Evercrossed (14 page)

Twenty two

WILL AND IVY BURIED THE FIRE AN HOUR LATER. IVY wished she could ride home on the back of Guy's motorbike, but she could see that Will was still hurting and would feel betrayed if she didn't return with him and Dhanya.

All of them went to bed early, and Ivy slept solidly until three a.m., when she was jolted awake. Opening her eyes, she became instantly alert, as if someone had called to her.

She sat up, listening intently. Beth, Dhanya, and Kelsey remained asleep. Ivy knelt by the window, pressing her face against the screen, but she neither saw nor heard anyone outside.

Rising to her feet, she slipped on her T-shirt and jeans, then picked up her shoes and wallet, and tiptoed down the steps. Outside the cottage the full moon was high, silvering the garden. Ivy paused only a moment to take in the quiet night, then walked to her car with purpose, as if she had planned hours ago to return to Race Point.

She coasted in neutral with her headlights off until she reached the paved road, then flicked them on and drove. There was a part of Ivy that stood outside herself, wondering at her own actions.

This feeling of being called—had it come from a dream? All she knew was that whatever had awakened her, it was something beyond herself.

Ivy left her car in an empty lot at Race Point and walked toward the sea. The rich colors of sunset and bonfire had burned away. The landscape of dune and ocean, bathed in the light of the moon, seemed otherworldly. "I knew you'd come."

At the sound of Guy's voice. Ivy's heart stopped. Guy had followed her from the path through the dunes. In the moonlight his fair hair was tarnished silver.

''Did you? How?"

"I couldn't sleep, and I kept thinking. She's going back. I have to be there." He stopped six inches from her. "What made you return?" he asked.

"I don't know. I felt like I was being called." They walked together to the fire pit.

Ivy had left a single lavender rose on top of the buried fire. Picking it up, she touched its velvet petals with one finger. "He brought you lavender roses," Guy said.

"You knew that?"

"When I saw the expression on your face, I knew." Ivy dropped her eyes.

"I was trying to help," Guy told her. "I'm sorry if I made you hurt more."

"You didn't. It felt like—a kind of miracle—getting those roses. It felt like ... a message from Tristan."

Guy reached for her hand. "Come here. I found a good place to sit." He led her to a sheltered spot between sandy knolls that rustled with beach grass. Sitting on the sand, they rested their backs against a bleached log.

"When you and Will were talking about Tristan," Guy said, "I felt like I knew him." Ivy gazed into Guy's eyes hopefully. "How did Tristan die?" he asked.

"Gregory cut his car's brake line," Ivy replied. "We were driving on a winding road, and there was a deer, and another car. We couldn't stop. I lived. Tristan didn't." She searched Guy's face for a flicker of recognition, but he looked away before she could read his eyes. "Was Gregory jealous of Tristan?" he asked. "Was Gregory in love with you?"

"No, I was the target. I had run into Gregory the night he killed his mother and—"

"His mother!"

"—he thought that I knew he had done it."

"Even so," Guy said, "was Gregory in love with you?"

"For a while he pretended to care. I would wake up from terrible dreams, and he would be there. He was so gentle with me. He would hold me until I went back to sleep."

"So, maybe—"

"No. At the end it was clear—Gregory hated me."

"Love can fuel hate," Guy observed He drew a triangle in the sand and traced it twice, frowning. "What is it?" Ivy asked. He shook his head. 

"I don't know. Sometimes something seems familiar, and then I lose the thread again."

Ivy reached and smoothed his cheek with the backs of her fingers. "I'm haunted by a past I can't forget, and you're haunted by a past you can't remember."

Guy encircled her with his arms. "So. let's live in the present. Every moment I have with you feels like a gift."

They leaned against the log, gazing up at the stars. His tender kiss became a passionate one. After a while, Guy took off his shirt and spread it on the sand, then lay back on the edge of it, leaving most of the soft fabric for Ivy. She lay down and rested against his chest.

"Sleep, now." he said, holding her securely in his arms. "We're together now. Sleep."

IVY AWOKE TO A SKY STREAKED WITH PEACH AND pink in the east. Guy's arms were still around her, his eyes closed. She slid onto her side and propped herself up on one elbow, studying his face, the golden lashes and rough beard.

