Shadow Creek (19 page)

Val laughed. Which was when he suddenly leaned forward and kissed her. And she just as suddenly leaned in and kissed him right back. And it felt good. Hell, it felt great. She’d almost forgotten how good kissing a man could feel.

This is crazy. What am I doing? she thought in the next breath, trying desperately to push such thoughts from her head, to not think anything at all, to exist simply in the moment. Except she couldn’t. What if Jennifer was watching? Or worse, Brianne? Hadn’t she just berated her daughter for having sex in a public place? What kind of example was she setting? She twisted her head suddenly to one side, looking for her daughter. The result was that Gary’s lips slid across her cheek and ended up buried in the side of her hair.

He laughed, his breath tickling her neck. “That was interesting.”

“Sorry.”

“Something wrong?”

“This probably isn’t a good idea.”

“Okay,” he said easily, pulling away.

“It’s just that …”

“No explanation necessary.”

“Not that it wasn’t very nice, or that I didn’t enjoy it. It was and … I did … very much.”

“In that case, maybe we could do it again sometime.”

“When?” The word popped out of Val’s mouth, catching them both off guard.

“How about later?” he suggested, eyes twinkling. “After everyone’s asleep.”

Val nodded. “That might work.” What was she saying? Was she really planning a midnight tryst with a man she hardly knew, regardless of their past connection?

She took a deep breath, her eyes skirting the edge of the campsite. Melissa and James were still singing, Jennifer was still pretending to be engrossed in her book, Brianne was still nowhere to be seen. “I don’t see my daughter anywhere. Do you?”

Gary craned his head to look through the crowd. “Maybe she went back to her tent.”

“I should check.”

Gary was instantly on his feet, extending a helping hand in Val’s direction. They walked quickly toward the assembled tents. “Brianne?” Val called as they approached the far end of the campsite. She bent down to peer into the first of the three tents they’d reserved, already knowing Brianne wouldn’t be inside.

Nor was her daughter in the second or third tent they checked.

“Where the hell is she?” Val pushed herself up on her toes and stared through the darkness.

“Maybe she’s with my son.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Just a hunch. I saw them talking earlier, and I haven’t seen either of them since.”

“You really think they might be together?”

“It’s a possibility.”

What would Brianne be doing with Hayden? Val wondered. “Does Hayden have a cell phone?” she asked, the answer suddenly very clear.

“Sure.”

“I’ll kill her,” Val said.

Gary laughed. “As I’m sure you’ve discovered, cell phone reception in these mountains is sketchy at best. Chances are she won’t be able to get through to anyone. And you don’t have to worry about Hayden. He’s a good kid. He’ll make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble.”

Val decided Gary was right. Even if Tyler
was
still in the area, there was zero chance of him reconnecting with her daughter tonight. There was no reason for her to worry or to let her daughter spoil what was shaping up to be a very interesting evening. “I’m still gonna kill her.”

She watched Gary’s lips curl into a seductive grin, teasing her with unspoken possibilities.
You were the moment
, Val thought sadly, recalling the lyrics of a song she loved.
And the moment is gone
.

Except the moment wasn’t gone. The moment was standing right in front of her.

Fearless, Gary had called her.

But being fearless wasn’t the same thing as having actual courage. And, in truth, she wasn’t fearless. She never had been. The truth was she’d been running scared all her life, afraid she wasn’t worthy of love because those closest to her had all abandoned her, first her father, then her mother, then her sister. Evan was merely the latest in a long line.

She wondered when she’d come to define herself only as an adjunct to others—her mother’s daughter, Brianne’s mother, Evan’s wife. When had she, all too willingly, it now seemed, surrendered her once-considerable power? Where at one time had existed a thriving core, there now existed a kind of wilderness, a confusing and overgrown landscape she’d been stumbling blindly across for years. Somewhere in the middle of that
wilderness, she understood, was the girl she’d lost, the girl she, herself, had abandoned.

And while her husband’s womanizing had been at least partly responsible for the slow and steady erosion of both her pride and self-esteem, she couldn’t place all the blame on Evan. Nor could she blame everything on her father’s desertion or her mother’s drinking. She was forty years old, for God’s sake. Wasn’t it time she grew up and accepted responsibility for her own actions? How much more time was she going to waste?

