Chapter 39 Hailey #2
Hailey could call her siblings, ask them to come up, wait for them. But for them even to get to The Cove would take hours—however
long it took them to get their acts together, plus at least five hours of driving time—by which point who knew where their
mom would be. And Hailey didn’t exactly feel up to managing all their hurt feelings and fears. Her own were bad enough.
As it was, if Hailey got in the car right now, she’d be only about two hours behind her mom. Lindy had said she was heading
directly for Eastport and that she thought it was a small enough town that she should just be able to find David’s car, if
he was there.
(Again: Lindy was definitely going off the deep end.)
But this also meant, if Hailey hurried, she’d likely be able to find her mom in Eastport the same way. If Hailey waited, and
Lindy got there and couldn’t find David, then Lindy would surely head off God knew where else on some other “hunch.” Hailey
would have no prayer of finding her, then.
Hailey pressed her fingers to her temple. It was clearly up to her to save both her parents now. She’d have to do whatever it took. Even if that meant driving up to the edge of the map alone.
She popped one of her prescription pills, threw together an overnight bag, and took off driving north through the woods on
her own, over her grandma’s protests. She would call Jack once she had signal and tell him to pass off the plan they’d written
up last night for searching the lighthouses of southern Maine to Tiffany and Raj. The pair had already told Hailey enthusiastically
that they’d be glad to execute it, still apparently believing they were contestants on The Amazing Race or something and that they might win.
Fifteen minutes after she left The Cove, as soon as she got into signal range, her voicemail dinged.
She struggled through dialing in as she drove. There was a message from Noah, from last night. She’d never heard him sound
so angry. He also sounded drunk. “How dare you give me an ultimatum, after what your grandmother did to me? And then not even
answer the fucking phone? You should be on your knees to me, after everything I’ve done for you, after everything I’ve put
up with, after how long I’ve waited for you to come through for me and you not being there for me! You think your family is
so much more important than I am, and I see now you’re never gonna support me or care about me, you’re always gonna be putting
yourself and your family first . . .” It went on and on. Hailey couldn’t really comprehend it all. But at the end she definitely
heard him say that he was calling off the wedding and for her to come get her stuff out of his apartment ASAP.
She clicked off the call and tossed the phone onto the seat beside her. She took both hands off the wheel to remove her ring.
She dropped it into the beverage holder, then inhaled deeply three times, managing to hold off tears of rage and dismay.
She was approaching a countryside church and slowed to pull into the parking lot. She picked up her phone again and texted
Noah. Got your message. Ignore the voicemail I left this morning. We’re done. I’ll text you about getting my stuff.
She bit her lip, her finger hovering over the Send button.
She tried to remember what her mom had said the other day about how a path could seem like the exact right one until suddenly
it wasn’t. She tried to think, Thank God this came out before the wedding and not after. This . . . what? Narcissism? Had he really just been putting on the charm these last three years? Only to have it all unravel practically overnight just because she put her family first in a time of crisis?
God, it sucked, though. She really had thought she loved him.
Also, it was going to be embarrassing. A hundred and seventeen guests were on the way, expecting a lobster bake, Hailey in
her gown . . .
Okay. That didn’t matter. What if you were married to an unsupportive asshole?
She clicked Send and tossed her phone back onto the seat beside her. She rubbed her temple, trying to think of all the things
she needed to do to let everybody—guests, vendors, bridesmaids, caterers, bakers, everyone—know that the wedding was off.
The list seemed instantly endless. And she was not going to get her or her parents’ money back on basically anything.
She let out a big breath. Okay, none of that even mattered right now. Right now, she had to go to Eastport and find her mom. And—hopefully, hopefully!—her dad.
She picked up her phone again and dialed another number. This one she knew by heart because she’d dialed it from Innisfree
all the time, years ago.
Marjorie Westfield picked up on the first ring. “Hi, Marjorie,” Hailey said. “May I speak to Jack, please?”
A minute later, she pulled out onto the road, turning south to head back for The Cove. Jack was coming with her to Eastport.
“Oh my God, she did what?” Emma barked, her voice emanating from Hailey’s cell.
The highway stretched out in front of Hailey’s Protegé as she sped along tree-lined Route 1 North.
Jack was in the passenger seat looking up something on his phone, the Maine atlas and lighthouse book at his feet.
Hailey had her call on speaker; Jack knew all her secrets, anyway.
Or most of them. Obviously, she hadn’t told either him or her sister about Noah yet.
How long before Jack noticed she wasn’t wearing her ring? “And you’re following her?” Emma said.
Hailey explained again, and, by the time she finished, Eli was back on the line from checking the garage. “Yeah, the camping
food tote is gone,” he said.
“Oh! Well, that’s good, right? Maybe he is just off camping somewhere! Have you guys found anything else on the computer?”
“Not really,” Eli said. “I keep checking the credit cards for activity, but there hasn’t been any.”
“That’s a good idea. Keep doing that.”
“Hell if you think you’re gonna head up into the wilds of Maine looking for our parents and we’re gonna sit here in Cranston,”
Emma said. “I’m calling Cody right now to get him to come up here, then we’re all going to be on our way to fucking Eastport,
Maine, in about an hour from now.”
The pill Hailey had taken was keeping her migraine at bay, but for a second it thrummed at her temple, reminding her it could
explode to full force again at any minute. “I think Jack and I have it covered. You guys should just keep checking the accounts.”
“That doesn’t take three of us,” Eli said.
And shortly, it was decided that, as soon as Emma could get a hold of Cody to tell him so, Emma and Cody would be following
Hailey up to Eastport to try to find their parents, while Eli stayed in Cranston to monitor the landline phone there, keep
searching through their dad’s files, and keep an eye on their dad’s accounts on the computer.
When Hailey hung up, Jack was still clicking around on his phone. “It doesn’t look like there are many hotels up there,” he
said, “and most of them are fully booked.”
She rubbed her temple. Last night, she’d fallen asleep on top of Jack’s white comforter while reading the lighthouse book, then woken up to find he’d covered her with a blanket and crawled in under the sheets and was sleeping beside her, his hands folded over his chest. She’d spent several minutes awake, telling herself she had to get up and get back to Innisfree—Noah would be calling, her mom would be worried—but she’d fallen back to sleep instead.
She and Jack had slept side by side all night, and they had not touched each other at all.
If she’d known that Noah had already left her a message calling off the wedding, she might’ve . . . well. Rolled over to Jack’s
side of the bed and let him and Fate take it from there? Yeah, pretty much, she would’ve.
And now her heart had just accelerated at the thought of possibly having to share a hotel room with him tonight.
Just what she needed. A chance to act like an idiot, at just the moment her entire future had been shattered.
“Do you think your mom booked a place?” Jack asked.
“Oh! Yeah. Probably!” That would fix everything. Hailey could stay with her mom. Or, even if both she and Jack needed to stay
with her mom, that would keep Hailey from doing anything totally stupid.
But thinking of her mom reminded Hailey: She was not supposed to have called off the wedding.
Well, she hadn’t. Noah had.
Still, it was going to upset her mom for sure. Especially on top of everything else. Hailey rubbed her temple again.
“You okay, Hales?” Jack said. “Want me to drive?”
Hailey glanced over at him. “I’m okay for now,” she said, amazed again at how he paid attention. She could really get used
to that, she thought.