Live to Tell (Live to Tell #1)(38)

No. Lauren is actually looking forward to her outing in the city. She’s exchanged her usual shorts and flipflops for a little black dress she found in the back of her closet last night. She’d worn it years ago, for someone’s wedding, but a couple of kids later, had been unable to squeeze into it again.

It fits now, though. It’s even a little baggy. But at least it’s presentable.

While she was browsing through her closet, she found countless outfits that are suitable for the tag sale. She’ll get back to filling boxes later, or tomorrow. It was cathartic.

“Can I call Ian?” Ryan interrupts her thoughts.

“Mom already said no,” Lucy reminds her brother. “Why don’t you stop asking?”

He shoots her a glare and turns back to Lauren. “Mom, this is so stupid. We’re sitting here wasting a beautiful day and Dad’s not even going to show up.”

He has a point. The sun is shining in a brilliant blue sky, and the heat wave has broken—for now, anyway. The temperature is in the low eighties and a refreshing breeze stirs the white ruffled curtains at the windows.

“Anyway, how do you know Dad’s not going to show up?”

“I just do, okay?” Ryan tells his sister.

“No, you don’t.”

The phone rings, putting an abrupt end to the bickering.

“Daddy!” Sadie exclaims, as Lucy answers it with an anticipatory “Hello?”

Lauren sees her face fall immediately.

“Oh, hi, Aunt Alyssa. Yeah, she’s right here. Hold on.” Lucy glumly hands the phone to Lauren.

She lifts it to her ear. “Hi.”

“Why aren’t you on a train?”

“We’re still waiting for Nick, so…”

“Where the hell is he?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing.”

“I’ll change the reservation again. Do you think two-thirty is safe?”

“No, just go ahead without me. Even if he shows up now, there’s no way I can catch a train in time to meet you.”

“Three?”

“No, seriously, Lys, forget it for today.”

“This is so unfair of him to do to you, Lauren.”

Never mind me…what about the kids?

She hangs up, unsettled.

“I want to do something with my friends, Mom,” Ryan says promptly. “Please? I haven’t seen Ian all summer and—”

“Okay, okay. Go ahead and call him.”

Ryan makes a beeline out of the room.

“Thanks, Mom,” Lauren calls after him.

“Thanks, Mom,” he calls back, footsteps pounding up the stairs.

“Why did you let him go?” Lucy asks, turning on Lauren.

“Because he’s right. He hasn’t seen Ian all summer, and it’s a beautiful day.”

“But what if Daddy shows up and Ryan’s not here?”

“We’ll deal with that when it happens.”

If it happens.

Where on earth are you, Nick? Are you okay?

“Hey, Mom! I need a ride to Ian’s,” Ryan calls from the top of the stairs.

It’s Lucy who responds, clearly exasperated. “How about asking and saying please?”

“You’re not Mom!”

“I am,” Lauren calls, “and how about saying please?”

She can just see Ryan rolling his eyes before offering a perfunctory “Please?”

“Okay.” Lauren turns to her daughters. “Come on, we’ll all go. We can drop off Ryan at Ian’s and go to the mall to buy some back-to-school clothes.”

“Yes!” Lucy fist-pumps the air as Sadie looks up from her Goldfish crackers, stricken.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Sure you do. We can shop together,” Lucy tells her little sister. “Won’t that be fun? I’ll help you pick out some new big girl shoes for school.”

“I don’t want new shoes.”

“Come on, Sadie, everyone needs new shoes for kindergarten. And nice new dresses, and—”

“But what about Daddy?”

“Daddy couldn’t come today, sweetie,” Lauren tells her gently. “But Lucy and I want to take you shopping.”

Sadie looks down, saying nothing.



Lounging beneath an umbrella, his toes buried in hot sand, Garvey watches Caroline paddle back into the breakers on her surfboard.

“That’s far enough,” he calls, but his daughter can’t possibly hear him over the pounding waves.

Marin, in a chair beside him, looks up from her book. “She’s careful. Don’t worry.”

Don’t worry.

Yeah, right.

Worrying about Caroline comes as naturally as breathing for Garvey. You don’t live through the horror of almost losing a child without becoming hypervigilant.

Garvey sits forward in his canvas chair, shielding his eyes with his hand.

“Did you come out here just so you could keep an eye on her?” Marin asks.

“No,” he replies truthfully. “But now that I’m here…”

“I’m just glad you are.” His wife reaches over and squeezes his hand. “That was the best surprise ever.”