part0048

Willa eased herself back into her chair after having refilled her cup—with lemonade this time. The couple of drinks she had earlier did enough to take the edge off her growing anxiety, but as the night wore on she needed to keep a clear head. The silly game she suggested was enough to keep her and Lee distracted for the moment.

“Okay, my turn.” David grinned. “Never have I ever been fired from a job.” He paused, looking around, and then drinking. Chris, Dawn, Harmony and Willa all drank as well, indicating they too had been fired from a job.

“What, Willa?” Whit laughed. “You don’t even work for anyone.”

Willa grinned at Whit across the blazing fire. The pit was recessed several feet; otherwise they wouldn’t even be able to see each other across the flames, which were throwing off a very comfortable heat now that the sun had long set. “There were a lot of years of waiting tables as the struggling artist before that first book took off, and that didn’t even happen until after the second book was published.”

Everyone with young children had left to get them to bed. Betty Sims stuck around later than most, giddily producing a secret tray of brownies that a few parents happily sampled on their way home. The Osterhouse boys and Whittaker boys had got on like a house on fire and were now having a slumber party up the road.

“Whose turn is it?” Chris motioned with his hand to get someone going.

“Mine.” Dawn giggled, eyeing the group. “Okay, never have I ever behaved inappropriately in the back of a movie theater.”

Chris rolled his eyes and drank liberally earning him a swat on the arm from Whit, who wasn’t drinking. Whoever Chris had been inappropriate with it hadn’t been his husband.

“No surprise there.” Dawn laughed and drank herself, staring across the fire to pin Lee with an expectant look.

Lee grimaced, her gaze flicking to Willa briefly before taking a sip from her own glass.

“What?” Chris’s eyes darted between Dawn and Lee. “You two?”

Lee coughed. “It was a long time ago. A long, long time ago.”

“But memorable.” Dawn wagged her eyebrows and raised her glass.

Willa’s mouth gaped in feigned shock, and she shook her head in disbelief. “Lee Chandler, I am scandalized.”

“I’m sure. All right, my turn.” Lee stroked her chin comically. “Never have I ever been arrested.”

“Uh-oh.” Chris’s eyes darted around the circle, his eyes flashing gleefully in the firelight.

Nothing happened for a long moment then Harmony took a quick drink, not looking at anyone.

“What? Harm?” David shot forward in his chair. “When?”

Harmony scowled at him. “David, we’ve been married thirteen years and what you still don’t know about me could fill this lake.” She took a longer drink and sat back with a satisfied sigh. “I, on the other hand, know everything you’ve got going on.”

There was no sound but for the crackling and popping of the fire for several long, tense moments.

“I think it’s my turn.” Willa cleared her throat and looked around at everyone’s expectant expressions. “Never have I ever heard the ghost of Forestlands Lake.”

Dawn gasped audibly and Lee tensed, eying Willa from the side.

“That’s a shame,” Harmony commented wryly and took a drink. “You of all people deserve to experience the real deal.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Dawn added, raising her glass before drinking.

Willa’s eyes darted around to the others who all sat, looking anywhere but at her. “Anyone else?”

Chris shrugged helplessly. “Not I.”

Whit shifted on his chair and sipped his drink. “I’ve heard it.”

“You have?” Chris gaped at him. “You never told me.”

“I wasn’t sure.”

The conversation turned to stories of the ghost with everyone chiming in to tell their tale of where they were and what they heard.

“It’s after midnight, Will,” Lee said softly and pushed herself to her feet. “I’m going to check on the girls.”

Willa nodded, reaching for her crutches. “I’ll come with you.”

The crackling fire and conversation masked all other sound and they didn’t hear Nicole walking down the road until she slipped right by them before they’d even left the circle of chairs. She was barefoot, dressed only in a thin tank top and sleep pants, pale hair loose. Her eyes were vacant and locked on something in the water only she could see.

The wind whipped a gust of cold air across the fire circle; sparks popped loudly into the sky, bringing the conversation to an abrupt halt. Everyone’s attention turned to Nicole’s wraith-like figure moving steadily toward the water.

“Oh, god, Lee,” Willa gasped, fear leaping into her chest. She frantically fumbled her crutches under her arms. “Stop her.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Lee said, reaching an arm around her to help her navigate past the chairs. “Let her go.”

“What’s going on?” David blurted, looking between Lee and Willa.

“Is she all right?” Harmony asked.

“Shhh.” Lee hissed them to silence and followed Nicole toward the boat dock.

They whirled around to see Maggie in pajamas and shoes, pelting down the road. “I tried to stop her. We fell asleep watching a movie and I woke up and found her going out the window at the back.”

“It’s okay.” Lee wrapped her arms around her daughter and rubbed her back. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“I say again, what the hell is going on?” David came to stand with them. “Is she sleepwalking? Should we wake her up?”

“Shut up, man,” Whit hissed at him and turned to Lee. “What can we do?”

“Get us a couple of blankets?” Lee kicked off her shoes and stripped out of her clothes, leaving her in a bra and underwear.

“I’m on it.” Whit took off at a run back up the road to the house.

“Aren’t you going to wake her up?” Chris asked.

“No, not yet.” Lee looked to Willa. “Are you okay with that?”

Willa swallowed heavily around her terror. “Don’t let anything happen—”

“I won’t,” Lee insisted and moved as close to Nicole as she dared without disturbing her.

“Hey,” Nicole whispered out over the water and waved her arm. “Get back in here, now!”

Willa sucked in a breath, a trembling hand going to her mouth and eyes burning with tears. “Oh, Jesus, what’s happening?”

“No, don’t stand up!” Nicole’s eyes widened in fright and she looked around frantically as if for help but didn’t acknowledge any of them. “Sit down and paddle—both of you.”

