Behind Closed Doors (22 page)

“From you?” Liberty sounded genuinely horrified.

“I’ll have you know from the age of ten I did most of the cooking for your mom, Grandma and myself.”

“Seriously? That’s not very encouraging.”

“Yeah.” Beth laughed. “I can follow a recipe, though.”

Liberty didn’t look convinced, but she said, “You do make good grilled cheese.”

“Thanks.” With a rueful smile, Beth handed her the plate with her sandwich and a cup of soup. “Speaking of dinner, Nathan invited us to his folks’ place next Wednesday,” she said on her way back to the stove. “It’s his dad’s birthday and they’re having a small get-together, mostly family. Woody will be there, too.”

She’d kept her tone casual and purposely hadn’t looked at Liberty. But when the silence lasted too long, she turned to check Lib’s reaction.

Her niece was staring at her. “He asked both of us?”

Beth froze at Liberty’s devastated expression. “I think he meant your mom, too.”

“Yeah, right. I know you guys have been sneaking around. I’m not stupid.”

Beth’s heart sank. “What do you mean?” she asked weakly, feeling guilt heat her face.

Liberty stared at her. “Oh, my God. It’s true.” She let out a small gasp. “You’ve been seeing each other and lying. Those weekends away, you were with him....”

Too late Beth realized that Liberty hadn’t known anything. She’d been fishing, and Beth had fallen for it. “Liberty, please...yes, Nathan and I are friends, but that doesn’t change how either of us feels about you—”

“You’re just like Candace.” Liberty pushed away from the table, her chair screeching against the floor, her face red with anger. “You’re both mean and selfish and take whatever you want. You don’t care about me. She won’t let me see my dad, and now you’ve stolen Nathan from me. I can’t have anything for myself. Ever.”

“Liberty, please try to calm down.” Beth put a hand out to her, but Liberty jerked away and ran out of the kitchen. Seconds later her bedroom door slammed.

Beth felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Trying to take a deep breath made her lungs burn as if they were on fire. She smelled her grilled-cheese sandwich burning, turned off the stove and slid the frying pan off the red-hot coil. What the hell was she supposed to do now? Give Liberty time to cool off or plead to let her explain?

Oh, God, explain what? That her aunt was a liar. That Beth, knowing how it could affect Liberty, had continued to see Nathan. She had no excuse. She could apologize until she was blue in the face, but those were just empty words. When put to the test, she’d risked her relationship with Liberty and chosen Nathan. This time she couldn’t even blame Candace.

To think Beth had been furious to learn of her sister’s overnight disappearance last weekend while Beth was away. She was no better than Candace. No, she was worse, because Candace was clueless and Beth knew better. Yet she’d hurt Liberty anyway.

Queasy from guilt and the smell of burned bread, she sank onto a wobbly kitchen chair. A few weeks ago Beth had questioned Spike’s motives and urged Liberty to evaluate the supposed friendship. Beth had asked her niece if she trusted her...asked if she believed Beth had her best interests at heart.

Liberty had looked so young and fragile when she’d met Beth’s eyes and nodded. The memory pierced her heart like a stab to the chest. Feeling sick to her stomach, she bent to tuck her head between her knees. As soon as the nausea passed, she got to her feet. She couldn’t let this ugliness between them fester overnight.

She knocked on Lib’s door, prepared to bare her soul, beg for forgiveness, promise Liberty anything.

At first she didn’t answer. Beth knocked again, and Lib screamed, “Go away.”

“Please, Liberty,” Beth pleaded. “Please talk to me.”

In answer, Lib cranked her CD player to an earsplitting level.

Beth pressed her cheek to the door and closed her eyes. “I love you, kiddo,” she whispered, and then slowly straightened.

The short walk to the living room seemed to take a lifetime.

* * *

S
UNLIGHT WAS SEEPING
in between the curtains when Beth awoke. Startled, she glanced around the room, then at her phone lying on the cushion next to her. The last she’d checked, it had been 5:15 a.m. Apparently she’d fallen asleep sitting up on the couch sometime after that. Her neck and back were both stiff and her vision was blurry.

She picked up her cell, blinked and focused. Holy crap! How could it be 8:30 a.m. already? Forcing herself to her feet, she studied her phone. She had several missed calls...none from Candace, three from Nathan. After the blowup with Liberty, Beth had let his calls go to voice mail. No, it wasn’t fair to ignore him, but she was incapable of speaking to him without making everything worse.