Val looked deep into Gary’s eyes, knowing that tomorrow they would undoubtedly go their separate ways, she back to Brooklyn, he to Connecticut. And while the distance between the two places was hardly insurmountable, it was far enough. Oh, he’d probably promise to stay in touch, but in all likelihood, after a few e-mails, their contact would cease. Soon she’d be little more than a curious addendum to his high school memories.
You’ll never guess who I ran into a few weeks back. You remember Valerie Marcus? Feisty little thing. Couldn’t do the butterfly stroke to save her life. Not a bad kisser, however
.

Might as well give him more to remember me by than that, Val thought now, moving closer. All right, so he wasn’t Evan. But at this moment, he had one distinct advantage over her errant husband—he was here.

This time
she
was the one to initiate the kiss. “Come on,” she whispered in the next instant, backing out of his arms and pulling him toward her tent.

He hesitated. “Now?”

“You have a problem with now?”

A growing smile filled his face. “As fearless as ever,” he said with an admiring shake of his head.

“As fearless as ever,” she agreed.

* * *

“VAL! VAL, OVER here!” James was calling as she and Gary returned to the center of the campsite approximately half an hour later. James beckoned them toward the bonfire with broad waves of his skinny arms. “Come sit down. We’re about to do ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses.’ ”

“He’s in his element,” Melissa said.

“Who knew camping was this much fun?” James asked rhetorically.

“Have either of you seen Brianne?” Val was dismayed to discover her daughter wasn’t back yet, and already second-guessing her impromptu dalliance with Gary. Probably not the smartest thing I could have done, she was thinking, before deciding quite the opposite was true. Making love to Gary was the smartest thing she’d done in years.

Melissa shook her head as James squinted through the darkness toward Jennifer. “Maybe
she
knows where she is.”

Val walked briskly toward her husband’s fiancée. “Have you seen Brianne?” she asked as the young woman reluctantly looked up from her book, her finger ostensibly marking the spot at which she’d been interrupted.

“Last I saw she was with that boy … your son, I believe.” Jennifer acknowledged Gary with a nod, her eyes openly quizzical.

Does she suspect anything? Val wondered. Had she seen their earlier kiss, watched them wander off together, counting off the minutes until they’d returned? Was she planning to tell Evan about her suspicions? How would he react? Would he be jealous? Was that why she’d virtually thrown herself at a man she hadn’t seen since she was a teenager?

Or were her motives even more pathetic than that? Had she given herself to Gary simply because he’d been nice to her? Because she liked the way he looked at her? Because he obviously
found her desirable? Was that all it took? “Did you see where they went?” she asked, over the barrage of silent questions.

“No. But she can’t have gone far. I wouldn’t worry.”

“You never do.”

“I think Val would just feel better knowing where her daughter is,” Gary said, as if sensing trouble ahead.

“I think she should give it a rest.” Jennifer returned to her book.

Val spun around on her heels, stomping back toward the bonfire.

“Sorry,” she said as Gary struggled to catch up to her. “It was either leave immediately or strangle her on the spot.”

“I think you showed remarkable restraint. For what it’s worth, I probably would have strangled her back at the lodge.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

Gary laughed.

Val glanced back at Jennifer. “She’s very beautiful. Don’t you think?”

He shrugged. “I think you’re prettier.”

It was Val’s turn to laugh. “You just think I’m easy.”

“I think you’re fabulous.”

Val smiled, understanding that her appeal to Gary was based on a total misconception. He thinks I’m someone I’m not. He thinks I’m fearless when, in fact, I’m scared to death. Although maybe not quite as scared as I was half an hour ago.

“Val … Gary,” James called, his voice echoing through the darkness as he patted the ground beside him. “Come on back. We’ve decided to tell ghost stories. I’m first.”

“You’ve created a monster,” Melissa said as Val approached.

“I’ll go see if I can find Hayden,” Gary offered.

“I’ll come with you.”

“No. You’ll stay here and play with your friends. Let me deal with this.”

Val nodded a heartfelt thank-you.

“What’s going on?” Melissa asked as Val squeezed in beside her.

“We think Brianne might be with his son …”

“I’m not talking about Brianne. I’m talking about you and that twinkle in your eye.”

Val protested. “Don’t be silly. There’s no twinkle.”

“There’s a definite twinkle.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Val and Gary sitting in a tree,” James sang softly under his breath. “K-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

“You saw that?”

“I think pretty much everyone saw it,” Melissa acknowledged.

“Including Jennifer?”

“Definitely including Jennifer.”

“I thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head,” James said.

“Shit.”

“And then, of course, the two of you disappeared,” he added, “for … how long was it exactly?”

“Thirty-three minutes,” Melissa said.

