Chapter 34 Lindy #2
On the bright side, it didn’t seem like Noah was going to report Greta to the police.
But he sure wasn’t acting like he felt lucky to be marrying Hailey.
“You never called Hailey back last night,” Lindy said. “She’s very upset. She has a migraine.”
Noah was unreadable. Implacable. No wonder Hailey gets headaches, Lindy thought suddenly. He’s stressful to be around! He acted calm—pleasant, even—but he looked down on her from his great height, arms folded, with an air of barely contained
impatience, a balloon on the verge of popping. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.
The words were close enough to right, but they rang hollow to Lindy’s ears. There seemed little, if any, sense of empathy
or care.
Lindy did not want to be seeing this, let alone thinking it. Was her mother right? Had David been right all along? (When David
had said there was something he “didn’t trust about the kid,” Lindy had dismissed it as fatherly overprotectiveness, a cliché!)
Or maybe it wasn’t so clear-cut. Hailey wouldn’t be with Noah if he didn’t have good qualities. Maybe he was just changing? He had been a boy three years ago when Lindy had met him. Now he was a man. He’d been living on his own in Portland for
a year. He’d hardened, it seemed; gotten arrogant? Maybe. Self-involved, at least.
She was glad Noah had refused the lunch invitation. They did not have a great rapport going. Not that she could blame him
for being a bit defensive today, after having a gun pulled on him yesterday at Innisfree.
Lindy needed to talk to Hailey, get to the bottom of how she really felt—and to the truth of the relationship, if possible. There was a lot at stake here. Maybe everybody was just having cold feet.
“Thanks for your time, Noah, and for being understanding about yesterday. I’ll let you get to work now.”
“Thanks for the apology, Mrs. Kauffman,” Noah said pleasantly as he went to open the door. “I just hope your mother can get the help she needs. Tell Hailey to call me when she feels better.”
Lindy, still not liking his responses, gave him a close-mouthed smile.
“Oh,” Noah added. “Maybe you could get some of the boxes of wedding stuff out of here. They’re cluttering up the place, and
I know Hailey meant to take them up there.”
Lindy hadn’t thought about the boxes, and his request again only underlined what he could’ve done instead. (Driven them up
to Innisfree himself!)
But she said, “Of course!” because when you came right down to it, the wedding was going to happen—should happen—right?
Back at The Cove, Lindy walked into Innisfree to find the kitchen quiet, though it was nearing suppertime, when Greta usually
would be getting a meal underway. Hailey, on the living room couch writing in a spiral notebook, looked up briefly to give
Lindy a little smile and wave, then went back to writing. She looked so content that Lindy didn’t want to bother her, though
it did seem strange that she wasn’t jumping up to ask how things had gone with Noah. Maybe she’d talked with him already?
Well, Lindy was just glad the headache was evidently better—and that her lie about David’s whereabouts was evidently sparing
Hailey from worrying. Lindy didn’t mind not having to discuss Noah right this minute. The boxes of wedding stuff could stay
in the Volvo for now, too. She set her purse on the counter and went out onto the deck to join her parents, who were sitting
side by side in the Adirondack chairs, holding hands.
Oh God, Lindy realized. It’s today! Their fiftieth anniversary.
How had she not remembered this morning, even as she’d made all those phone calls to cancel the party?
And of course she’d planned the party for Saturday, because a party on a Thursday didn’t make sense, but today was their actual anniversary.
She should’ve bought them flowers, a cake, something.
Of course, they had enough cake and food for a hundred and fifty people arriving the day after tomorrow.
Even after sharing it with the neighborhood at the clubhouse, they’d surely end up with leftovers, since all the out-of-town people had been told not to come.
Well, she would take her parents out for dinner tonight, soon, and that would be their celebration. She would spring for lobster
and champagne, the realities of her terrible financial situation and, no doubt, impending divorce—which were only just beginning
to sink in, anyway—be damned.
“Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad,” she said, and they both looked up at her and smiled. They seemed happy; at peace, even.
She hugged them both, grateful that her father still seemed to know her today; determined not to pick another fight with her
mother, not right now. She would not bring up Florida. She would not even mention the gun.
“Sit with us, pumpkin,” her father said, so Lindy went to grab another chair, dragged it over beside him, and sat down. He
reached to hold her hand, too, so that they were all connected, with him in the middle, and for a moment, looking out at the
calm blue ocean, Lindy felt at peace, too. Whatever would come next would come. David would confess about Tiffany; they’d
argue about money, about everything. Innisfree, unbelievably, might be sold to another family. Lindy’s father would get sicker
and sicker, her mother older and older, and Lindy would lose them both one day, and it would be unbearable.