She checked Lib’s room, not expecting to find her there. It was the usual mess, clothes in piles on the floor, the bed unmade—but at least it had been slept in—and the backpack she used for school was gone. Homeroom had just started, and Beth prayed Lib had caught the bus the way she always did.

The kitchen hadn’t been touched since Beth had left the frying pan in the sink and dumped their dinner in the trash. Still, it bothered her that she hadn’t heard the girl moving around. Of course, Liberty had probably gone into stealth mode, hoping to avoid another confrontation.

Stretching her neck and back, Beth glanced out the window. Candace wasn’t home. Yeah, big surprise.

She needed a hot shower. But first she called Joe to tell him she was running late. Good thing she’d given him a key to the boardinghouse last week.

She made it into her closet-size room before it registered that her purse wasn’t hanging from the doorknob where she’d left it. She searched the floor and behind the door. Her pulse slowed when she spotted the brown leather bag, except she never hung it on the door hook. She brought it down and looked inside. Her wallet was unsnapped. Even before she checked she knew her cash was gone. So was her debit card.

“Jesus, Liberty,” she whispered, frozen with shock.

Forcing her feet to move, she raced to the kitchen and ripped the list of emergency numbers off the fridge. Her hand shaking, she called the school.

Liberty hadn’t shown up for homeroom.

Not expecting her to answer, Beth tried Lib’s cell anyway, and was sent to voice mail. She left a brief message, then tried calling Candace with no luck. Her bedroom door was closed, which probably meant nothing. Driven by a funny feeling, Beth knocked once then opened it.

Something was off. The room was too neat. No dirty clothes littered the stained carpet, and the dresser wasn’t covered with trays of makeup. The room seemed...empty. On the nightstand, tucked under the red lava lamp, was an envelope. Her stomach coiling into a knot, Beth walked over and picked it up. The power company’s return address had been crossed off, and in Candace’s handwriting, Beth’s name was scrawled across the used envelope.

With shaking fingers, she opened it up and read the short message.

It’s better for everyone if I’m out of the picture. Besides, you always wanted to have Liberty to yourself. Now you’ve got her. No hard feelings. This is better for her. Tell her goodbye for me and not to worry. I found me a real good guy this time.

17

N
ATHAN HAD JUST
pulled up in front of the boardinghouse when his cell buzzed. Relief rolled through him when he saw it was Beth. They hadn’t spoken at the appointed hour last night because she hadn’t answered his calls. And now her truck wasn’t parked in its usual spot. Something was wrong.

“Beth? Where are you?”

“Nathan...thank God.” She sounded out of breath. “By any chance have you seen Liberty? Is she at the ranch?”

“No. Wouldn’t she be in school?”

“Yes, she should be.” Her voice broke. “We had an argument last night and now she’s missing. She won’t answer her cell.”

“She’ll show up,” he said calmly. “Every kid runs away at some point. Hell, she’s probably blowing off steam with a spray can.” Not a pleasant thought. Maybe he should’ve left that out.

“I’m afraid it’s more serious than that. Is it possible she’s there with Woody and you just haven’t seen her?” She paused, and he heard her sniff. “She might be avoiding you, too.”

“I’ll check with him. Where are you?”

“At home, but I’m getting ready to go look for her.”

“Stay put. I’m in town. I’ll pick you up in ten minutes.”

“No,” she said, her voice shrill with panic. “You can’t go with me. You’ll only make things worse. She knows about us, Nathan. She tricked me into admitting it. I feel so stupid. I’m a liar and a hypocrite and I—I have to go.”

“Wait.” Fear gripped him. “You’re too upset to drive. Please, trust me.”

The endless silence singed his nerve endings. Flashing back to that night he’d received the call about Anne’s accident, he started to sweat. At the time he’d gone through shock, denial, anger in a matter of minutes. Now all he felt was utter terror.

“Beth, don’t do this.” He turned the truck around toward her place. Christ, if anything happened to her...

“I’ll wait,” she said evenly. “Don’t speed. I’ll be here when you get here.”

