Lighthouse Road (Cedar Cove #1)(82)

Grace shook her head. With only herself to cook for, it was easier to toss a frozen entrée into the microwave. Wednesdays she generally skipped dinner altogether. By the time she got home from aerobics, she was too tired to eat.

“Not yet.”

“Want to meet at the Pancake Palace?” Olivia suggested.

Grace wasn’t hungry, but it beat walking into an empty house. “Sure.”

She took her time showering and changing into her street clothes. She hadn’t done more than chat with her friend in several weeks, and she was looking forward to a real conversation. Sure, they saw each other, but there was rarely an opportunity to say more than a few words in passing.

Olivia had already secured the booth when Grace arrived. She slid in across from her and reached for the menu tucked, as always, behind the napkin canister.

“Wasn’t this our booth back in high school?” Olivia asked.

Grace had to think about that. Was it? “I don’t remember, but it might be.”

“Remember how Kenny Thomas broke up with me right here in the Pancake Palace?” Olivia reminded her.

“The rat fink.”

Their eyes met and they smiled, chasing memories. But Grace’s amusement faded as she recalled how often she’d met Dan here during their high-school days. How different her life might have been if he’d broken up with her, or she’d had the courage to return his high-school ring. Even then, while she was still a teenager, Grace had sensed that they didn’t bring out the best in each other. Deep down, Dan had known it, too. Then, just before graduation, Grace had discovered she was pregnant. Dan had wanted to marry her and she’d managed to convince herself it was the right thing to do.

“Kelly and I met here for dinner not long ago,” Grace told her, breaking off her thoughts before she fell into the abyss of self-pity. It was the night Kelly had persuaded her not to file for divorce. She’d promised to wait until after the baby was born, but she’d regretted that decision ever since.

“I envy your relationship with your daughters,” Olivia admitted.

“Aren’t you and Justine getting along?”

Olivia gave a slight shrug. “We don’t argue, if that’s what you mean, but we don’t talk openly. I heard through the grapevine that Warren’s asked her to marry him, but she hasn’t even mentioned his proposal to me.”

“Maybe she knows what you’ll say.”

Olivia’s eyes turned thoughtful. “I’ve vowed not to be negative, but it isn’t easy.”

One thing Dan’s disappearance had done was bring Grace closer to her daughters. They talked at least once a day, mostly to encourage and support each other. After the latest episode, they’d decided they could no longer bear not knowing where Dan was. The girls were willing to help with the expense of the private investigator; they felt as desperate for answers as Grace did.

“I hired Roy McAfee again last week.” Grace had talked to him soon after Dan’s disappearance, and decided after his initial investigation that she couldn’t afford his services anymore. As the weeks crept by, she’d come to understand that neither she nor the girls could afford not to hire him. They had to know what had happened to her husband, and there seemed to be no other way. “The frustration is driving me insane.”

“Do the girls approve?”

Grace nodded. “They’re the ones who talked me into it. They want answers as badly as I do. Badly enough to help foot the bill.” Hiring a private detective was expensive, but as Maryellen had said—only half joking—the medical bills for a nervous breakdown would be far higher.

Something inside Grace had snapped the night she cleared out Dan’s closet. She should probably have checked herself into a psychiatric ward. She’d reached her limit, and her daughters had immediately recognized it even if she hadn’t.

“What did Roy say?”

“I gave him what information I could, and he promised to get back to me.”

“Did you tell him about your suspicions?”

Grace sighed and picked up her fork, squinting at the water spots. “He didn’t agree or disagree with me. But I have faith that if there’s another woman, he’ll find out who it is.”

“And,” Olivia said, leaning forward, “what proof were you able to give him?”

“Not a damn thing.” Grace had searched through everything Dan owned and come away all the more confused. How careful he’d been, how clever. Not a shred of evidence remained—at least, nothing tangible she could hand over to Roy.

“But gut instinct tells you there’s someone else?”

She nodded slowly. “As I think back, I see more and more clues.”

“Such as?”

“You know Dan. He didn’t care much about appearances, but recently I started remembering little things about the first time he went missing.”

“Like what?”

“That morning was the same as always, but I realized later that he’d combed his hair and shaved. Dan usually shaved at night. He altered his routine that day.”

“He was meeting her?”

“That’s my guess.”

“What about this time?”

Grace had reviewed their last morning together a hundred times or more. “I can’t remember exactly, but I think so.” What she did recall was the faint scent of his aftershave as he collected his lunch bucket from the counter and headed out the door.