With one finger she traced the shape of his lips. His eyes opened. "Good morning," he said softly. "How'd you sleep?"

"Great. I found a good pillow. How about you?"

He raised himself far enough to kiss her shoulder. *I found a sleep mate who doesn't have fleas." She shoved him down, laughing. "What time do you have to be at work?" he asked.

"Work!" Ivy sat up and fumbled for her cell phone. It was dead. "Do you know what time it is?"

Guy pulled his phone from his pocket. "A little after five."

"The inn's almost an hour away, and I start work at six thirty!"

"Back to reality," Guy said, rising to his feet, then extending a hand to her. She picked up his shirt and shook it clean.

Guy, who had parked his motorbike by the visitors' center, caught up with Ivy and followed her down Route 6. By the time they arrived at the Seabright's lot, the sun was shooting yellow rays through gaps in the dark scrub pine. Climbing off his bike, Guy checked his phone again. "Five fifty eight," he told her.

Ivy leaned against her car, reluctant to say good bye. "You know, Beth has always said that cars are like clothes—details that develop a story's character."

"And?"

"What kind of car would you like to drive?" she asked.

"Something with a lot of horsepower that looks good with dents." Ivy grinned. Hand in hand, they walked the path toward the cottage.

"What do you think you did drive?"

"Probably somebody else's old car. Like my parents' or—I don't even know—"

His voice cracked. "I don't even know if I have parents."

"What kind of parents would you want to have? How about a mother who's a doctor?" Ivy felt Guy pull back. "That's dangerous. Ivy."

"What is?" she asked defensively.

"Imagining things about me. I don't want to get confused. I don't want to mix up what really happened with the things that I want"—he hesitated—"that I want so badly to be true."

What do you want to be true? Ivy was about to ask, then she saw him turn his head toward the cottage.

Beth sat on the swing. Will on the doorstep, both of them with arms folded.

"Where have you been?" Beth asked, her voice hard.

"Race Point," Ivy replied.

"Why did you go back? Why did he?" Ivy bit back anger at Beth's reference to Guy in the third person.

"We wanted to."

Will stood up abruptly and strode away without a word. Beth rose from the swing. At the same time Kelsey appeared at the cottage's door, still wearing her satin nightie.

"Well, well, well," she said, holding open the screen door. "Ivy, the good girl, who'd never sneak off on a midnight adventure, returns at dawn." Kelsey winked at Guy. "Looks to me like Ivy had a lot better night than we did."

Beth pushed her way past Kelsey, entering the cottage. Kelsey glanced over her shoulder, then said, "You owe me, Ivy, for not letting Beth run to Aunt Cindy, getting you in a heap of trouble. And you owe me and Dhanya for a lost hour of sleep. Beth was hysterical."

Ivy turned to Guy. "You had better go," she said softly. "Talk to you later, okay?" He squeezed her hand and silently headed back to the lot. A half hour later, Ivy was the last one to arrive at the inn's kitchen, dressed for work.

It must have been obvious from Will's grim expression, Beth's stiffness, the gleam in Kelsey's eye, and the furtive glances from Dhanya that something had occurred overnight. Aunt Cindy quickly assessed them, and instead of assigning jobs said, "Today I'll need one of you in the garden, one with me for breakfast, one cleaning the room that was vacated late, and two to wash down the porch. Figure it out." Then she left them to make her usual pot of high powered coffee.

Ivy, wanting to be away from the others, chose the least favorite job, cleaning the room. With work light that morning, all of them finished up early. Ivy headed for the beach below the inn. She walked halfway down the fifty two wood steps that descended the bluff and sat for a few minutes on the landing with the benches.

She wanted to think about Guy, to remember each sweet moment with him, to run through every sign that Tristan had come back to her. After a while, she descended the remainder of the steps and walked by the water.

Darker thoughts began to creep into her mind. What if Lacey was right, Ivy wondered, and Tristan had done something forbidden when he saved her? If he was hiding inside of Guy, could her loving Guy damn Tristan's soul forever?

At last she returned to the inn and climbed the steps, deep in thought.

"Ivy."

Lifting her head, she saw Beth and Will standing on the landing. Grim faced, shoulder to shoulder, they made Ivy think of sword bearing angels forbidding Adam and Eve's return to Eden.

"Excuse me," Ivy said, trying to get past them.

