Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lynette held her tin coffee cup out for Renee to fill again.
“That’s the last of it,” Renee said, shaking the last drops into Lynette’s cup.
“Maybe it’s a good thing our girls’ trip is almost over,” Kit said, setting her cup on the deck. It was Friday, and they were all going home on Sunday. She had her back to the water so she could face Lynette and Jackie in the red chairs, as well as Annie and Kit as they perched on the opposite side of the dock. She reached out to grab hold of the side of the canoe that bobbed beside the dock. “We are out of coffee, and I’d hate for Lynette to ruin anything else out here at the resort.”
If Lynette’s coffee wasn’t so hot, she might have tossed it at Kit. She was tired of all the teasing she’d had to listen to about the damage she’d done to Renee’s new canoe. She’d already pulled Renee aside and offered to replace it, but Renee insisted that wasn’t necessary. Someone was supposed to swing by the resort later today to take it in for repairs. They’d come by boat, pull it over to the public landing, then take it in for patching and repainting.
“There was already a long scratch down the side of it from an incident one of the resort guests had with it last month,” Renee had insisted. “I was going to get it repaired anyhow. A couple more scratches won’t make that much difference.”
Lynette didn’t believe her friend, but she was too tired to argue. Instead of throwing her coffee, she downed it all, ignoring the burn.
“Another rough night, Lynette?” Annie said. She lightly tapped Lynette’s foot, which rested beside her on the dock. “Maybe we should have taken you in to get this X-rayed yesterday.”
Her ankle wasn’t the cause of yet another sleepless night. The nightmare had returned, possibly spurred by Storm’s mention of his old lake house. She had no intention of ever telling Storm about that night, but maybe, after so many years, talking to her friends about it might help. If she couldn’t start getting some decent sleep at night, she’d start seeing cross-eyed during the day.
“My ankle isn’t what’s keeping me up,” she said as she put her empty cup on the dock next to her chair. “I actually still have lots of nightmares about something that happened to me the night of our graduation.”
Kit nodded. “I’d have nightmares, too, if I rolled a pickup truck like that. You’re lucky you survived that night.”
Kit had no idea how much danger Lynette had actually faced that night, beyond the accident with Storm’s truck. But was she really ready to talk about the way she’d put herself at risk and what happened next?
Maybe it was finally time. The man who’d tried to hurt her was long dead.
“Did any of you ever wonder why I was driving too fast on that curvy road that night?”
No one replied immediately.
Then Jackie cleared her throat. “You were going through some things back then, Lynette. We were never sure exactly what your mom’s boyfriend did to you, but based on how mad Storm got and how seriously my father took the situation as your high school principal, it was bad. I remember how you insisted we meet up with Storm earlier in the night to drink some beer with him before going to our grad party. I always figured you found more beer after you snuck out of the boring party.”
Lynette shook her head. “They didn’t charge me with drinking and driving. By the time I rolled Storm’s truck, the one beer I drank hours earlier was long gone. Remember how we all ate a bunch of mints and onion rings before going to the graduation party so no one would smell alcohol on us? I don’t even remember anyone giving me a breath test after the accident, though things were a little fuzzy. I hit my head and cut my cheek in the crash.”
She traced the faint line that ran down her cheek. It wasn’t the only scar that night had left her with.
Annie tapped Lynette again, this time on her uninjured ankle. “Why were you driving so fast that night?”
“Do you want the entire story, or just the abbreviated version?”
Renee checked the time on her phone. “It’s only eight in the morning. We have all day. Besides, I wasn’t with all of you the day you graduated, so I don’t even know what party you’re talking about.”
Lynette remembered how terrible she’d felt when Lavonne had mentioned how often her daughter felt like the oddball in their group, specifically because of situations like this.
She nodded at her old pen pal. “In that case, I’ll start at the top.”
Lynette closed her eyes and started talking. She told them about the shadows that always seemed to lurk in her mind back then, and her anxiety level as she sat in that boring party. She even admitted to her terror over thinking she might be pregnant.
When Kit tried to interrupt, Lynette raised a finger and said she’d get to all of that with her story.
Lynette had no idea how long she talked, but by the time she opened her eyes, a young family had set up camp on the beach. “Why didn’t you stop me? Could they hear me?”
Jackie reached over and put a comforting hand on Lynette’s shoulder. “Of course not. Don’t worry. They aren’t paying any attention to us. But how can you be so sure that Storm’s mother was actually home that night but refused to help you? What kind of person would do that?”
