The Newcomer

But I have to work on my poker face.

“—I have the day off after my twenty-four at the station and I’ll come out to your place. If the sun’s shining, maybe I’ll take out my board.”

“I love to watch you on the water,” he said. “The ocean is more beautiful when you’re out there.”

* * *

Sarah hadn’t seen Cooper in a couple of days and she could’ve taken the Razor—the all-terrain vehicle—across the beach with Hamlet, but they both needed some exercise. She’d just had two long nights and now she was stiff and groggy and Hamlet was restless.

Rather than getting right to their walk across the beach to Cooper’s, Sarah stopped at the diner to say hello to Gina. Hamlet enjoyed that part of his walk almost as much as being on the beach. He didn’t mind being hitched to the lamppost with a bowl of water and treated to pats and pets from every passerby.

Mac McCain was sitting at the counter in the diner. Gina was on the other side and they were holding hands across the counter. Sarah realized she’d been so self-involved she hadn’t even remembered that almost every midmorning around this time the diner was usually empty and Mac took his coffee break with Gina. They were so focused on each other, Sarah was impressed that they looked up and smiled at her. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself. I hear you’ve been putting in a lot of hours,” Gina said.

“A lot of hours, but I’m off today.”

Gina and Mac might be the cutest couple in Thunder Point. They’d been best friends for years. Both single parents, their sixteen-year-old daughters were also best friends. Just a couple of months ago, they came out as a couple. A real couple, not just a couple of good friends, and ever since that had happened, they’d been staring soulfully into each other’s eyes when they weren’t stealing the occasional kiss. For a brief moment Sarah turned cynical and almost said, “Look out—when you think you’re staring happily ever after in the face is when the fates get jealous and pounce.”

“On your way to Cooper’s?” Mac asked.

“Yep. I think I’m going to take my board out for a while. There’s sun today and I could use some exercise.” And alone time, think time. Not that she hadn’t had enough of that over the past day or two. “And Cooper always needs quality time with Ham.” She laughed. “If we ever break up, I’ll have to share custody.”

“You’ll never break up,” Gina said. “You’re down for the count.”

No, she thought. Just down...

Two

Mac and Gina might be enjoying new love, but that didn’t keep them from spending plenty of time talking about their families. While Gina only had one child, sixteen-year-old Ashley, Mac had three kids. His oldest, Eve, also sixteen, his son, Ryan, was twelve and another daughter, Dee Dee, was ten. Recently, their sixteen-year-old daughters seemed to take up most of their conversations about kids—Eve was a little too in love with Landon, sometimes worrying Mac, and while Ash had had a steady boyfriend for the past year, she had seemed a little out of sorts lately. Ashley was sulky and down in the dumps.

“Things haven’t been what you’d call hearts and flowers between Ashley and Downy lately,” Gina said, wiping down the counter. “All Ashley will say about it is that Downy seems to be too busy to take her calls or return them, something that hasn’t happened before now.”

“And I’ve got nothing but hearts and flowers between Eve and Landon,” Mac said. “Doesn’t help me sleep at night, either.”

Since teenage girls can fluctuate between true love and moodiness with regularity, Gina didn’t worry overmuch about Ashley’s sulk.

* * *

After work, Gina walked home to find a message from the high school on her answering machine. The school had resorted to leaving recorded messages that informed parents if their child had been absent. Ashley had missed her last two classes. Since she’d borrowed Gina’s Jeep for cheerleading practice after school, Gina wondered what was going on. She immediately called her daughter, but Ashley didn’t answer her cell phone. Gina then called Eve, who answered right away. “She skipped practice,” Eve said. “I don’t know why—she didn’t say anything to me.”

“Do you have any idea where she could be? She’s not answering her phone.”

“I have no idea,” Eve said. “If she calls or shows up, I’ll be sure she calls you.”

Gina’s mom, Carrie, had just returned home herself, and hearing Gina’s story she said, “You know how these girls can get distracted. You left her a message, right?”