They blocked her way. "We need to talk," Will said. "Things have gone too far." Ivy blinked.

"What is this, an intervention?"

"Call it whatever you want," he replied. "We're doing it because we care. Ivy, you're not making good decisions."

"You're taking huge risks!' Beth said.

"I'm taking the same risk as anyone who has ever loved a person." 

Beth shook her head. "But you don't know who Guy is."

"Actually, I believe I know Guy better than he knows himself."

"Which," Will reminded her, "is just what you said about Gregory when his mother was found dead. You felt sorry for him and made excuses for his reckless ways. You said that living with him, you understood him. Now you're making excuses for Guy."

"You're making excuses for a person who can't remember why he was in a fight brutal enough to kill him," Beth added. "For all you know," Will said, "Guy could have killed someone and been beaten up in the process."

"That's crazy!" Ivy exclaimed. "As crazy as thinking Guy was the driver who ran Beth and me off the road!"

"Ivy, he's pretending he can't remember. Why are you so gullible?" Will cried.

"And why are you so ready to think the worst of someone?" she countered.

"I got an e-mail from Suzanne." Beth said quietly.

"You did?" Ivy leaned against the railing, feeling suddenly worn down by the arguing.

"She's been dreaming about Gregory." Ivy thought for a moment.

"That's not surprising."

"She's been dreaming about him for the last two weeks."

"Beth, all of us have been thinking about Gregory and Tristan for the last two weeks," Ivy pointed out.

"I read the e-mails," Will said. "Suzanne can't remember the dreams—she just knows she's talking to Gregory."

"In the dreams, you mean," Ivy responded. "She's reliving past scenes."

Will clenched his fists with impatience. "I said she can't remember the dreams. But she feels like he is haunting her."

Ivy looked from one to the other. Will's forehead was beaded with perspiration.

Beth's fingers pinched her amethyst so hard, their tips had turned bloodless white.

"It was bound to happen," Ivy reasoned. "When Gregory died and the truth came out, Suzanne handled it 'beautifully' as everyone said. But there's no way a person can handle that kind of situation 'beautifully.' It's a nightmare and it will produce nightmares, and it will not go away until it has. There is no shortcut to healing from it. Suzanne is finally doing that now."

"No. Gregory is back," Beth insisted, taking two steps down to Ivy. She laid a cold hand on her arm. "Ivy, you almost lost your life two weeks ago —in a car accident, just like the one Gregory caused last year. What will it take for you to believe me?"

Ivy pulled her arm free and slipped through the gap between her friends. "Your imagination's running away with you, Beth. You and Will have made up your minds, and you're not even trying to listen to me."

"I'm listening," Beth called over her shoulder. "And I hear things that you cannot."

Twenty three

IT FELT STRANGE, BEING AT ODDS WITH HER TWO best friends. Ivy was worried about Beth, but there was no point in discussing her concerns with Will, not now, when he was convinced that Ivy was the one going off the deep end.

Late that afternoon, having made plans to go with Guy to a summer carnival, Ivy went upstairs to look for something special to wear. She found Beth pacing the bedroom, her cell phone pressed to her ear.

"No, I'm busy," Beth said to the caller. "I've already made plans for tonight."

Listening for a moment, Beth frowned. "I never said that, Chase. . . . No, you can't come with me."

Seeing Ivy, Beth turned her back and hunched over the phone.

Ivy watched her for a moment in the mirror, then continued toward her bureau.

"Sorry, I have to go," Beth said, and clicked off the phone.

Ivy glanced over her shoulder. A week ago, she would have sat on the bed, patted the place next to her, and asked her friend, How's everything? Now she gazed silently at Beth, who frowned at her image in the mirror, wriggling her shoulders as if she had touched something distasteful, and headed downstairs.

"STRAWBERRY DAYS!" IVY SAID SEVERAL HOURS LATER, happily slipping her hand in Guy's and gazing up at a banner that stretched between two antique fire trucks. The annual week long carnival, which raised money for the Cape's fire departments, was a colorful jumble of booths and rides spread beneath strings of lights.

"Where do you want to start?" she asked.

"Games," said Guy, smiling down at her. "I feel lucky tonight. How about darts? Over there."

The booth, tended by a woman wearing a fire hat, had rows of red, white, and blue balloons. Guy plunked down two dollars.

