Chapter Thirty-Five
Hayley has been awake for a while, but she’s still lying in bed, just relaxing and thinking about stuff.
Sometimes she does that at home, but it’s way better here.
The bed is huge, with silky white sheets and plump pillows and a comforter that feels like a fluffy white cloud. Overhead, there’s a carved plaster medallion with a beautiful light fixture hanging from the center. It has frosted glass globes that are painted like flowers.
She took a picture of it to show Chloe, who loves floral things. She’ll tell Chloe that it’s from Paris, because it probably is.
When she grows up, she’s going to have the same light in her house. And the same bed. And she’s going to live in a mansion. Chloe can come over for sleepovers any time she wants.
But not Maddie Miller.
Last night, she was there when Hayley was FaceTiming with Chloe, acting like she’s slept over at Chloe’s house a million times, which she has not.
Hayley has. Not a million, but a lot.
It bothered her to see Maddie in Chloe’s room, with the trundle bed pulled out and Maddie’s stuff all over it in a messy way, which isn’t polite when you’re company at someone’s house.
It bothered her almost as much that Chloe didn’t seem to mind that, or when Maddie called her “Chlo,” which no one ever does.
And it really bothered her when Maddie said that Chloe’s mom is taking the two of them back-to-school shopping today in White Plains.
“Wait, are you going to Nordstrom Rack?” Hayley asked, because she and Chloe wanted to go there before school starts. They’d seen outfits on the store’s website that would be perfect to wear the first day, and Hayley has saved up all her babysitting money to get hers.
“I don’t know. We’re going to Target, for sure, because the middle school sent out a supplies list and there’s a lot of stuff on it that we never had to get for elementary school,” Maddie said.
“Right?” Chloe said.
“Right?” Hayley said, like she was aware.
She would have been, if she were home. She’d be going shopping with Chloe and her mom instead of Maddie.
They’d go to Nordstrom Rack, and she’d try on the jeans she loves that are crazy expensive, and the sweater that will look epic with them as long as it’s not a thousand degrees out when school starts.
The thing that bothered her the most, though, is that she really wanted to talk to Chloe about the DNA test. But she didn’t want to bring it up in front of Maddie.
“Hey, Hayley, did you find your grandfather yet?”
“You told her?” Hayley asked Chloe.
“Yes! Wait, why? Was it a secret? You never said it was a secret.”
No, Hayley hadn’t, but she’d assumed. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be with best friends? You tell each other stuff, and you don’t expect the other person to go blabbing to any rando who comes along.
Although Maddie isn’t acting like a rando. She’s acting like she’s best friends with Chloe too.
Hayley hears footsteps outside her door, and then a knock. “Hayley?”
It’s Mom.
The door opens.
Normally, Hayley would tell her she shouldn’t just barge into people’s rooms uninvited, but Chloe thinks she should tell her about the search for her dad while they’re here in Mulberry Bay.
She sits up. “Can you come in and shut the door, please?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I just want to tell you something.”
“Oh, honey.” Mom shuts the door, comes over, and sits on the edge of the bed. “Did you get it?”
“Did I get what?”
“Your first period! Don’t worry, I’ve been prepared for this for years. I’ve got everything you—”
“What? No!” Annoyed with her mother’s eager, girl-to-girl attitude, she flops back on her pillow with her arms crossed on her chest.
“You didn’t get it?”
“Geez, no!”
“Well, any day now. And like I said, I’m all prepared. What did you want to tell me?”
“Never mind.”
“No, tell me.”
Why does it now feel more like she’s about to make a confession instead of giving her mother a nice surprise?
Because Mom will know that Hayley’s been listening in on her private conversations with Dad, that’s why.
But now she has to tell her something, so she says, “Remember how you were saying there are cute little stores in town? I was thinking maybe we could go back-to-school shopping today.”
“Maybe later, but right now, we’re going to the beach! Come on. You don’t want to miss it.”
