Jo Leigh - Confessions Bundle

“I’ll wait,” he said. And without another look in her direction, he turned, dropped down to the beach and stared out at one of his oldest and dearest friends—the ocean.

He might not understand it, but he could count on it to always be there. Steadfast. Unchanging. Living by its routine day in and day out, tide in and tide out, whether he was there or not.

Even after years away, the ocean had welcomed him home, same as always. Her shorelines might change. The boats upon her waters might change. But she did not. Ever.

And neither would he. For as long as it took, he was going to sit there.

“Freedom, come.”

The dog came. Lay beside his master. Put his head down. And waited.

“JULES?” Marcie came running through the kitchen just as Juliet came in the sliding glass door from the beach.

“She’s gone!”

“What?” Juliet, dreading the minutes ahead, deathly afraid that life would never be good again, stared at her twin.

“Mary Jane’s gone!”

“Gone?” As fear tore into her, Juliet ran through the cottage. “She can’t be gone. She just came in with you.”

There was no sign of the girl in the living room.

“Mary Jane McNeil, you come out here right now!” Juliet screamed so loudly her throat stung. “I mean it, young lady. Come out here, now!”

Before this morning she’d never spoken to her daughter like that. Now it was twice in one day.

“She went to her room,” Marcie was saying, running behind Juliet. “She shut the door and said she wanted to be alone.”

That wasn’t unheard of. Mary Jane didn’t usually pout in public.

“I had to go to the bathroom and when I came out, her door was open and she was gone!”

Juliet burst into Mary Jane’s room. “Mary Jane? If you’re hiding under that bed, you’d better give it up. Now!”

The space under the bed was empty. And the room looked surprisingly normal. As though this was any other ordinary Saturday and they’d be leaving for the grocery store any minute now.

Until she noticed a bend in the blinds over the window.

And once she lifted them, the open window was obvious. So was a truth Juliet didn’t think she was strong enough to withstand.

Mary Jane had run away.

HEARING FOOTSTEPS running in the sand behind him, Blake jumped up. He could hardly breathe as he turned around, ready to take his little girl into his arms for the first time.

He was thinking about how furious she’d been when he’d introduced himself, almost as though she’d recognized the name and had known who he was. It didn’t make sense. But he was sure there’d be a logical explanation.

In the meantime…

He turned. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Juliet running toward him, alone, with a face so pinched it was almost unrecognizable.

By the time she reached him, the blood was pumping painfully through his veins.

“She’s run away!” Juliet’s terror was a horrible thing to see. And contagious.

A little girl out in the world alone. He shivered with cold and fury against all the unknown evils that could befall his child. And he was shocked at his own reaction—as though he’d been a parent far longer than this mere half hour.

“Call the police,” he barked out.

“Marcie already is. And calling some neighbors and friends, too, to start a search.”

He nodded. “Fine, but it’ll take too long for them to get here. We can’t wait that long.”

“I know.” Juliet swallowed. “I think she climbed out her window.”

She pointed to the side of the cottage blocked from view by a little patch of trees.

He nodded and pushed aside any feelings he might at one time have had for her. “I’ll take the beach. This direction.” He pointed up the beach, where the child would have come out through the trees. “You and Marcie take the street. You go one way and tell her to take the other.”

Looking like a lost little girl instead of the powerful defense attorney he knew her to be, Juliet nodded. “I’ll take my cell phone. Marcie’ll have hers, too.”

“Mine’s back in my car,” Blake said. But he wasn’t losing a second to go back for it. “Honk a car horn three times if someone finds her and I’ll know to come back. Depending on how long I’m gone, you might have to drive up the road a bit for me to hear.”

She glanced at him once more, and nodded. Blake refused to take the comfort she was offering. Or to give her what she needed, either.

He just didn’t have it.

“Can Freedom stay inside?”

“Of course.”

“Go, boy,” Blake said, grabbing the dog’s collar and handing him over to Juliet.

They hadn’t even turned around before he was hiking up the beach.

SHE JUST WANTED to spit. And…and…anything else that would hurt her mother’s feelings. Tromping along in the sand, making huge big footprints because she was so mad and stepping so hard, she stared at the ground. She wouldn’t look at the water at all.

Mom always told her to look at the water. And to know that there was no end to what she could do with her life. And no end to hope. Or to love, either.

Mom was a stupid liar.

She almost stepped on a pretty, perfect shell. It was pink and all shiny with different colors in the sun. Mom’s favorite kind. They always picked up and saved those ones. Mary Jane thought about stomping on it, but she didn’t want some kid in bare feet to come later and step on it and get cut. She hated that.

Instead, she picked it up and threw it as hard as she could, far out into the water where Mom could never ever find it, even if she wanted it badly enough.

And then she trudged on, way farther than she was allowed to go—and after a while, farther than she’d ever been, even with Mom and Aunt Marcie.

So what? They said it wasn’t safe for her here alone, but who cared? They were both liars.

She turned some corners and walked really fast. She sweated a lot, too.

If she got too hot, she’d go in the water. Mom didn’t want her to do that, either. She was just going to do everything Mom didn’t want her to do. Mom deserved it.

Sometime after she’d passed some people on a blanket—a man, a woman and some boy—Mary Jane thought about how tired her legs were. She’d forgotten how tired the sand could make her feet when she walked in it a long time.

So she moved closer to the water, letting the waves come up over her new white tennis shoes.

She loved them most when they were brand-new white. Mom did, too. And she’d be really sorry when she saw them all dirty.

Not that she was going to see them. Mary Jane wasn’t ever going home again. Who could live with people who lied to you?

She heard a dog bark and jumped back, kind of scared. Mom said stray dogs were dangerous sometimes and they could bite and give you rabies, which could make you have some pretty bad shots or die. She’d never been alone around a stray dog.

But when she looked around, there wasn’t one too close. She was kind of thirsty, though. And the ocean water was bad for drinking because of salt making you even thirstier. She shoulda brought her thermos from school. And a sandwich, too. Because it was going to be dinnertime and she hadn’t figured out where she was going to live yet.

Still, she was away from the liars. And that was all that mattered.

A man was by himself, up ahead by the water. Mary Jane slowed down. She wasn’t scared or anything, but everyone knew men were sometimes bad and she didn’t want to have to run away fast. She just wanted to be left alone. And quit being lied to.

Just then she heard the dog bark again. It ran to the man. And then a lady was there, too, and Mary Jane said hi as she walked past. They said hi and smiled. She probably could ask them for water if she had to. And if they fed a dog, they might feed her. A lot of adults thought dogs and kids were a lot alike. And besides, she wasn’t a picky eater and didn’t eat much either.