"Here's your darts," the woman said with a strong Massachusetts accent. "Good luck."

Guy picked up a dart and turned it in his hands, examining it. "I can't remember . . . which way does it go?" he asked Ivy, then laughed at her reaction.

"I'm kidding." Raising his arm, he aimed and threw. Pop!

"One!" said the woman. He missed with the next dart. "One for two." Guy set his jaw and threw—Pop!—and threw again. Pop! "Three for four," the woman announced. Guy threw the final dart. Pop! "Four for five! Pick a prize, any row, sir!"

Guy turned to Ivy. "What would you like?"

"You choose," Ivy told him, curious to see what he would select. Guy studied the rainbow of stuffed animals. "Top row, third from the left." The woman handed him a plush white horse with wings. "It's either an angel horse or Pegasus," Guy told Ivy as he laid the stuffed toy in her hands.

"Pegasus," she repeated. "You know your mythology."

Guy gave her a crooked smile. "More proof that I'm a classy guy."

"I always knew it! Thank you," Ivy said, tucking the toy under her arm. "Peg is very sweet."

They moved on to another booth and took turns tossing hoops over bottles, then caught a ride on the Ferris wheel, rising and falling through the twinkling lights of the carnival.

"Want another ride or dinner?" Guy asked her when they got off.

"Dessert for me," Ivy said. "And then another ride. And then another dessert."

He laughed and they walked with arms around each other, following the signs to the food concessions. On the way, Ivy was flagged down by Max.

"Ivy, over here!" he called. He and Beth were sitting on a bench near the bumper cars. "Who's that?" Guy asked.

"Max. And Beth."

"Is Will here tonight?" Guy's voice held a tinge of uneasiness.

"I think they all came together," she replied, and saw the guarded way Guy glanced around.

"Why don't you get in line at the burger stand while I say hello," Ivy suggested.

She joined Max and Beth, squeezing onto the bench. "Hey, where are the others?"

Max pointed. "In the Dodg'ems. Beth didn't want to drive one. And I know how Bryan and Kelsey get into slamming cars, so I didn't want to either." Ivy smiled, then stood for a moment to watch. The bumper cars were the old fashioned kind, with tall black poles ending in snakelike tongues that licked and sparked across a metal ceiling. Will and Dhanya drove smoothly around the polished floor; Bryan, Kelsey, and someone else, spun their cars like lunatics, causing multiple crashes.

"Is that Chase?" Ivy asked, surprised.

"Yes," Max replied, when Beth didn't.

"The smell," Beth murmured. "Ivy, that terrible smell."

"Kind of like burnt hair?" Max asked. "Bumper cars always smell that way."

Ivy sat down. "I didn't think Chase was coming tonight."

"Neither did we," Max replied. "He was waiting in the parking lot and followed us in."

"Be careful!" Beth said. "It's dangerous!" Ivy frowned. Was it Chase who was scaring Beth?

"It's electric, but it's safe," Max assured her. Beth shook her head, twisting the chain of her pendant. They were carrying on two different conversations. Ivy realized, neither seeming aware that the other didn't understand.

The cars stopped, and Kelsey, Bryan, and Chase kept up their boisterous shoving and laughing as they came down the exit ramp. Will and Dhanya followed quietly.

"Hey, Ivy! You should have been out there with us, you and Guy," Kelsey said, then stopped to look around. "Where is Mystery Man?" Ivy pointed over her shoulder toward the burger stand.

"Getting something to eat."

"Mystery Man," Bryan said. "You mean our friendly local amnesiac?"

"Where?" Chase asked, his gray eyes shining with curiosity.

"The gorgeous guy, third in line," Kelsey told them.

They craned their necks to see. When Ivy saw Will's eyes narrow, she turned to look as well. Guy was talking to a dark haired girl, shaking his head and gesturing forcefully, as if making a point.

He walked away from the girl, but a moment later, after she said something to his back, he turned toward her again and continued the conversation, more heatedly than before. "Excuse me," Ivy said as she moved toward them.

"Catfight!" Kelsey announced hopefully. Before Ivy reached Guy, the girl walked away. She was digging in her purse and Ivy caught a snatch of the ringtone from the girl's phone.

The girl pressed the phone to her ear, then gazed back one more time at Guy.