But right now, in this moment, she felt lucky. She had been so lucky, all this time, to have the family she’d had. Her parents,
David, her kids, Kate and the rest of the Kauffmans. And the entire community of The Cove. She’d been so very, very lucky
to have The Cove, and Innisfree, for at least this long in her life.
If her marriage was really over, she thought, maybe she would move to Florida, too, at least for a little while. Or maybe,
to stay closer to the kids, she’d see if her book club friend Samantha really would give her a job at the interior design
studio.
Maybe it was a case of a different path suddenly coming clear for Lindy, too.
The thought was startling for a moment, but then she let it drift away, let her eyes sink closed, and she listened to the gentle waves, the seagulls keening, as she held on to her father’s hand.
“Mom?” came Hailey’s voice after a while, after the sliding sound of the door had broken into the quiet. “Mom, there’s a phone
call for you.”
Lindy didn’t want to let go of her dad’s hand. She figured it was someone calling back in response to a message about the
party. She didn’t open her eyes. “Just—just take a message.”
“It’s Dad’s assistant. Tiffany?” The name in Hailey’s voice jarred Lindy out of the peaceful moment, back to the nightmare
of David’s being gone. And then Lindy thought, how dare that little tramp Tiffany call her now? As if she could justify her
behavior!
And then Lindy thought, If Tiffany was having an affair with my husband, would she be calling me?
“Mom?” Hailey said. “She said it was important.”
Lindy was getting a sick feeling in her stomach. She let her go of her father’s hand, patting it absently as she scrambled
to her feet. “Okay, I’ll speak with her!”
“My boyfriend, Raj, and I have been camping in Nova Scotia, so I didn’t have any signal!” Tiffany sounded worried, short of
breath, as Lindy pressed the old plastic receiver to her clammy ear and Hailey stood by, watching, listening. “So, we just
got to Bar Harbor and I just got your messages! I was so worried to hear that David didn’t arrive the other day? He was so
excited for his birthday party and your parents’ anniversary and Hailey’s wedding and everything. You must have heard from
him by now? I just wanted to check and make sure he’s okay?”
Lindy couldn’t speak.
David wasn’t with Tiffany?
He wasn’t the secret boyfriend that Tiffany had been hiding from her coworkers?
If he wasn’t with her, then where was he?
But how could Lindy be sure that the girl wasn’t lying? What if David was standing right beside her, coaching her on what to say? (Was David capable of such a thing?)
Lindy didn’t know. She couldn’t think straight at all.
She didn’t decide to ask; the words simply came out. “He’s not . . . with you?”
“What? Why would he—Oh. God. No. David is like a father to me, he’s a mentor—”
“Gina said you had a new boyfriend and you wouldn’t say who he was,” Lindy broke in, and she was gulping for air, she’d totally
lost her cool. “And then I didn’t hear back from you, and all, all the emails, the late hours, and at the Christmas party,
I saw, saw, the, your coat, the, the picture—”
“Lindy, never, no! Oh my God.” Tiffany didn’t sound mad, just aghast, almost amused, so Lindy knew then that the girl was
telling the truth, and that there was nothing at all to what Lindy had so vividly imagined.
“But you’re so pretty!” Lindy wailed, realizing how badly she had wanted to be right about where David was; feeling the weight
of the lie she’d told Hailey and Cody and Kate and everybody; thinking, God, how could I be so wrong? Where is he? God, where is he?
“Lindy, listen.” Tiffany’s tone had turned all business, lawyer-like. “You’re telling me you haven’t heard from David? He’s
been missing since you called me on Sunday? Do you have the police looking for him? What is going on, Lindy? Is David okay?
Where is he?”
“I don’t know!” Lindy cried, and somehow within the next three minutes she had agreed to Tiffany and her boyfriend coming
to help with the search and given them directions from Bar Harbor to Innisfree, even as she couldn’t stop herself from thinking,
No word from him in all this time and I called off the search and now he’s probably dead of a heart attack or he slit his
own wrists again and I had no idea anything was even wrong!
“We’ll be there in a few hours,” Tiffany said, and when Lindy said goodbye and hung up, Hailey was standing there, looking
at Lindy, pale, eyes wide. “Mom? Dad’s still missing?” she said, and Lindy could feel it as the world came crumbling down.