While they drank and talked and laughed, Jenna was also aware of where Jared was. He told her that morning that he and Syd and Mike were going to a movie—some horror movie they’d all been hearing about for weeks—and then they were heading back to Mike’s house to play video games and hang out. Jenna knew Mike’s parents and had been to their house on numerous occasions to pick Jared up or drop him off. They were attentive parents, and even though Mike was already developing into a bit of a smarmy smart-ass, she trusted them to keep an eye on the boys while she went out.
She told Jared, as she always did, to text her if he went anywhere else.
Jenna returned home around eight thirty and started reading a book. Her reading habits had changed as soon as Celia disappeared. She used to read mysteries and thrillers, books about serial killers and disappearances, but she quickly found she couldn’t stand to experience those kinds of stories anymore. She’d taken to reading historical romance novels, dramas that ended with the man and the woman riding off into the sunset together, all their troubles behind them. Just a few months earlier she would have laughed if someone suggested she read something like The Stranger Carried Me Away or The Knave Who Stole My Heart. That night, waiting for Jared to come home, she read the last fifty pages of one of them and ended up getting a little teary-eyed when the hero and heroine finally got together.
“God,” she said out loud, “what’s become of me?”
Jared returned home just after nine. He told her that Mike’s dad had given him a ride, and then he started for his room as if he couldn’t wait to get away from her.
“Do you want to watch a movie or something?” Jenna asked.
“I already watched one today,” he said, and kept on going.
His words had some bite to them, but Jenna shrugged them off. She knew she couldn’t take a teenager’s mouthing off personally, and she remembered the awful things she’d said to her parents while she was growing up. What goes around comes around, her mother always told her. Someday you’ll have kids of your own.
Indeed.
She went to bed early.
She spent Sunday cleaning while Jared studied in his room. He emerged from his sanctuary from time to time, helping with the laundry and carrying the garbage out to the curb, but otherwise they remained in their mutually imposed détente.
Jenna knew she shouldn’t have lied to the police. And she shouldn’t have asked Jared to keep a secret. She never wanted either one of them, especially Jared, to get into the habit of lying, even about the most inconsequential thing. But she made her decision early on and felt she had to live with it. She wanted to protect Jared from the kind of scrutiny she had endured in the wake of Celia’s disappearance. Maybe he’d thank her for it later.
On Sunday night, after the laundry and the cleaning were done, Jenna didn’t feel like reading. She’d finished her latest romantic adventure and wasn’t quite ready to start a new one. She faced another week of work and liked the idea of giving her brain even more of a rest than a romance novel could provide. So she turned on the TV, making a conscious choice to avoid any channel that carried anything resembling news. She didn’t want to come across some weekend host offering their half-baked opinions on Celia’s affairs or Jenna’s lies about them.
She settled on a nature show, something about hippos wallowing in the middle of Africa. But just like with the romance novels, she found herself tearing up when they showed a mother hippo with one of her calves. What’s wrong with me?
And then Jared came into the room, throwing himself into a chair. He propped his feet up on an overstuffed ottoman and stared at the screen.
She saw his presence as a peace offering, a gesture of reconciliation.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Hippos.”
“Cool.”
“Do you want to change it? I’m not really paying attention.”
He held out his hand and she tossed him the remote.
“But no news,” she said. “I don’t want to see my face or hear my name.”
“Neither do I,” Jared said. And then he laughed. “I mean on the TV.”
“Nice.”
He flipped around carefully, skipping the channels that might show news or crime stories. Jenna watched him and tried to sound casual.
“I Googled Tabitha yesterday,” she said. “Just curious.”
“There’s nothing there, right?”
“No. But that’s not so unusual. She’s young.”
“Did you Google me?” he asked.
“Yes. For comparison. And Syd and Mike.”
“And?” he asked.
“You all came up for something. But not Tabitha.”
“Weird, huh?”
“Yeah. A little. I tried her dad as well. Also nothing, but there are a lot of Edward Burkes. Do you know her mom’s name?”
“I don’t. I never asked.”
“But they’re separated, is that it?”
“It seems that way.”
“And her mom still lives in Florida? Is that where you said she was from?”
“Mom, do you know that my answers to these questions aren’t going to change? I said I don’t know anything about her mom.”
“I hear you.”
Jared didn’t seem to want to say more, and she felt relieved. He surfed some more and then settled on a show about the life of JFK.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
“Sure. Just don’t expect a happy ending.”
“I know what happens,” he said.
Together they watched, and Jenna felt somewhat normal again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE