Page 24 of The Summer Swap

“No clues.”

“What do you think we should do, Kris?” He looked at her expectantly and she knew that whatever she suggested he’d go along with because that was what he always did.

“I don’t know.” She was used to being the one in control, but right now she wished someone else would take over. She was tired of responsibility. Tired of doing the right thing when everyone else just did what they wanted to do. Tired of keeping every ball in the air by herself. “If you have suggestions, I’m listening.”

She sat down and removed her shoes, flexing first one foot and then the other. She’d walked miles today, striding between paintings and problems, managing and troubleshooting and smiling until her face ached. All without the help of the most important guest.

Outside it was dark. The guests had left. The champagne had been drunk and the food eaten. Most of the clearing up had already taken place, although the crew would be back in the morning to pick up any remaining detritus.

Kristen lay back on her mother’s bed. When she was discharged from the hospital as a child having almost died, she’d slept in this bed and Cecilia had slept next to her, watching her breathe. Every time she’d opened her eyes, her mother had been there. For the first two nights her father had slept there, too, and she remembered feeling happy and a little smug because she’d reunited a family that she’d been sure was broken.

Her memory of the accident was blurry. She remembered her mother telling her that they were divorcing. She remembered feeling as if her life had collapsed. She’d yelled at her mother and run out of the house. Her next memory was of waking up in the hospital and seeing her parents standing by her bed. Together. They’d talked to the doctors together. They’d watched her bleeping machines together. They held hands at the same time as holding her hand.

Cecilia had cried on Cameron’s shoulder, and he’d hugged her and held her and cried a little himself.

Kristen had never seen her father cry, but he’d cried over her when she was in the hospital and that, together with the suffocating level of attention that followed her accident, made her feel loved and safe and part of a family that just might stay together.

She sat up, pushing those memories away.

Why was she thinking about that now? Possibly because unpredictable parental behavior unsettled her.

The door opened and Theo entered carrying a tray loaded with wine, beer and glasses.

Kristen glanced at his face, trying to gauge his mental state. How was he doing?

When he’d arrived at the party, she’d been terrified that he was going to have some sort of emotional breakdown and that she was going to have to try and find a way to support him while still running a major event and managing the absence of her mother. Theo had surprised her by appearing to be his normally controlled self.

Instead of coming straight from the hospital, he’d stopped off at home to shower and change. He’d arrived looking like the calm, steady man she’d married, and he’d brought Hannah with him.

Kristen had been relieved. On the phone he’d sounded broken and she’d been nervous about how she was going to deal with it. This version of Theo she understood. This version she could handle. Hopefully those unsettling few minutes of unleashed emotion during their phone call were in the past.

“Hannah is on her way up.” He put the tray down on the table and dropped his jacket over the back of a chair. “Bring me up-to-date. What do we know?”

“Not much. This was a good idea, Theo.” Winston poured wine into the glasses. “Genius.”

“I thought we needed it.”

Kristen watched him closely. “Her note simply says that she has gone away for a while and not to worry about her,” she said. “There are no clues as to where she has gone or why.”

“Did she take a taxi or drive herself?” Theo drank his glass of wine quickly and Kristen thought that maybe he wasn’t doing that well after all. Maybe he was just doing well at disguising how bad he felt.

“I don’t know.”

He had been drinking steadily all afternoon and evening, and Kristen hadn’t said anything or tried to intervene because she knew he was on edge and thinking about Michael and she sympathized. She was thinking about Michael, too (and Trisha), but she’d also had to think about all the guests, her speech, Jeff and also Todd who had apparently had champagne thrown in his face by Amelie, which might or might not be linked to the fact that her phone was telling her she now had twelve missed calls from Amelie’s mother. (What was wrong with the woman?)

The way her life was right now, Kristen was ready to snatch the bottle out of Theo’s hand and drink it herself without bothering with the glasses but if she did that who would unravel the various strands of their family mess?

Winston was looking to her to make decisions and it was becoming clear that despite his valiant attempts to disguise his personal crisis, Theo was incapable of thinking of anything except the loss of his friend. Todd might have had some insight because he was close to his grandmother, but no one had seen him since Amelie had tried to drown him.

“No one saw her leave as far as we know.” And it didn’t matter how many times Winston said they shouldn’t worry. She was worried. And angry with her mother for adding yet another stress to her already stressful life. Why couldn’t she just have said where she was going like a normal person? And why couldn’t she have waited until after the party?

“Perhaps we should wait for her to get in touch. We know she’s not in danger.” Winston was practical. “She said she wants some time to herself. What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong is that this was supposed to be her party. And Dad’s exhibition. People were asking questions. There were a hundred people ready to sing her happy birthday and I had to pretend she had a headache. It was awkward.”

Winston looked helpless. “You handled it well, Kris.”

Kristen stood up and walked to the window. She didn’t want praise. She wanted—what did she want?

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