Chapter Thirty-Three
Upon Jane’s return, Gigi denied her time off, mentioning that Jane wasn’t due any more vacation days. She’d been too dumbfounded to ask her boss to reconsider. It wasn’t as though the Thane-family-trip-turned-abduction-nightmare had been a weekend away at Four Seasons.
But instead of griping, Jane decided it was best for her and Teddy to barricade themselves in the poolside cottage that served as her apartment. After all, the Thanes’s sprawling estate looked like a vacation getaway.
For a few days, the staycation plan had worked. Jane worried she was pressing her luck as they secretly devoured good books and streamed movies—activities that his parents considered pedestrian. But what Dax and Gigi didn’t know wouldn’t kill them.
That morning after breakfast in the main house, they once again slipped to her cottage.
No one seemed to notice. Teddy sprawled on the soft carpet as he listened to a Minecraft audiobook and colored on a pad of sketch paper.
After the chapter ended, he turned the drawing and held it up. “What’d you think, Janie?”
Jane studied the little boxes stacked in columns and tried to decipher what he made. “Is that a castle?”
He laughed like she’d intentionally guessed wrong. “No.”
“Hmm.” She pursed her lips. “A bridge?”
Teddy’s giggles didn’t stop. “No!”
She paused the audiobook. “Give me a hint?”
“It’s what just happened in the book.”
Well, awesome. About ten minutes ago, the Minecraft tale of apple hunting and bridge building had turned into background noise. “It’s a house?”
“Yes!” He squealed in delight and returned to his sketchbook. “This is my house. And that’s my front door. The water slide to keep zombies away. This is my cow and chicken.”
How did she miss a herd of animals? She leaned over and squinted. The water slide must’ve been the black squares. The yellow and gray squares could’ve been the chicken, though she couldn’t find the cow. Unless he was part of the black water slide. “Is the cow taking a bath?”
Teddy rolled onto his back in a fit of giggles. “No, Janie. Cows can’t take baths.”
“Then what’s he doing?” she asked.
“He’s riding the water slide.”
She thumped her forehead. “Ah, of course!” Janie tickled his tummy. “The water-sliding cow.”
“I’m gonna peeeeeee.”
That was a great reason to stop tickling. “All right.” She pulled him onto her lap. “What should we do today?”
“Eat hot dogs.”
Not likely if Gigi had anything to say about it. Maybe the chef could find some kind of macrobiotic organic hot dog lookalike that they could smother in ketchup. “We can ask.”
Voices neared outside the cottage. Gigi’s lyrical laughter floated in the mix of the conversation. Teddy froze and put his finger against his lips. “Shhh.”
“We’re not hiding from your mom.” Though, they actually were…
He curled against her. “Is she coming in here?”
“Maybe.” But she hoped not. Jane stroked his soft hair.
They waited for the group outside the cottage to leave, but the conversation lingered.
“Let me see what’s going on.” Jane set Teddy to her side and snuck over to the window.
Gigi dressed in a fashionable black strapless jumpsuit.
She’d begun wearing black all the time, as if the Syria trip had put her in mourning.
For the loss of what, Jane could only guess.
Clearly, their sanity had left them long ago.
A camera crew surrounded her, and the group faced the enormous in-ground pool.
Teddy moved beside Jane. He wrapped an arm around her hip and skirted himself in front of her, pressing his face into her belly as though he couldn’t watch. “Are they coming?”
She rubbed his shoulders and recalled a similar conversation when she was Teddy’s age.
The only difference was that she had asked her uncle what her parents were doing.
He never had a good answer because there wasn’t one.
Instead, her uncle had let her hold on to him. She’d needed a comforting touch.
Her uncle hadn’t known how to give affection. It was one of the reasons he focused much of their time together on martial arts. Jane wondered if Teddy received enough affection from her and his aunt. They could always spend more time with his Aunt Courtney.
