Grave Concerns (8 page)

“Do you want to tell me about your conversation with Sydney?” Maddie asked, stretching to remove the kinks from her legs as she stood next to Nick on the bank of the Au Sable. “I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but you didn’t sound happy.”

“I just made sure she realized there was nothing here for her,” Nick replied, instinctively reaching for Maddie’s lower back so he could rub it. After two hours on the river, their muscles were sore from being cramped inside the kayaks. “I also made sure she realized there was nothing for her then either.”

Maddie stilled, her sea-blue eyes conflicted. “What do you mean?”

“Maddie, everyone knows I’ve always wanted you. It’s not a recent thing. It’s not something that’s going to go away. I wanted you then and I only dated Sydney because I couldn’t have you. I’m not playing some middle-school game with her because Kelly has been filling her head with nonsense.”

“I kind of already figured Kelly told her stuff to make it easier for Sydney to go after you, but knowing she really did do that is kind of frustrating,” Maddie admitted. “I want to blame her dislike on the fact that I left – because I deserve hatred for that – but she didn’t like me even before then.”

“Oh, no one could ever hate you, love,” Nick said, kissing the tip of her nose. “I tried and look what that got me.”

“A freshly renovated bedroom and Granny?”

“Oh, you’re so cute, Mad.” Nick tickled her ribs and pulled her in for a hug. “I got everything I ever wanted … and I’m never letting it go.”

“That’s good. I don’t want you to let any of it go.”

Nick pressed a kiss to her lips before separating. “I have to go to the bathroom. Do you need more water or anything? I have some in the bag in my kayak.”

“I’m good,” Maddie replied. “I’m actually going to walk around a little bit and really stretch before going to the bathroom. I’ll meet you down by the river in a few minutes.”

“That sounds good.”

NICK
was confused when he joined everyone at the riverbank ten minutes later.

“Where is Maddie?”

“She left with the first group,” Kelly replied, handing Hayley a bottle of water. “Uncle Chester was talking her ear off and I don’t think she had much of a choice.”

Nick frowned. “She said she was going to wait for me.”

“I guess she got antsy and took off without you,” Kelly said. “Again.”

“Knock it off, Kelly,” Nick warned, extending a finger. “I’m only going to put up with so much and you’re already teetering on the edge of my patience. If you don’t stop getting digs in at Maddie … .”

“You’ll what?” Kelly challenged. “Are you going to arrest me, officer?”

“No.” Nick was matter-of-fact. “I’m just going to cut you out of my life.”

Kelly was taken aback. “Seriously? You’re going to pick Maddie over your own sister?”

“If that’s the way you want to phrase it, I guess I am,” Nick answered. “Maddie is my future. She’s going to be my wife. She’s going to be the mother of my children. You can either accept that or stay away from us. I don’t care which one you choose right now. I can barely stand to be around you.”

“I … .” Kelly bit her bottom lip and averted her gaze.

“Oh, leave her alone,” Sydney ordered. “She’s your big sister. It’s a big sister’s job to look out for her baby brother. That’s all she’s doing. There’s no reason to be all … growly.”

“Yes, well, you’re not a part of this conversation,” Nick shot back, forcing a grim smile. “Are you sure Maddie already left?”

“I’m sure I saw her with Uncle Chester and her kayak is gone,” Kelly said.

Nick glanced at the empty spot next to his kayak. Maddie’s boat was next to his when he got out of the water, but it was nowhere to be found now. “I’m going to have to hose Uncle Chester down if he doesn’t stop fawning all over her,” he muttered. “Well … come on. If we’re the last of the group, we should get going.”

“It will be fun,” Sydney suggested. “We can go together.”

“I’m partnering up with Hayley,” Nick replied, tugging on a strand of his niece’s hair. “She’s the only one here worth talking to right now.”

Kelly and Sydney exchanged a look that wasn’t lost on Nick. He refused to acknowledge it, though.

“Come on, Hayley. We’ll catch up to everyone and I’ll show you how to use your paddle to tip people over.”

Hayley brightened. “Finally something I actually want to do.”

MADDIE
stretched one more time after leaving the outhouse, reaching down to touch her toes before planting her palms flat on the ground to lengthen her hamstrings. When she straightened again, she realized it was unnaturally quiet down by the river.

She peered around the side of the outhouse, furrowing her brow as she realized the shoreline was empty. Everyone – boats and gear included – was gone. She moved to the riverbank, her mind muddled as she tried to grasp what was happening.
Did everyone leave me? Did Nick leave me?

“Is something wrong?”

Maddie jumped at the voice, turning swiftly to find a strange man carrying his own kayak down to the water’s edge. He looked relatively young, maybe mid-thirties at the most, and he seemed worried about Maddie’s reaction to him.

“I don’t know,” Maddie admitted after a moment. “I … well, I was with a group of people. I think they left me, though.”

The man arched an eyebrow. “They left you? How many people are we talking about here? I have to think they would notice if they were missing you.”

Maddie knew the statement was probably meant as a compliment, but it left her feeling exposed. “There were about thirty of us total.”

“Ah, well, that explains it,” the man said, lowering his red kayak to the ground and glancing around. “Shouldn’t you have a kayak … or inner tube … or something? Were you sharing a canoe with someone?”

That was a good question. “I had my own kayak. It was blue.”

“Did someone take it?”

“I … .” Maddie broke off, biting her bottom lip as she contemplated what he was asking. “I don’t see why anyone would. It was rented. It wasn’t an expensive model.”

“Well, don’t panic,” the man said. “My name is Darrin Grimes, by the way. Maybe your boat floated down the water a little bit and got caught up on some trees or something. Your group might have left without you and not even realized it because your boat was gone. What’s your name?”

“Maddie.”

