Good Girl Bad (26)
Freddy looks alarmed. “God no, please don’t say anything.” She thinks that if Tabby’s mad at her now, knowing she’d spoken candidly to Rebecca would make it a thousand times worse. Though for the life of her, she can’t work out why Tabby has so much hostility toward her mother. Rebecca seems to spoil Tabby rotten. Freddy wished her mother would buy her designer clothes and custom jewelry. “I’m sure it will be fine tomorrow. She just needs a bit more space than she used to. And I still want things to be the same as they always were.”
Not quite the same though, Freddy thinks to herself. The sleepovers, the easy camaraderie, the mucking around.
But maybe also a bit of kissing and touching each other, too.
21
Wednesday
Loud knocking on the door drags Nate from his dreams.
Shit.
He was meant to be looking out for them all, not sleeping on the kitchen table.
Opening the door, it takes him a moment to recognize the couple standing on the doorstep.
“Nate?” Cheryl squints at him, like she can’t quite believe her eyes.
Nate just stares back, equally perplexed.
He hasn’t seen Rebecca’s parents in at least ten years. He’s only met them a handful of times. They didn’t even come to his and Rebecca’s wedding.
For a moment, he fumbles over their names. “Cheryl. Rob. Hi.”
They all stand around awkwardly, then Nate shakes himself, and invites them inside.
“Coffee?” he asks, thinking that unless things have changed remarkably since he left, Rebecca is going to wake up and lose her mind.
Not his problem anymore.
A few hours earlier, she had eventually agreed to go back to bed. Nate glances at the clock. 8:01 a.m. At least they both got a little sleep, even if he failed in his protective duties.
He supposes letting Cheryl and Rob into the house might be considered a double failure.
“No, thanks. We had some on the way.” There’s a long pause, then Cheryl adds, “Rebecca’s not returning our calls. Genevieve filled us in.”
Nate looks up sharply. He didn’t even know Genevieve knew her grandparents’ phone number, let alone would call them in a time of distress.
“It’s nice to see you, Nate.” Cheryl looks emotional, and for a moment Nate thinks she is going to burst into tears. Her husband puts his hand over hers.
Nate busies himself making a coffee for himself. The very idea of emotional ex-parents-in-law in his ex-wife’s kitchen is making his head hurt. If he’s honest, he can’t even remember any of the details why Rebecca didn’t talk to her parents. They had a falling out? They were uninvolved when she was a kid, and she was happy to leave home and leave them behind? Rebecca certainly never filled him in, and did not welcome any inquiries on the matter. All he can remember her saying was “we’re just not a close family, okay?”
He wishes he’d shown more interest. It suited him to not delve into that. It seemed difficult, and fraught, and he’d just let it slide.
“It’s been a long time,” Nate says now, slowly. “The kids must have been tiny. One of their birthdays, maybe?”
“No. We were never invited to their birthdays.” Cheryl holds Nate’s eyes steadily. “We dropped in on Moira’s birthday one year. Tabby was six.”
Nate remembers the day with a start. Rebecca had been furious, had sent them packing. Never mind that they’d driven three hours to see her.
“It’s just like them to not give me notice, just expect me to drop everything,” she had fumed. She had a hair appointment and she refused to postpone it; her hairdresser was so hard to get in to, she wouldn’t get another chance for months.
Nate had had the feeling that she was glad of the excuse.
“I didn’t realize it was Moira’s birthday,” Nate says now, perplexed that that was the day that they had chosen to visit. “You must still miss her.” Did they try to visit Rebecca because they wanted to be with family on Moira’s birthday? To reminisce? To support each other? He pauses, and no one fills the silence. “I’m sorry you couldn’t stay that day. I don’t really understand your relationship with Rebecca. She never wanted to talk about it.” He feels guilty still, as though he ought to be giving them the cold shoulder, showing his allegiance to Rebecca, even though she refused to share the details of why. He can’t shake the need to be a good husband.
A good ex-husband.
“Yes, well.” Cheryl looks primly down at the table. “You and us both. But now’s not the time to quibble over past differences, is it? We want to help. Tell us what we can do.”
“Well. The police are looking for Tabby. But someone was in her room last night. Looking for something. So perhaps—”
“What?” Rob is on his feet. He’s a big man.
“We thought she’d run away?”
“Look, we don’t know what happened. But someone needs to be with Gen. That’s probably the best you can do to help. Take her out of here, even. If she’ll go, and if Rebecca agrees to it.”
“Agrees to what?”
Rebecca is standing in the doorway, slowly taking in the scene in her kitchen. She looks tired. Nate realizes he’s holding his breath. He lets it out with a long sigh.