Lynette shrugged. “I never really knew her. Storm brought me home and introduced me to her, but she was always incredibly cold toward me. I’m not sure why. Yesterday, when I talked to him, he told me some other things about her that make me think she is just an all-around terrible person. Her car was in the garage that night. I thought I saw a light inside the house when I banged on the door and yelled for help, but no one came. She was there. I’m almost sure of it.”
Kit nodded. “No one helped, and that’s awful. But you were afraid the jackass that attacked you could still find you in the dark? How?”
“Well, remember, I was only seventeen, and he’d just attacked me. I wasn’t thinking clearly. He knew me from work, and he also knew I was dating Storm. If he knew Storm lived on the lake, not too far from that picnic shelter where he took me, then he might know to look for me there. Part of me was terrified that I’d killed him with that tool I smacked him across the head with, so I really was just out of my mind with fear.”
Annie shook her head. “I hate that he took you to our favorite picnic spot above the lake. You must have felt awful when we went there for my wedding party. And then again when the four of us went there after I left Michael. You know, you’ll think this is crazy, but I was worried about you back then.”
“Worried about me?” Lynette said. “You were the one going through hell.”
“But I could tell something was bothering you, too. You drank so many wine coolers, so fast. It seemed out of character.”
“It wasn’t as out of character as you thought, but I’ll get to that later. For now, let me finish telling you what happened that night. Now that I’ve started talking about it, I feel like I need to purge all of it.”
She thought about where she’d left off before spying the other guests on the beach.
“You’d just backed Storm’s truck out of the garage,” Annie supplied.
“Thanks for the prompt,” Lynette said, nudging Annie with a toe. “For a while, I thought I’d made it. I found my emergency twenty-dollar bill in my purse and planned to stop for gas. Then I saw headlights behind me. I was sure it was him, coming for me again. I panicked. That’s when I started driving too fast and missed the curve.”
“He’d found you?” Renee asked, her eyes wide.
“Truthfully? I never knew if it was him or just some random vehicle.”
All four of her friends sat for a moment with her story. The only sound was the call of a loon, out on the lake, and the laughter of the three young kids, farther down the beach.
“But you never reported him for what he tried to do to you,” Kit said.
“Why not?” Annie asked, before Lynette could even reply to Kit. “He almost raped you. He should have paid for that.”
Lynette reached toward Annie and patted her on the top of her head. “I love how faithful you always are to all of us, Annie. Even after all these years, you hate it when life doesn’t treat us fairly.”
Annie nipped playfully at Lynette’s hand, and it helped to break some of the tension.
“You obviously never told Storm the truth of what happened that night, or he would have killed the guy,” Jackie said.
“That’s exactly why I never told Storm why I took his truck. I’d already wrecked it. And it was my own stupidity that landed me in that creep’s pickup. If Storm would have gone after him for what he did to me, I could have literally ruined his whole life with my actions. Instead, I let him think I was just this crazy girlfriend, taking his pickup out for a joyride.”
“He wouldn’t have blamed you, you know,” Annie said. She shifted to drop both her feet into the water on the side of the dock. “He’d have tried to protect you.”
“Exactly my point.”
Annie kicked at the water and it splashed up on Renee’s legs.
“Really?” Renee said. She gave Annie’s shoulder a light push.
Annie kicked again. “I just hate that we didn’t keep Lynette safe that night.”
Lynette snorted. “I’m not as nice as Renee. If you try to take any of the blame for this, I’ll push you in.”
“What happened to the guy who attacked you?” Kit asked. “And I notice you never say his name. Why is that? Did we know him?”
Lynette shook her head. “I don’t think you’d have known him. Honestly, when I was in that hospital bed, after the crash, I almost told a police officer who came in to take my statement. But I chickened out. I felt like such a fool for getting myself into that predicament. So I kept my mouth shut. Two weeks later, I was glad I did.”
Annie swung her feet back out of the water and spun to face Lynette again. Water from her feet crawled across the wood to tickle Lynette’s toes. “Why? Did someone else make him pay?”
Lynette nodded. “Do you guys remember how, after my accident, Donna packed us up not long after, and moved us away from Ruby Shores?”
Everyone nodded, even Renee.
“Donna was at work, finishing up her last day. At that point, she’d grounded me for life. She wouldn’t allow me to leave the house, which I wouldn’t have wanted to do anyhow. My face hurt, my ribs ached, and I had terrible cramps.”