Their roles had reversed. She’d obviously heard his panic and was trying to calm him down. That was the thing, she understood him. It didn’t seem possible given their short acquaintance, but that was the truth. Last night he’d finally admitted to himself that he’d fallen in love with her. He just hadn’t figured out if he should tell her. Guess now wasn’t the time.

* * *

B
ETH WAS SITTING
in her truck when Nathan arrived. She’d been taking long, deep breaths, trying to at least appear calm. Inside she was a wreck. She understood why he’d be worried. He was thinking about Anne, of course, and while Beth didn’t want to put him through the hell of waiting and fearing the worst, she couldn’t take him with her.

He parked directly in front of her. Much as it pissed her off that he’d deliberately hemmed her in, she forced herself not to react when he got out and opened her door.

“I’ll drive,” he said. “We’ll take my truck.”

“I have to do this alone.”

“Don’t be foolish, Beth. You’re in no condition to drive.”

“Nathan, this is my fault and my responsibility, not yours. I appreciate that you want to help—”

“I don’t give a damn about any of that....” He took a deep shuddering breath. “Look at you...you’re as white as a sheet. Your hands are shaking. How much good will you be to Liberty if you wrap yourself around a pole?”

“You don’t look so hot yourself.”

Briefly closing his eyes, he passed a hand over his face. “I needed to know you were okay,” he said. “I’m fine now. Let’s do this together.”

She wished she could ease the lines of tension at the corners of his eyes, tension she had caused. But she couldn’t even stop her own hands from shaking. “You can drive, but we’ll take my truck. Once we find her, you can’t get out, no matter what. Are we clear?”

“Whatever you say.” He stepped back to let her out. “But consider that if she spots you first she might hide. This color blue you can see a mile away.”

Beth saw his point. Without another word, she climbed into his black truck. When had her life spun so out of control? It seemed things had started to unravel the moment she’d decided to move to Blackfoot Falls—or maybe when she’d met Nathan. She couldn’t think straight, had no idea where to go or who else to call....

“Let’s go to the high school. Spike is there, I checked. He’s in class, so his phone is turned off, but he might know something.” She stared at her cell, then speed dialed Liberty. Of course, no answer.

“Call Marge at the diner. Even if she hasn’t seen Liberty, she can spread the word.”

“I already called while I was waiting for you. I talked to pretty much everyone in town. Someone told me Lib was on the bus. She took off after the kids were dropped off at school.”

“I alerted Woody. He’s got guys combing the barns and sheds. If he doesn’t find her, he’ll take Craig with him and drive to town. They might get lucky and see her walking.”

“Thank you,” she murmured softly. “God, I’m so sorry I’m interrupting everyone’s life.”

Nathan reached over and squeezed her cold hand. His warm, comforting touch brought tears to her eyes. Tears she couldn’t afford to indulge. She jerked her hand away and turned to stare out her window until the waterworks subsided.

“I can’t believe how badly I messed up,” she whispered. “I was sitting on the deck of a ship sailing to Italy when I got Liberty’s text. It was the Fourth of July and we passed an American destroyer with flags strung from bow to stern. For the first time since leaving home, I felt homesick. I mean, really, deep-down homesick.” She snorted. “Not for the trailer park. God, I hated that place. I kept waiting for someone to tow that rickety old trailer out from under us. It happened to my friend three trailers over. We never saw each other again.” She glanced sheepishly at Nathan, wishing she hadn’t volunteered so much.

He kept his eyes on the road, no judgment in his expression. “So Liberty asked you to move back?”

“She sounded so desperate. I knew my sister well and I knew Lib hadn’t been exaggerating. Then Candace called.” Beth didn’t need to go into that. “I made up my mind right then. I was going to come home and fix everything. Yeah, great job.”

“Yep, you’ve done a helluva job. What, you’ve been here four, five months? Were you expecting a miracle?”

Beth sighed and turned back to the window. He didn’t get it. He had a functional family and no kids. She didn’t expect him to understand.

Neither of them spoke the rest of the drive. He stayed in the truck while she went to the principal’s office for permission to talk to Spike. She’d met him twice before, and while she couldn’t stand the belligerent little punk, he’d been useful.

By the time she ran back to the truck, Nathan had it in gear. “I think she’s trying to catch a bus,” Beth said. “Do you know Carterville?”

“Well, yeah, it’s about an hour east.” He’d started driving the second she closed the door. “The bus station is small. Call and give them her description.”