Of course she had. And Gina was not typically a worrier, but Ashley had been in a real funk for the past week, complaining that Downy was acting weird, as if he couldn’t be bothered with her. After a year-long, intense romance, one in which the phone calls and texting seemed annoyingly constant, even Gina wondered what was up. But Downy was a college freshman now and baseball was in full swing. He was attending Oregon State on an athletic scholarship; he was a baseball star. Maybe he just had a lot going on.

A couple of hours later, just as the sun was going down, Gina called Downy’s cell phone. He didn’t answer, either, and she left yet another message. “Downy, it’s Gina. I don’t know where Ashley is and I’m really worried. Have you heard from her? Call me please.”

A half hour later Carrie said, “You’re pacing, Gina. Call Mac. Maybe he’ll have some advice.”

Gina sat at the kitchen table and punched in his numbers. “Mac, I have a problem. As far as I know, no one has seen or heard from Ashley since about one o’clock this afternoon. She skipped her last two classes, didn’t go to cheer practice, isn’t taking or returning calls. Eve hasn’t seen or heard from her and Downy isn’t picking up.” She felt her voice go all warbly. “I’m worried. I don’t know what to do. I’d go look for her, but I don’t know where to look. Could Downy be playing ball? Maybe that’s why he isn’t picking up?”

“Stand by, let me check,” Mac said. A moment later he said, “No game today. The next game is in three days and it’s a home game.”

“My God, where could she be?”

“Leave another message for Downy. Maybe call some of her other girlfriends?” Mac suggested.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can find out.” Gina disconnected and placed another call to Downy. This time she used her mother voice. “Crawford Downy, I can’t find my daughter. If I don’t hear from you in five minutes, I’m going to call the police.” Then she clicked off.

“You did call the police,” her mother said, placing a glass of wine in front of Gina. “Calm down. What are you so afraid of?”

She looked at Carrie imploringly. “That she’s in some kind of trouble. That she’s missing. That she ran off with Downy or something...I don’t know. This really isn’t like...” Her phone twittered. “Downy,” she said to her mother. She picked up the call immediately. “Where’s Ashley!” she demanded.

“Easy, Gina,” Downy said smoothly. He’d grown up in Thunder Point, just like Ashley had. He’d known Gina and her mother since he was a little kid. “She’s on her way home. She’s fine.”

“On her way home from where?” she demanded.

“She came here, to State, to Corvallis.” He took a breath. “She wanted to talk about our...ah...situation. I was going to talk to her in person after our weekend game—I was coming home mostly to talk to Ash. But she couldn’t wait and drove up here.”

Gina sank weakly onto a kitchen chair.

“She’ll be home in a couple of hours or less,” he said.

“She drove all the way to Corvallis to ask you why you don’t pick up or return her calls and you say she’s fine? Downy, what the hell is going on?”

“Can you just ask Ash about that, okay? Because it’s—”

“Is my daughter pregnant?”

She felt rather than saw her mother sit straighter, even more alert. Gina had been an unmarried teenage mother.

“No! God, no!” Downy nearly yelled into the phone. “Listen, really, if you’d just talk to Ashley about this when she gets home...”

“Tell me right this second, Crawford Downy! My daughter has been upset about your relationship and she lied to me to take my car, drove three hours to Corvallis to talk to you and she’s just now on her way home? Tell me right now or I’ll call your mother!”

The young man took a deep breath. “I don’t want to tell you this, Gina. It’s really between us, but...I felt like we might be getting too serious. I thought we should take a breather, maybe date around a little, you know.”

Gina felt her stomach tie itself in a tight knot. Oh, God, her poor girl. No one could know better than Gina how something like that felt.

“Let me guess, there’s someone at State you’ve started dating a little?” she asked acidly.

“Come on, hey. I’m all the way up here, only see Ash a couple of weekends a month at the most. It got kind of old, sitting around my room alone twenty-six days of the month. She should be getting out more, too. It’s not that big a deal. We just need to lighten up a little, y’know?”

“Why didn’t you tell her this before she drove all the way to Corvallis to find out what’s going on?”