The game, p.13
The Game, page 13
This was the last thing Bree had expected to hear but Imogen didn’t look as though she was joking. “What?! But Sam’s lovely! You’re both lovely together! I thought you were happy.”
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Stella said, but she said it quietly.
“What was that, Stella?” Imogen raised her eyebrows at her.
“I’ve been paying attention to some of your comments over the weekend,” Stella said smoothly. “I guessed that something was up.”
“Really? That’s funny. I don’t remember mentioning anything about this until now and I’m generally good at keeping track of what I say.”
Bree opened her mouth to say that perhaps Imogen had said something while she was drunk and then forgotten she’d said it, but she promptly shut it again. There was no point in waving a red flag at a bunch of angry bees unless you wanted to get stung yourself.
“Are you sure about this?” asked Collie. She’d folded herself in the middle and she was now half sitting up in the chair. “Have you talked it through with Sam and are you sure there’s no going back?”
“We’ve talked it through and there’s no going back,” Imogen confirmed. She didn’t seem concerned or upset. In fact, Bree thought she looked happy – which was odd under the circumstances.
“You’re lucky that there are no children involved,” said Lily. “It makes it easier.”
“It does make it easier, but Andy has a daughter. She’s seven. No, eight. Ashley is eight.”
Bree could feel her mouth hanging open. “Who’s Andy? Imogen, have you been having an affair?”
“Not exactly. Sort of.” Imogen sighed. “There’s no nice way to say it and it would be wrong of me to try to sugar coat it. Yes, I’ve been having an emotional affair but not a physical one, if that makes any sense. I reached the point last week where I knew I couldn’t continue living two lives. I told Sam and he’s doing his best to deal with it. At this stage, the only romantic partner I want is Andy. I’d hoped that this weekend would give me some breathing space before I go home to pack up my stuff and move in with Andy and Ashley. Unfortunately, the weekend hasn’t turned out to be the blissful retreat that I’d hoped for, but you win some and you lose some.”
“Where did you meet Andy?” Lily asked. “I bet you met through work. People always meet their affair partners at work.”
“Thanks for dumping my love life into the tediously common ‘everyone meets their affair partner at work’ bucket. But yes, we did meet at a conference. I also believe that what I have with Andy is much more than just an affair. There’s something special between us and I’ve never felt about anyone like this before. It feels fated.” Her eyes had taken on a faraway glaze.
“It’s such a shame. I’ve never forgotten Sam’s lovely speech about you at your wedding. You were boasting last night about your great sex life. Is he very cut up about it?” Bree felt desperately sorry for Sam. He really seemed to love his brash and outspoken wife.
“I think he was starting to guess.” Imogen didn’t explain further.
“So… this Andy. Are you going to give us any details about him, other than the fact he has an eight-year-old daughter?” Lily peered inquisitively at Imogen.
“Yes,” said Stella. “Tell us about this demi-god who has managed to penetrate your thick hide and find a heart that most people didn’t know existed.”
Imogen glowered at her. “I’m trying to work out if that was meant to be an insult or a back-handed compliment.”
“Take it however you like.” Stella swallowed the last of her second glass of wine.
Imogen turned away from Stella and smiled sweetly at Lily, Collie, and Bree in turn. “Andy is short for Andrea. She’s a woman.”
Stella made a curiously pig-like snort. “I should have guessed.”
Bree and Collie exchanged an incredulous stare. Lily grinned and banged her hands on the coffee table. “You’re a sly one. Jumped the fence and started batting for the other team without letting on to any of us.”
“It sort of just happened but honestly, I couldn’t be happier.” Imogen looked at Collie and Bree. “Well? Any comments from the floor?”
“Is this why you were acting so incensed when you found me in Bree’s bed?” Collie said accusingly. “Were you jealous that Andy isn’t here with you?”
“Um, what?” Stella’s head had swiveled around so far that it was almost on backward. “What do you mean, you were in Bree’s bed?”
Bree flapped her hand, annoyed with all the sidetracking from such an important conversation. “Collie jumped into my bed this morning so we could talk. It’s no big deal. We’ve been having sleepovers together since we were kids.”
Imogen took another deep breath. “I have something else to confess. I know you won’t want to hear this, Stella, but I swear it’s true. I even have proof on my phone if you want to see it but I’d advise you against doing that. The pictures aren’t pretty. Jack made a pass at me a few months ago and he’s been sending me photos of Mr. Peenie ever since. That was my note in the bowl.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Stella scoffed. “Why would Jack be interested in you? You’re just trying to have a dig at me because I don’t agree with your new relationship.” She said ‘relationship’ as if she’d just dredged the word up out of the mud on the end of a stick.
“I’m not having a dig at you,” Imogen said calmly. “I don’t care if you agree with my new relationship or not but Jack has been sending me dick pics.”