“What the fuck?” Dawn blurted a hysterical laugh. “Is this a joke?”

“Who the hell is she talking to?” David’s mouth gaped.

“Somebody help!” Nicole yelled and jumped off the dock.

Lee was in the water right behind her but Nicole gave no indication she noticed as she swam steadily out to the floating dock, grabbing the side to hold herself out of the water. She spluttered. “It’s okay, hold on to me.” Her words carried across the water.

Nicole sidestroked awkwardly back toward the beach, Lee swimming alongside her close enough to touch.

“Get home. Tell your parents. I’ll bring the boat in.” Nicole stood perfectly still in the shallows while Lee hovered nearby, visibly shivering.

Willa was transfixed at the ethereal sight of Nicole’s drenched hair and pale skin reflecting the moonlight, her sodden clothes clinging to her delicate-looking frame.

Without warning Nicole turned back into the water and dove in.

Willa snapped out of her trance and sobbed a breath, her heart cracking open as if she were watching the death of her little sister. “Lee, please, please…”

Lee didn’t want to grip Nicole around the ankle and risk getting kicked in the face. She was freezing and more than a little uncertain about waking Nicole up in water over their heads, but better now than before she actually began drowning. She easily powered around her and stopped, treading water in her path. “Nicole, it’s time to go in now.”

Nicole didn’t hear her and swam right into her, knocking them both under for a moment. Lee came up spluttering with an arm across Nicole’s chest. “Nicole, it’s Lee. Don’t fight me.”

Nicole coughed and struggled, her eyes huge and beyond confused when she let out an ear-piercing scream and began to thrash wildly. The water churned around them with Nicole’s panic.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Lee panted, shaking water out of her face and adjusting her grip on her as she got them turned around and heading back to shore. “Just relax, Nic.”

Lee pulled a completely disoriented Nicole, coughing and crying, toward the shallows. She blinked water from her eyes, desperately relieved to see Chris wading out from the beach, and Whit charging down the hill, dropping the blankets on the bank and high-stepping into the water toward them.

“I got her.” Whit scooped Nicole up into his arms and carried her out of the water toward the fire, Maggie right behind him, shaking out a blanket to wrap around her.

Chris offered Lee a hand, pulling her the rest of the way onto the beach. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Lee gasped, shivering. “I’ll take that other blanket now.”

Chris shook it out and draped it around Lee’s shoulders. “Someone going to tell us what that was about?”

“What in god’s name is going on out here?” Sharon Danforth’s shrill voice pierced the night as she stalked across the road, Keith and their son Jordan right behind her. “What was that scream? It’s the middle of the night and if this is how you people are going to behave I assure you, you will not be allowed to—”

“It was your kids, wasn’t it Sharon?” Lee snarled, coming up the beach to stand with a stricken-looking Willa. She was as pale as Nicole and looked completely detached. Lee wrapped a blanketed arm around her and pulled her close, feeling the tension in her body.

“I beg your pardon?” Sharon blurted, stopping short while Keith and Jordan hung back sharing an anxious look.

“I thought I remembered everything about the night Emily Dunn drowned but I didn’t, did I?” Lee shook her head in disbelief. “When Emily and I walked back that night, your kids were messing around in the boathouse trying to get paddles out.” Her eyes flicked to Jordan who stood silent and shame-faced.

Sharon’s eyes narrowed angrily and she opened her mouth to speak.

“Don’t even try to deny it. We saw them and I sent them home, but they came back out didn’t they? Got a boat out and capsized. Somehow Emily knew. Maybe she heard them yell for help or maybe she just came out to check on them because she was a good kid and had been worried. She got them out and went back for the boat, but she never made it. You didn’t know any of that because you and Keith were screaming at each other so loudly I could recite part of your argument.”

“How dare you!” Sharon screeched.

“How dare you ! All these years I thought your most loathsome quality was your hateful bigotry, but that is far exceeded by your heartless and selfish cowardice. Emily Dunn died…” Lee’s voice cracked, “…at twelve years old so your children could live—and you knew.”

Lee tightened her grip around Willa’s shoulders when she felt her trembling turn into full body shudders.

“Is this true?” Willa whispered, voice thick and eyes bright with unshed tears. “Keith?”

“I’m so sorry.” Tears were spilling down his face unchecked, his voice hoarse. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shut up, Keith!” Sharon spat. “This is all your fault. You can apologize to strangers but not to your wife for screwing your intern. You’re as perverted as they are and deserve everything you get.”

Keith ignored her. “We didn’t know she was out there. We didn’t hear the twins come back in right away, and they didn’t say anything. They just ran straight to their room and changed clothes and got into bed.” He shrugged helplessly and wiped snot from his nose with the back of his hand. “Then all hell broke loose when you found her body and after we found the kids’ soaked clothes. We made them tell us what happened, but it was too late to help Emily. She was already gone.”

“It wasn’t too late for the rest of us. We were still here!” Willa cried, her trembling hands covering her mouth. “You should have told us. Oh, my god, you should have told us.”

Jordan began to cry noisily and stumbled back to the house while Sharon remained red-faced and defiant. “She was dead. It was an accident. It wouldn’t have helped anything.”

“You’re wrong. It would have helped every night of every year my mother and I cried ourselves to sleep thinking there was a chance Emily may have…may have killed herself and there was something we should have done.”

Lee went rigid at Willa’s words and Chris, David, Harmony, and Dawn came to stand with them, facing down Sharon Danforth.

“You and your hypocritical family values posturing disgust me, Sharon,” Chris said icily. “It’s our children who shouldn’t be exposed to your self-righteous, fearmongering bullshit.”

“Your house is your own, Sharon,” David added, reaching for his wife’s hand. “There is nothing we can do to change that, but as far as we’re concerned, you are the ghost of Forestlands Lake.”