Ivy barely caught the sound of her light voice as the girl hurried away. "Did she say 'Bye, Luke'?" Ivy asked.

Guy spun around. "What?"

"I thought she called you 'Luke," Ivy said.

"She didn't," he replied, but he wouldn't meet Ivy's eyes.

"Do you know her, Guy?"

"I've never seen her in my life. She was asking directions." He had gotten awfully riled up over a set of directions.

"To where?" His eyes sparked.

"Is this an interrogation?" Tilting her head to one side, Ivy studied him.

"No."

"Sorry," Guy apologized, his voice softening. "I shouldn't have snapped."

After a moment. Ivy nodded. "And I shouldn't have pressed you."

Guy looked past her, glancing around anxiously. "I'm really tired, Ivy. Do you mind taking me home?"

"Don't you want to eat something?"

"I have stuff in my cooler." She gave in with a sigh. Perhaps Luke was the name of the person who called the girl on her phone, Ivy thought, as they walked silently to her car. Even so, she knew that something had upset Guy and he was covering it up.

When they arrived back at Willow Pond, Guy didn't want her to stay. "I'm going straight to bed," he said, climbing quickly out of the Beetle.

Ivy opened her door and met him halfway around the car. "What if I just sit by the pond and check on you in a little while to make sure you're okay?"

"No." The swiftness of his response made her blink. "I need some sleep, Ivy. I need ... some time to myself—some space."

The same thing that she had asked of Will. Ivy's throat tightened. "I'll be better tomorrow. Don't forget to feed Pegasus," he added with a forced smile.

"Call me," she said.

Without replying, Guy brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers and walked away.

IVY PACED THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE COTTAGE, mentally replaying the scene between Guy and the girl at the carnival, trying to interpret it. Guy's gestures suggested strong emotions, but whether she had seen anger, frustration, or disbelief, Ivy couldn't say.

If the girl had claimed she knew Guy, why hadn't he told Ivy, so they could pursue whatever clues he now had? Maybe he wanted to check things out without her looking over his shoulder. Maybe he didn't like what he had heard about himself; maybe it was something terrible.

No, Ivy told herself.
Your mind has been poisoned by Beth and Will.

Still, once suspicion had taken root, she couldn't get rid of it. Each time she passed through the kitchen, she saw Beth's laptop lying open on the table. Was it a desire to help or a failure to trust that tempted her?

She wasn't sure, but at eleven fifteen, with the others still out, she sat down to Google the name "Luke."

"Luke" and what? Ivy drummed her fingers. "Luke" and "missing person," she typed, then laughed at herself. Only 51,800 results. She tried "Luke" and "missing person" and "Massachusetts." 8,310 results. As she scanned them she found entries for hospitals named St Luke and people named Luke who were not from Massachusetts but had a relative there or had passed through there.

She could eliminate "St." and "hospital" from the search, but did it really make sense to restrict her search to Massachusetts? Why not Rhode Island or any other state, she thought; Cape Cod was crawling with tourists—the girl at the carnival could have been one.

Perhaps if she searched by date. But when did Guy go missing? The day he was left for dead on the beach, or could it have been some time before? The articles and postings always mentioned age, but she didn't know exactly how old he was.

Ivy continued scanning, clicking on entries, reading description after description of people who had disappeared into thin air. She'd had no idea there were so many.

Had something terrible happened to them, she wondered, or had they "escaped" and lied to start new lives? Engrossed in what she was reading, she didn't hear the footsteps. She wasn't aware of Will until he leaned on the back of her chair.

"Ivy, what are you doing?" She slammed down the computer lid and whirled around.

"Will! You scared me," she said, knowing that was a flimsy excuse for her overreaction. Will remained unruffled.

"Who's Luke?" When he reached as if he was going to open the laptop, she laid her hand on it. "I don't know."

"Is that Guy's real name?"

"If it is," she replied, "I'm sure you would have discovered that by now with your thorough investigation."

Will grimaced. "I'm not your enemy. Ivy."

"And you think that Guy is?"

He folded his arms. "I think you can't tell the difference between a guy caring about you and a guy using you."

Ivy felt the heat rise in her cheeks. "Get out of here! Get out now!"

Before Will could slam the door behind him. Ivy closed down her search and turned off the computer. If only she could turn off the growing fear in her mind.