Jane watched the camera crew. They were different from the ones she’d seen over the last week.
Since they’d arrived home, Dax and Gigi had worked the national news network circuit.
Their harrowing story had been recounted again and again.
But this one was interested in the gardens and the pool.
Perhaps it was something like HGTV. The cameras pointed toward Gigi.
Microphones lifted and others fanned out.
Gigi smiled and began her well-rehearsed bit.
Her gestures pointed this way and that—then at the cottage.
The gaggle turned. Jane jerked them away from the window. The swaying curtain was the only evidence they’d been snooping.
“Are they coming in?” Teddy asked.
Her stomach turned. “I hope not.” She wasn’t exactly expecting a television crew to pop by her apartment, and Jane wasn’t the neatest person on earth.
Given their recent death-defying trip, Jane had given herself a break from laundry and dishes.
They were corralled in a laundry basket and lined on the counter, but it wasn’t pretty. Please don’t let her come here.
Voices came closer. She dropped onto her knees and faced Teddy.
“We should run,” he suggested.
In the back of Jane’s head, she saw the value in his suggestion. But the front door was the only way out.
Outside on her porch, Gigi conversed with a television interviewer. Their lively chat focused on the craftsman-style cottage that Jane called home. Gigi recalled the pains she’d taken to decorate the backyard oasis, then lightly knocked on her door. “And in here—”
Were they live on-air? Would a producer yell “cut”? Jane couldn’t breathe.
Someone sneezed. An audible groan welled as someone profusely apologized, and a deep voice yelled, “Cut.”
“She needs a touch-up anyway.” Jane recognized Gigi’s publicist, Lark. “Where’s the makeup girl?”
As quickly as the group appeared, they departed. Jane sighed in relief.
“That was a close one,” Teddy announced.
This poor kid. His life seemed so nice from the outside.
But really, he needed parents who wanted to spend time with him, not showcase their gardens.
“If they had come in, it would’ve been fine.
” She tried to reassure him, wrapping him in a snuggle-hug.
“We could’ve said hello and waved for the camera. ”
He shook his head and tilted his head back, revealing watery eyes. “Janie, I didn’t tell you.”
“What’s the matter? It would’ve been fine.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I colored on my shorts when I was drawing.”
“Oh, honey. That’s fine. Crayon washes out.” And even if it didn’t, he was a little kid!
“But I sat crisscross applesauce and my hand drew off the paper. Onto my leg.” He covered a spot on his khaki shorts. “My mom could have seen it.”
Jane lifted him into her arms and placed him on the counter, blowing raspberries on his neck until he giggled. When the threat of tears disappeared, Jane solemnly told him, “Crayon smudges are the reason God made washing machines.”
“God didn’t make washing machines,” Teddy pointed out with preschool wisdom.
Touché. “Well… he made people and people made washing machines.”
“I thought the museum we went to with Aunt Courtney said we revolved.”
“Evolved.” Jane grabbed the Tide pen from a kitchen drawer.
“Well…” She uncapped the pen and scrubbed at the stain, wondering what she should say.
Then Jane saw the clock. “Whoops. It’s time for your piano lesson.
” She swept him onto his feet and smoothed her hair back into a ponytail, quickly adjusting her gym shorts.
“I haven’t practiced.”
“You’ve been busy lately…” Recovering from an abduction at gunpoint after dangling from a Black Hawk. That was better left unsaid. Maybe the traumatic encounter would come in handy when writing college application essays. “It’ll be fine.”
Teddy slipped on his sneakers, and she grabbed her bag of water and snacks, then cracked the front door and peered out. “The coast is clear.”
Quickly, they kept their heads down and hustled to the main house. The piano teacher might already be waiting.
Teddy faltered when high-pitched, sing-song voices rolled from the far side of the deck. Jane couldn’t see Gigi and the camera crew, but knew their trajectory was on course for a collision.
Teddy pulled her hand. “Janie, run!”