Stella stared at Imogen for several seconds as the color drained away from her face. “You’re telling the truth.”
“I am telling the truth, and I am sorry. I should have admitted it last night but I had a bit too much to drink and everyone was so upset. Anyway, it’s out in the open now. Your husband has gone behind your back to do disgusting things.”
“Wait, are you saying that Jack raped you?” Collie asked. She’d tossed aside the blanket now and was crouched, gargoyle-like, on the very edge of her seat.
“No!” Imogen’s eyes were wide and appalled. “I didn’t write that note. I wrote the note about someone’s husband sending me nude photos. I wrote one note and one note only.”
Stella looked as if she might faint. Bree hurried over to sit beside her. “Are you alright? I guess you had no idea that he was doing that.”
Stella closed her eyes. “I had no idea,” she said faintly.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bree looked up at the ship’s wheel clock and she was startled to see that it was nearly 3.30. “Is Macy still outside?”
“I’d forgotten all about Macy.” Collie quickly untangled her legs from the blanket and got up out of her chair. “She might have slipped back in without us hearing her. I’ll go and check her bedroom. She’s probably asleep on her bed.”
“Check on Stella too while you’re up there.”
Stella had excused herself not long after Imogen admitted she’d written the confession about Jack and his obscene texts. Bree had walked with her to the foot of the stairs, wanting to be sure she was ok, but Stella had insisted that she just needed a little time to herself to process it and recover from the shock.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a weekend like this,” Lily said as Collie left the room. She looked a bit too gleeful for Bree’s liking.
“You might need to work on not looking so delighted at everyone else’s expense,” Bree said.
Lily frowned at her. “I’m not delighted. I feel sorry for Stella. It can’t be much fun to suddenly realize that you’re married to a rapist.”
“That’s enough, Lily,” Imogen growled. “He sent a few limp dick pics. That doesn’t make him a rapist.”
“Limp?” The gleeful grin was back.
“You know what I mean. I should’ve used a better word. Pathetic. There you go. He sent me some pathetic dick pics and made some lewd suggestions. I wouldn’t go anywhere near the guy and I certainly don’t have any interest in his penis. He’s a creep.”
“Collie always said he was a creep. She’s never liked him.”
Lily seemed determined to go running off down dubious and shadowy pathways. “But you’re obviously not interested in any man’s penis now that you have Andy. How did Sam take it when you told him you were leaving him for a woman?”
Imogen pursed her lips. “He took it as well as you would expect.”
“Why didn’t you tell Stella as soon as you received the pictures?” Bree couldn’t understand this part. She would certainly want to know if Harry had made a pass at one of her friends. Could she admit to herself now that she was a teensy bit relieved to discover that it was definitely Jack and not Harry who had sent the photos?
“Stella and I aren’t exactly close friends.” Imogen looked from Lily to Bree, searching for support for her argument. “None of us are particularly close to her. She’s part of the group but she’s not an integral part. She doesn’t allow anyone to get too close to her.”
“Perhaps she’s had to learn to be standoffish to protect herself,” Bree mused. She wondered again if Stella had written the note about the cruel husband. A husband who went behind your back and sent photos of his genitals to one of your friends wouldn’t exactly be a candidate for a husband of the year award.
Collie ran breathlessly into the room carrying her hooded raincoat. She had changed out of her shorts and top and was now wearing sweatpants and a thick, woolly sweater. “Macy isn’t up there. I checked every room and her boots are still missing from beside the door. We’ll have to go and look for her. She’s been gone far too long.”
“What about Stella?” Bree was already striding toward the door, determined to get her jacket and help with the search.
“She’s asleep.” Collie followed her out of the family room. “It’s still raining. I hope Macy hasn’t gone and got herself lost.”
“I’ll go and get my coat so I can help too.” Imogen took the stairs two at a time, thump, thump, thump, followed closely by the much lighter-footed Lily.
“I wonder where she is? She could be out there somewhere suffering from hypothermia and unable to make it back to the cabin. I feel bad for not going to look for her earlier.” Bree peered out the window at the relentless rain before heading for the stairs. “We have to stick together when we go out searching. We can’t risk anyone else getting lost. It’ll be dark soon.”
“Yeah, I know.” Collie opened the front door and a freezing, damp gust whipped inside. She hastily shut it again. “Hurry up and get your jacket.”
A few minutes later, everyone except Stella had reassembled in the living room. Collie, who had appointed herself search manager, stood in front of the fallen tribal mask. “We stay together. No one is to wander off on her own. Is that clear? It’s cold and stormy out there and we only have an hour or so of daylight left.”
“I hope we find her well within an hour,” said Bree, again looking worriedly out the window at the wind-lashed trees.
