yesterday. Grace can barely make out the trailhead through the thicket of trees.
“Jesus. I wonder what that’s all about?” Alice murmurs.
“Hopefully no one got attacked by a bear,” Grace says.
“Aren’t bears still hibernating?”
“I have no idea. Carol would probably know.” Grace checks her phone again and sends another text to Lee. An ambulance whines down the street, and the girls exchange concerned looks. “I don’t like this,” Grace says. “I have a bad feeling.”
“About Lee?”
Grace can’t tell her about their entire conversation, about the dark turn, the look in Lee’s eyes as she revealed what happened at the party. “Can we just go look for her? Or wake Carol up? I just don’t feel right. Lee always responds. I’ve texted her twice and nothing. And if anything happened to her, I don’t know what…”
“Hey, slow down. It’s fine. She probably just doesn’t have her phone. Or maybe she’s just not ready to talk yet.”
They hustle back to Arbor House, just as Carol saunters out the front door in a fluffy white bathrobe and oversized slippers.
“Is Lee in there?”
Carol yawns and looks behind her. “Well good morning to you too.”
“We can’t find Lee.”
Carol motions inside. “I literally just woke up.” She cradles a cup of coffee and blows steam off the top. “What do you mean you can’t find Lee?”
“She wasn’t in the room this morning.”
“So?”
“So, I don’t think she ever came back last night.” Her head fills with instant worst-case scenarios: a bear attack, being kidnapped, freezing to death.
“I’m sure she’s fine.”
Grace pushes past them and up to their room. Her heart births a staccato rhythm. She searches for Lee’s phone. She dials her number, but it goes straight to voice mail. Her toiletries are untouched. Lee always makes it a point to go through the same bedtime routine: makeup remover, cleanser, moisturizer, teeth. It became a habit that started after she stopped drinking—when she used to fall asleep drunk and wake up to sour breath and raccoon eyes—and since she’s become sober, Lee is obsessive about nighttime care.
Grace struggles to remember if there’d been a crack of light from the door last night, or a running faucet. Grace has always been a sound sleeper. Even if Lee had come in, she might not have heard her.
But where could she be?
“Come on. Where are you?” Grace sends another text, grabs her zip-up hoodie, and goes to find the girls.