What she didn’t want to miss was a sleepover at her best friend’s house, and it’s all Mom’s fault that she isn’t there, and that Maddie is. She doesn’t care about the stupid beach with her stupid family.
“I just want to sleep. I was up late. I’m tired. Go without me.”
“We are not going without you. This is a family vacation. You’re part of the family, so you’re coming with us. You love the beach.”
Hayley can’t argue with that. Still . . .
“Who goes to the beach at the crack of dawn? That’s crazy!”
“Okay, it is not the crack of dawn, and there’s a storm coming this afternoon. It’s now or never.”
“Fine. Never.” She rolls back onto her side and pulls the fluffy cloud comforter over her head.
For a second, nothing happens, and she thinks maybe Mom left.
Then the comforter is yanked back.
She lets out a yowl. “Stop! Leave me alone! I’m not going!” She pulls the comforter and holds it tight over her head.
“You’re going!” Mom tugs at it.
Hayley refuses to let go. “I want to stay here and sleep! It’s my vacation too!”
“You can’t stay here alone!”
“That’s crazy! I’m twelve years old! I stay home alone all the time!”
“That’s different!”
“How is it different?” she shrieks. “Stop treating me like a baby!”
“What’s going on in here?”
It’s Dad, standing in the doorway. He’s wearing sunglasses, running shorts, and sneakers.
“Mom won’t let me sleep!”
“Because we’re going to the beach,” Mom says, then, “Ben, I was just coming to tell you too. You need to change and get ready.”
“I’m going for a run.”
“In this heat?” Mom asks, like he just said he’s going to dive into a spewing volcano.
“Yes, in this heat. I thought we were going later.”
“It’s going to storm later. We’re going right after breakfast. Which is ready, by the way.”
“You know I can’t eat before a run, Tal’.”
“Well, would you rather go for a run, or have a nice breakfast and go to the beach?”
“He wants to go for a run!” Hayley tells her mother. “God! No one cares about the beach except you!”
“Caleb cares! He wants to go!”
Hayley flops over again with a groan. Of course it’s about Caleb. It’s always about Caleb.
“We need to get there while the weather’s still nice so that we can be back before it changes,” Mom tells Dad. “You know how storms scare him.”
“Everything scares him!” Hayley tells her pillow.
“Hayley! You know he can’t help that. It’s because he has—”
“It’s because you treat him like a baby, Mom! That’s why! Okay? You treat everyone like a baby! Including me!”
“Then stop acting like one!”
“You stop acting like a complete bitch!”
For a moment, there’s silence.
Then Mom says, “You know what? I just can’t with this right now. I’m done. I’m going to the beach with Caleb and Kelly.”
Kelly’s going? Hayley didn’t realize that.
She shoves off the comforter and sits up to say she’s coming; she just needs some time to get ready.
Mom is already gone.
Dad is standing there, shaking his head. Not at Hayley. Not like he’s mad at her. Not even like he’s mad at anyone. He just looks sad.
“You can sleep,” he tells Hayley, turning and walking away. “I’m going for a run. We’ll meet them at the beach later.”
She sinks back into the bed, wishing she could undo the last few minutes. It would have been fun to go to the beach. It’s probably her last chance of the summer.
They used to go a lot in Florida, with Granny Nat.
And last year, they rented a beach house in the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and that was fun.
The whole family in a good mood all week.
Mom and Dad laughed a lot and held hands when they walked, and Caleb wasn’t scared of everything for a change.
Only sharks, and waves, and the wild horses on the beach.
But other than that, he was almost like a regular brother for a change.
Now everything is back to the way it used to be, only way worse. Especially today.
But it’s too late to fix things.
There’s nothing for Hayley to do but go back to sleep or just hang around Haven Cliff by herself.
Well, maybe not totally by herself.
She thinks again of the person she saw in the woods. It would be epic if it turned out to be a ghost, but way more epic if it’s a movie star. Or her grandfather. Or her grandfather who’s a movie star.
Whoever it is definitely seemed like they were hiding.