Live to Tell (Live to Tell #1)(62)

The moment Lauren read the text message on Lucy’s phone, her momentary elation that Nick was alive and well—which had just replaced her fear that something had happened to him—gave way to sheer rage.

He needs a few days off to think what through?

What the hell is he talking about?

Lauren immediately called—and texted—both his phones to ask him the details, and of course he had ignored her.

Coward.

He should have discussed the change in plans directly with her in the first place, not with the kids.

Ryan called from the pool to report a similar text message on his phone. He was so relieved to have heard from his father that he, like Lucy, didn’t seem to hold Nick accountable for their ruined Sunday plans or all the needless worry.

As far as the two of them are concerned, all that matters is that their father is okay. Then it was life as usual. By last night, they were both caught up in their typical exchange of phone calls and IMs with their friends.

Sadie—she’s a different story. She was terribly quiet yesterday, and skittish. She did seem relieved to hear that her father had been in touch, but something else seemed to be bothering her. She spent most of the day behind closed doors in her room.

Worried about her, Lauren called Dr. Rogel’s office and left a message with his answering service.

Someone called her back—a woman named Dr. Prentiss, who’s covering for the doctor while he’s on vacation.

“Dr. Rogel won’t be back for two weeks,” she told Lauren, “but I’d be happy to see your daughter.”

Lauren hesitated, wondering if she should just wait, rather than switch doctors now. But then it’s not as though Sadie was attached to Dr. Rogel. She only met the man once.

“If you’d rather hold off,” Dr. Prentiss said, “I can have him contact you when he gets back. Although I have to warn you that back-to-school is his busiest time of year, so it might take a few more weeks to get in.”

A few more weeks? No. Lauren made an appointment with Dr. Prentiss for today.

As she fills the coffee carafe with cold tap water, she thinks again of Nick.

What makes him think it’s okay to not show up for work, let alone to not see the kids when he’s supposed to?

He really has gone off the deep end. And that phone call on Saturday afternoon…to think she’d convinced herself that it might have been a call for help when her first instinct—that he’d inadvertently pocket-dialed her in the midst of passion—had so obviously been correct.

“Are you positive that was inadvertent?” Alyssa asked, when Lauren called her yesterday to report the latest.

“What? That’s…that’s sick. You think he called me on purpose, so that I’d have to listen to that?”

“I wouldn’t put anything past him. He’s a jerk. He doesn’t care about you and he doesn’t care about the kids, either.”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far. I think he loves them, in his own way.”

“Why are you defending him, Lauren? He doesn’t care about anyone, other than himself. You know what they say…the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

For a moment, she thought Alyssa was talking about the kids—Lauren’s kids, fathered by a selfish man who can’t be bothered with his responsibilities.

Then she realized her sister was referring to Nick’s own mother having run off and abandoned her family.

“What if he never comes back?” Lauren bleakly voiced the thought that had been on her mind since she saw the text message.

Now, she jabs the coffeemaker’s on button, remembering her sister’s matter-of-fact response.

“Well, Nick survived it. Maybe he figures his kids will, too.”

Lauren sinks into a kitchen chair, wishing she could find it impossible to believe Nick could actually think of it that way.

But who knows what Midlife Crisis Nick is capable of?

Not me. He’s a total stranger now.

Lauren wonders if he even bothered to contact the office after he resurfaced yesterday—and whether HR ever managed to get in touch with Beth. Marcia Kramer never called Lauren back with any updated information, and Lauren decided it wasn’t her place to call Marcia and let her know she’d heard from Nick.

Is Beth there with him as he thinks things through?

Wherever there is.

At first Lauren had assumed he was still at the island beach house, but maybe not. Vacation rentals on Martha’s Vineyard are notoriously heavily booked at this time of year, and they tend to run weekend to weekend. Besides, Nick already mentioned—several times—that the kids’ first week home from camp was the only week his vacation house was available.

Unless he had lied to her—or had planned all along to stay through this week.

“But if he did that,” Alyssa said when she brought up the possibility, “then he probably would have arranged to take extra vacation time from work, wouldn’t he?

“Probably. Considering that he cares about his job more than anything else.”

“Even Beth?”

Lauren didn’t bother to reply to that.

“Okay,” Alyssa went on, “so you honestly believe that this really might be a spur-of-the-moment thing?”

“I don’t know what to believe.”