Although her face was still streaked with tears, Lucy nodded. “What books do you have?” she asked, sounding more amenable to Serenity’s suggestion.
“I got some Dr. Seuss books out of storage.” Serenity snapped on the lamp in Lucy’s room. “Some others, as well.” She gestured at the stack on the nightstand. “Let’s have a look.”
With a sniff, Lucy wiped her face again and chose Where the Wild Things Are before allowing Serenity to lift her into bed.
Serenity climbed beneath the covers, too, and read one book after another—all while keeping a frequent, worried eye on her phone.
“Is someone going to call you?” Lucy asked with a yawn.
The question alone caused the knots in Serenity’s stomach to tighten.
“I’m thinking I might hear from my mother,” she said ruefully.
“You have a mother, too?”
The question surprised Serenity. Everyone had a mother—except Lorelei, she realized. Lucy was so young. Maybe she thought that once you became an adult you no longer had one. “I do. Your mother had a mother, too. But we don’t know what happened to her.”
“Will I ever get to see her?”
Serenity wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I don’t know. Does your father have a mom?”
“Yes.”
“Do you ever get to see your grandma and grandpa?”
“We go there sometimes.”
“Do you also have aunts and uncles?”
She nodded. “Lots.”
All of that was on her father’s side. Her mother had had no parents or siblings, until recently. No wonder Lorelei wanted to stay in Tahoe, wanted to connect with her past and the people who shared her DNA.
Once again, Serenity considered just how difficult it would be to grow up as Lorelei had. And hearing that Mark still had his parents, as well as many brothers and sisters, only made her more upset with him for letting Lorelei down.
For their next book, Serenity chose Are You My Mother? and couldn’t help wondering if Lorelei had ever read this book—it would likely have a sad echo for her. But it seemed to be Lucy’s favorite. Serenity had to read it three times before her niece finally nodded off.
Once Lucy had fallen asleep, Serenity slipped out from under the covers, trying not to jiggle the mattress. But she paused to look back at the sleeping little girl before turning off the light. “Good night,” she whispered and checked her phone once again.
Still nothing from Charlotte, but Serenity went back to her room determined to come up with something to correct the mistake she’d made by sending that text—even if her explanation was a lie. She had to make her mother believe that her simple, heartfelt question meant something completely innocuous, had to protect Lorelei and Reagan long enough to get the answers they sought.
* * *
lorelei
It was bright and early, before even Lucy got up, when banging on the door woke Lorelei. She gazed at the ceiling for a few seconds, trying to orient herself, then jumped out of bed. She’d been hoping to sleep in, didn’t want whoever was so rudely interrupting the household to disturb Lucy before she woke up on her own.
“Damn it,” she muttered, and yanked on a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt.
She flew down the stairs as Reagan and Serenity both appeared on the landing looking as disheveled from sleep and irritated by the noise as she was.
“What’s going on?” Reagan asked. “We’ve only been in bed for, what, four hours?”
“I can’t imagine it’s Finn,” Lorelei said. “He went to bed late, too.”
“Who else could it be?” Reagan asked.
Lorelei reached for the knob, but the mystery was solved before she could even turn it. After the door rattled with another solid knock, a deep voice called out, “Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.”
Lorelei whipped around to look up at Serenity.
“Go ahead and open it,” Serenity said, clearly concerned as she started to descend.
Lorelei did as she was told and soon found herself facing a stocky deputy, about six feet tall, in a dark green uniform. “What can I do for you, Officer?”
He glanced down at a paper he held in his hands. “Are you Lorelei Cipriano?”
“I am,” she said in confusion. “How—”
“And do you have your daughter with you?” he broke in.
“Of course.” She gestured behind her. “She’s upstairs sleeping. Is there a problem?” She craned her neck to see what was on the paper he held. “Why do you have a picture of me?”
“Your husband emailed it to us. He’s been worried about you. Said he hasn’t been able to reach you for more than twenty-four hours.”
Reagan’s footsteps sounded on the stairs as she hurried to join them. “Mark called the cops?”
“Apparently,” Lorelei muttered.
“He wanted us to do a wellness check, said you’re away from home for the first time and haven’t been answering your phone,” the officer explained. “We’re just making sure you’re safe.”
“Yes, I’m fine,” she assured him. “Lucy is, too. We were out to dinner last night, so I had my phone turned off—that’s all. I’ll contact my husband today.”
“I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear from you.”
“Thanks for going to the trouble of...of coming out here, especially so early on a Sunday morning,” she said.
The deputy must’ve been satisfied with what he saw, because he angled his head to acknowledge her comment, wished them a good day and left.
After closing the door, Lorelei leaned against it. “What was Mark thinking? It’s three hours later in Florida, almost nine, but still. It’s not as if I’ve been out of touch for days.”
“If you typically respond right away, I could see where he’d worry.”
She got the impression Serenity was trying to be diplomatic. “Enough to bother the cops?”
Reagan covered a yawn. “He’s not used to being ignored.”
“True. I’ve let him be the center of my universe for too long. He’s gotten a little too comfortable there.”
“Are you going to call him?” Serenity asked.
“I’ll text him,” she said. “Then I’m going back to bed.”
She shoved away from the door and shuffled wearily to the stairs when she heard her daughter’s small voice.