“You counted?”

“Of course we counted. What are friends for?”

“Would you believe me if I told you we were just looking for Brianne?” Val asked.

“Of course we would.”

“Absolutely,” said James. Then, after a slight pause, “So, how’d it go? The search, I mean.”

Val smiled. For thirty-three minutes she had actually managed
to forget about Brianne, to forget about Jennifer, to forget about her mother, to forget about Evan. “It was great,” she said, unable to contain her delight any longer. “Best. Search. Ever.”

Melissa let out a whoop of joy. “Amen to that. It’s about time.”

“Amen,” said James, giving Val’s knee an appreciative squeeze.

“Amen,” Val repeated, discovering she liked the sound of the word, and settling back into the crook of Melissa’s arm as James took a deep breath and began his ghost story. “It’s called ‘The Hook,’ ” he announced to the assembled gathering of mostly middle-aged faces, the younger campers having pretty much disappeared during the
Sound of Music
medley.

“Oh, God,” Melissa wailed. “Not that old chestnut. I haven’t heard that one since I was ten years old.”

James took a deep breath, continuing undeterred. “All day long the news was full of reports that a lunatic had escaped from a nearby asylum,” he began, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “They called him the Hook Man because he’d lost one arm in a freak accident and had replaced it with a hook, a hook he now used to kill and dismember innocent men, women, and children.” James looked around the campfire, eyes sparkling. “There was this girl. We’ll call her Sienna.”

“Sienna?” Val and Melissa asked together.

“I’m updating,” James explained. “Anyway, Sienna was sixteen and she didn’t give a hoot about the Hook Man or all the people he’d butchered. She cared only about what she was going to wear on her date that night with Bryce, the captain of the football team.”

“Bryce?”

James rolled his eyes. “Anyway, she finally selected a low-cut Tory Burch blouse, a pair of stone-washed skinny jeans
from Dolce and Gabbana, and a fabulous pair of Manolo Blahnik leopard-print, five-inch heels.”

“Nice touch,” Melissa said.

James smiled, looking very pleased as he continued his story. “Bryce came to pick up Sienna in his silver Porsche. He drove to a secluded Lovers’ Lane where he parked and they started making out. Suddenly, they heard a scratching on the car door. ‘What’s that?’ asked Sienna, pulling out of Bryce’s arms and looking around. ‘I didn’t hear anything,’ Bryce insisted. ‘It must be your imagination.’ The song on the car radio was suddenly interrupted by a warning that the Hook Man might be in the area. ‘Take me home right now,’ Sienna ordered as the car started rocking menacingly back and forth, like someone was shaking it. Bryce immediately threw the car into gear and tore out of Lovers’ Lane, tires screeching. When they got to Sienna’s house, Sienna jumped out of the car. Then she stood there, screaming. ‘What is it?’ Bryce asked, quickly joining her by the passenger door. And then he saw it. Hanging from the door’s handle was a bloody hook!” James sat back, soaking up the applause that followed.

Val suppressed an involuntary shudder, not because of the story, which was silly at best, and unsatisfying at worst. She was thinking that James’s story bore an uncomfortable resemblance to the recent murders in the Berkshires. Her eyes scanned the campsite, looking for any sign of Brianne. There’s nothing to worry about, she assured herself again. No need to feel spooked. There was no monster lurking in the dense bushes, waiting to hack her daughter to pieces. Besides, in a confrontation between the Hook Man and Brianne, she’d bet money on her daughter every time.

The Hook Man didn’t stand a chance.

J
UST HOW FAR IS this stupid lake anyway?” Brianne asked Hayden, not even trying to mask her impatience. They’d been walking around in circles for what felt like hours, she was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and her once-beautiful Jimmy Choos, the open-toed, red stilettos she’d successfully snagged after waiting in line for hours in front of H&M with hundreds of other like-minded young women jostling to be the first in the doors when the store opened and the designer’s new line of reasonably priced footwear was introduced, were being pummeled into oblivion by the rugged terrain, their once-soft leather now bearing the scars of disrespectful twigs, their slender four-and-a-half-inch heels overwhelmed by ugly, fat clumps of mud. Not to mention, she’d already gone over on her right ankle again twice and it was starting to throb. She should have changed
into her sneakers when her mother had suggested it, along with jeans and a sweatshirt. The white shorts and sleeveless T-shirt she was wearing had been fine when the sun was still out, but the temperature had dropped about twenty degrees in the last hour alone. She should have listened to her mother.