“Well, Maddie, we should look around a little bit before we lose our heads,” Darrin said. “Come on. I’ll help you look.”

Maddie was reluctant to accept the man’s proffered aid, but she didn’t see where she had a lot of choice in the matter. “Thank you.”

“YOU
need to tell Mom that I’m old enough to wear makeup,” Hayley said. “She’ll listen to you.”

“Your mother has never listened to me,” Nick countered, tilting his head up so the sun could hit his face as he lazily drifted next to his niece. “She’s certainly not going to start now.”

“She doesn’t listen to anyone.” Hayley pushed her lip out into the patented pout perfected by teenagers the world over. “She’s a horrible person.”

“Your mother isn’t a horrible person,” Nick countered. “She’s … unhappy. You know that as well as I do, Hayley. She doesn’t mean to be harsh. She just can’t seem to help herself.”

“Everyone my age wears makeup,” Hayley argued. “I should be allowed to wear makeup, too.”

“If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you want to do that, too?”

“I hate it when you say things like that,” Hayley grumbled. “I don’t want to wear a lot of makeup. I don’t want to be ugly, though, either.”

Nick sighed. Having a female best friend who went through an awkward period at the exact same age prepared him for some of this stuff. Of course, it was different when he was a teenager trying to bolster his best friend’s neglected ego.

“You’ll never be ugly, Hayley,” Nick said, choosing his words carefully. “Your early teenage years are hard on everyone. You’re growing in leaps in bounds. You have hormones making you all wonky. It takes a little while to grow into your looks.

“I know you’ll find this hard to believe because I’m the handsomest man you know, but I went through an awkward period of my own,” he continued. “I had zits. I felt like my arms were too long for my body. I took forever to grow chest hair. Your body catches up eventually.”

Hayley wrinkled her forehead. “I’m not really looking for a chest hair pep talk,” she said. “I do wish I would get some boobs, though.”

Nick cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation. “The point is that you don’t need makeup to be beautiful,” he said. “Maddie is the most beautiful woman in the world and I like her best when she’s not wearing makeup.”

“Yes, but Maddie looks like a model,” Hayley countered. “I don’t look like a model. In fact, I’m never going to look like a model.”

“You don’t know that, Hayley,” Nick said. “Let’s say it’s true, though. There are many different kinds of beauty. Maddie had a really rough couple of years when she was a teenager, too. She didn’t always look like she does now.”

Hayley leaned forward, intrigued. “Really?”

“Really,” Nick confirmed. “She had braces … and zits … and she was embarrassed because she hadn’t developed either. All of that eventually changed.”

“Did you fall in love with her when she changed?”

“I’ve always been in love with Maddie. It just took me a little bit of time to realize it.”

Hayley knit her eyebrows together, conflicted. “Mom says that Maddie is a bad person who broke your heart. If that’s true, why are you with Maddie now?”

“Maddie is the best person I know,” Nick replied. “Maddie was … struggling … after high school. She had a lot of stuff to deal with and she didn’t know how to do it. She ran away … and she regrets that. Do not let your mother poison your opinion of Maddie. She’s a wonderful woman.”

“And she’s going to be my aunt one day, right?”

“She is.”

“That makes me feel kind of bad about what we did,” Hayley said.

Nick swiveled, his eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”

“To Maddie back at the bathroom stop,” Hayley said. “I didn’t want to do it, but Mom and Sydney said it would be a funny joke.”

“What did you do, Hayley?” Nick’s heart pounded. He had a feeling he was about to lose his temper in a big way.

“Mom and Sydney hid Maddie’s kayak in the trees and then lied about her leaving with Uncle Chester,” Hayley said, her eyes widening as Nick’s fury took hold. “I told them not to!”

“Are you telling me we left Maddie behind?”

Hayley nodded, miserable.

“Son of a … !”

“THERE’S
something blue over there,” Darrin said, pointing into a thick clump of trees.

Maddie moved toward the space he indicated, frowning when she caught sight of her kayak. “This is mine.”

“Here.” Darrin grabbed one end of the boat and Maddie grabbed the other. It took them about a minute to carry the kayak out of the woods and rest it at the water’s edge. “It looks okay. Is all of your stuff in it?”

“I only had a bottle of water,” Maddie replied, her mind busy as she tried to work out a plausible scenario for how the boat ended up where they found it. “We’re camping and I left all my other stuff back at the campground.”

“Well … the good news is that you’re probably only a half hour behind the rest of your group,” Darrin said. “Once they get to the end of the trip they’ll realize you’re gone. Hopefully they won’t panic for long.”

“Maybe I can catch up if I work hard,” Maddie suggested. “Everyone has been letting the river do most of the work. I might be able to make up the time. I’m in pretty good shape.”

“You definitely are,” Darrin mused, his eyes traveling to Maddie’s rear end.

“I … um … .” Maddie was definitely uncomfortable. “Thank you so much for helping me. I really should get going.”

“If you want to wait for a minute, I’ll go with you,” Darrin offered. “I’m alone today. I just came out here for a workout. We can keep each other company.”

“That’s very nice of you to offer,” Maddie countered. “I should leave now, though. I really want to catch up to my group.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Darrin said, flashing a charming grin in Maddie’s direction. “I’m sure I’ll be better company.”

“No, I should get going,” Maddie said, grabbing the end of the kayak and pushing it into the water. “Thank you so much for your time. I … thank you.”

Darrin’s hands landed on his hips, his face unreadable as he watched Maddie swiftly climb into the kayak and push herself away from the shore. Maddie glanced at him one more time before furiously using the paddle to put distance between them.

It took her five minutes to catch her breath. Even then she knew she wouldn’t feel completely safe until she caught up with Nick and his family. Still, it was a nice day and Maddie was enjoying the scenery when she heard something in the water behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, her heart flopping for a reason she couldn’t identify.