“You weren’t pregnant, after all?” Kit asked.
Lynette bit her bottom lip. “I never knew for sure. Part of me thinks the accident caused more internal damage than the doctors suspected when they examined me. That was the heaviest period I’d ever had. Sometimes, when it’s super cold and damp outside, my bones just ache in my pelvic area. And even though I never really tried to get pregnant, there was this one guy I dated in my thirties I never used any kind of protection with. I could have raised a family with someone like him. I took chances, but nothing ever came of it, and I sometimes wonder if that accident left me unable to get pregnant.”
She really hadn’t intended to get into all of this with the girls. She shook her head and, before they could ask more questions about what she’d just said, searched for the story string in her mind. “Oh, yes. My attacker. Donna left me a stack of newspapers, and I remember this next part like it was yesterday. I was rolling up my favorite AW mug in newspaper, the one Mom was so mad at me for stealing years earlier, when I saw his face.”
Annie shrieked and clapped the deck. “He got busted for something else.”
“Nope,” Lynette said. “It was his obituary.”
“Tell me you didn’t hunt him down and finish the job yourself, Lynette,” Renee whispered, eyes wide, obviously teasing.
“I did not! I had nothing to do with his demise. The obituary was brief, but it mentioned him dying at home. He was thirty-two—older than I thought—and unemployed. I’d thought he was a college student or something. Through the years, I’ve built up this profile of him that probably has zero truth to it, but his death meant I no longer had to worry about him finding me.”
Renee dumped a little coffee out of her cup into the lake. “The guilt probably did him in.”
“But you still have nightmares about it?” Jackie said. “Do you think maybe it’s time for you to talk to a specialist about this?”
Lynette took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. No one pushed her for an immediate answer.
Is it time?
“You might be right, Jackie. I thought maybe talking to all of you about it would help me move past it. If that isn’t the case, I promise to make an appointment to see someone. Fair?”
“Fair,” Jackie agreed.
“In fact . . .” Lynette continued, bracing herself. “In case you haven’t noticed, I may also need some help with my drinking. I’ve struggled with it, on and off, through the years. Annie, you said you noticed my drinking when we’d gotten you home after you left Michael. Well, it wasn’t long after that when I realized I needed some help to get sober. I spent a month in rehab, and it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done.”
Annie’s eyes welled with tears. “Why would you go through something like that and not reach out to any of us for help?”
Lynette shrugged. “I wrote Renee about it. So she knew. But it was something I didn’t want to talk about.”
Kit smiled. “See, Renee, sometimes you know things that the rest of us don’t!”
“I guess that’s true,” Renee said. “Lynette, don’t be ashamed to ask for help. There are excellent programs out there, and you’ve had some traumatic experiences in your life to work through.”
Renee’s comment made Lynette think about the trauma Donna had also endured. She considered telling her friends what she’d overheard Donna tell Lavonne about her abusive father and dead sister, but decided that was something she needed to discuss with her mother first. But the part about Donna not being happy in Ruby Shores wasn’t as dramatic of a story, even though it was still upsetting.
“Annie, are there folks I could see in Ruby Shores for my drinking? If not, I could fly back to New York for some sessions.”
Annie crossed her feet under her. “Sure. I can give you some names.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. Speaking of New York City, a little bird told me Donna isn’t sure our move to Ruby Shores was the right one. I’m thinking maybe she’s right,” Lynette admitted.
She told them bits and pieces of what she and Kit had overheard, leaving out the parts that might hurt any of her friends’ feelings.
“The mothers of the Kaleidoscope Girls might travel together?” Annie asked when Lynette got to that part of the story. “Well, we can’t have them getting a jump on us! Where are we going next year? Who is up for planning?”
Renee waved a hand. “It’s my turn!”
Jackie looked skeptical. “You’ve done so much for us here at Whispering Pines, Renee. Let’s see . . . Kit planned Maui, Annie got us to Arizona, and Lynette got creative since she was planning during the worst of the pandemic and brought us here. I haven’t planned a full-blown girls’ trip yet, either. Maybe it’s my turn.”
“I know,” Renee said. “But I have an idea. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, but I’ll do some investigating. Jackie, if it doesn’t pan out, I’ll call you and we can put our heads together on it. Does that work?”
Jackie nodded. “Let’s just make sure that wherever we go, we’ll be too far away for any men or mothers to crash our party!”
Lynette raised both her arms. “To be fair, both groups showed up because of me. My mother because we are painfully codependent and she didn’t want to miss my birthday, then the guys because I was stupid enough to get drunk and think it was a brilliant idea to take a boat to a bar.”
Everyone but Jackie laughed. “I am still so mad at Owen for keeping Storm a secret!” she said.
“Is that what you two were fighting about yesterday?” Lynette asked. “Well, maybe not fighting, because I actually didn’t see Owen yelling back at you. But you were certainly in his face.”
Jackie wilted a little in her chair. “It felt unfaithful. You know? I lived through enough of that with my ex, and it just felt . . . I don’t know . . . sneaky for him not to say anything.”
Lynette felt a twinge of guilt. “I actually knew Storm was hanging out with Owen some before I came to Whispering Pines.”
This admission was met with stunned silence.
Kit was the first to recover. “You knew Storm was back, but you didn’t tell us?”
“What was there to tell? My cat escaped the house. I chased after her and got caught in a lilac bush. This huge bald guy had to untangle my hair so I could get out.”
Jackie’s frown turned into a hiccup, then giggles. “Did you know it was him right away?”
“No. As you may have noticed, he’s changed.”
Annie wiped at a tear. She was finding Lynette’s story quite entertaining. “But he’s still very sexy.”
“I didn’t notice,” Lynette lied.
No one looked like they believed her.
“How did you figure out it was him?” Kit asked.
Lynette thought back to the scene that played out next. “My cat ended up on this little platform at Owen’s house, high above the deck the guys were working on. This big dude went up front to get a ladder, came back, then wouldn’t let me climb up to get Ebony. He insisted I wouldn’t be able to reach her. But my poor kitty got so scared, she jumped. I freaked. He fell off the ladder trying to catch her and landed flat on his back. When I rushed over to make sure he wasn’t dead, I saw it. Then I knew.”
“Saw what?” Annie asked, still wiping at her face.
“His little butterfly tattoo. The one that matches mine.”
Everyone froze. She hadn’t meant to mention the tattoos. The only other people on Earth who knew Lynette had a tiny butterfly tattoo on her inner upper thigh were her various lovers through the years. But of course none of them would have known the history behind it.
“Forget I said that,” Lynette said, knowing full well that it was too late for that.
“Well, obviously Storm survived his fall,” Kit said with a wink. “But what about poor Ebony?”
“I’m sure the cat was fine,” Jackie said, waving Kit’s question off.
It was Lynette’s turn to laugh. Jackie loved dogs, but she’d never be a cat lover.
“I want to hear more about these matching tattoos,” Jackie said.
Lynette’s cell phone rang. “Saved by the bell!”
It was Donna calling. She took the call, and all the amusement she’d been feeling from talking with her girlfriends fled the moment she heard the quiver in her mother’s voice. Donna wasn’t prone to hysterics. Something was seriously wrong. Donna’s words confirmed it.
“Mom, I’ll be home just as soon as I can,” she said, hanging up and pushing out of the chair. She’d made it down to the dock without her crutches.
“What happened?” Renee asked. She stood as well.
“That was Donna. Bad news. One of my basement walls is collapsing. I’m so sorry, you guys! I know we’d planned to stay until Sunday. But I need to get back. Mom already called the general contractor that oversaw the renovations I’ve done on the house. I should be there, too.”
Everyone else got to their feet.
“I brought you, Lynette, and I’ll take you home,” Annie said, gathering up all of their coffee cups.
Renee opened her arms, and Lynette stepped into them. They rocked back and forth for a moment.
Once they pulled away, Lynette caught Renee’s hand. “Thank you, Renee. I know you might not believe this, but I feel better after coming here. There is something very special about Whispering Pines. You know I’m only a phone call away, if you ever want to talk business. This place is too special to give up on.”
Renee brushed a quick kiss across the back of Lynette’s knuckles. “I won’t give up. I promise. But it’s nice to know I have someone who reminds me so much of my Aunt Celia in my corner.”
Annie caught both Renee and Lynette up in another hug, then motioned Kit and Jackie in, too. Kit rolled her eyes, but reluctantly joined them.
“I don’t know what I’d do without all of you,” Lynette said. “How did I ever get so lucky to find four fabulous friends like you?”
Annie tugged at one of Lynette’s silver curls. “I have no idea. But I guess we should all just say ‘thank you,’ because we are all gifts to each other.”