“She might be in one of the cars,” said Imogen. “One of us probably should have just run out and checked.” She tied a double knot on her bootlaces and adjusted her beanie.
Bree wished she’d thought to pack a beanie but then again, Imogen had been out here plenty of times. She knew what she needed to pack. Bree pushed herself up onto tiptoes with her hands on the windowsill. “All the vehicles look empty from here.”
“She could be lying down on the seat. You wouldn’t be able to see her if she was lying down.” Lily was back in her practical mother-of-twins mode now.
“Let’s go.” Collie wrenched the door open and the wind whistled and howled around her legs.
“Abandon all hope all ye who enter here,” Lily chirped as she hurried past the Dante painting, her practicality gone with the wind. “I knew that picture was a bad omen as soon as I saw it.”
“Stop it, Lily. That’s not helping.” Imogen, her beanie pulled down low on her brow and her hands in her coat pockets, barged out the door. “Bloody hell, it’s cold out here.”
“See,” Lily said knowingly as she stepped around Bree and out onto the deck. “Hell. Dante’s Inferno. It all ties in.”
“Shut up, Lily.” The wind snatched up Collie’s voice as soon as it left her mouth and whisked it away in tattered shreds. “Check all the vehicles. If she’s not in any of the cars, we’ll reconvene up here under the shelter and decide where to look next.”
Bree wondered why they hadn’t made that decision before stepping out into the storm. She threw a wistful glance at the pale blue Adirondack chairs that she would probably never get a chance to sit in and then she hurried down the slippery wet steps after her friends.
“Check the cars!” shouted Collie again, battling to make her war cry heard. “She might be asleep in one of them.”
Bree stopped at the side of the cabin to look down the driveway. There were definitely more fallen branches scattered across the track now but these were smaller and would be easy enough to drag out of the way. The two biggest branches, the ones that had crashed down during the night, were the problem that Jack would need to address tomorrow. But how will we address the problem of Jack? Tomorrow was going to be a challenge in more ways than one.
She turned around as several car doors slammed at once. The others were shaking their heads and making their way back to the deck. Collie reached her and pointed through the gaps in the trees, where they could see glimpses of the lake. “She might have gone down there.”
“Why would she do that? She would be mad to go down to the lake in this weather.” She looked past Collie at Imogen as the other women joined them. “You know the area, Imogen. Do you have any suggestions about where she might have gone?”
Imogen hunched her shoulders against the onslaught of rain and stamped her feet, her boots throwing up muddy splashes from the soaked and sodden ground. She pooched out her bottom lip and gazed around. “Nope, but if we don’t find her soon I don’t like her chances.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bree wanted to go inside and call the emergency services but Imogen said they should at least make some effort to look around the outside of the cabin first. The incline down to the wood storage area beneath the cabin was now a dangerous mudslide. The women gripped hold of each other and made their careful way down the grass at the side of the foot track, avoiding the slick mud path. Bree silently cursed Macy for putting them all to so much trouble. What was she thinking? Everyone knew that it was idiotic to wander off on your own in the woods, especially during dreadful weather like this.
“We should get some more wood while we’re down here,” said Collie, giving the search a double dose of practicality. “We’re all going to need to thaw out by the fire when we get back inside.”
“Or have a hot shower.” Bree wrinkled her nose as she ducked under the low overhang and into the storage space. There was a strong, musky smell down here that she hadn’t noticed earlier. A mousy, squirrelly smell. There were probably several small animals and rodents hidden away under here, critters seeking shelter from the endless storm. She shivered, and it wasn’t only because of the cold temperature.
Lily gave a small shriek and grabbed Bree’s arm, pinching her skin painfully.
“Ow! You pinched me. What did you do that for?” Bree rubbed at her arm and scowled at Lily, but Lily wasn’t paying any attention to her. Instead, she was staring over into the shadowy gloom at the other end of the recess. “Did you hear that? There’s something over there.”
“Probably raccoons,” said Imogen. She stooped to pick up several pieces of wood. “She’s not here. We’ll take some wood inside and call for help. We’ll only get ourselves in trouble if we wander aimlessly off into the trees.”
Collie took a step in the direction from where Lily had heard the noise. “Hello? Macy?”
Lily shrieked again, the piercing noise momentarily blocking Bree’s ears, as a bulky, roundish shape loomed up in the gloom.
Collie took no notice of Lily’s squawking. “What are you doing down here, Macy? You must be half frozen to death.”
Macy moved into the light and blinked blearily at them. Stalks of dried grass were caught in her hair and a patch of sawdust covered one cheek. “What? Why are you all down here? I think I must’ve fallen asleep.”
“That’s Jon’s lumberjack coat. Did you get it out of the back of my car?”
Macy pulled the thick, plaid garment closer around her shoulders and snuggled her nose into the fleecy collar. “Yeah, I borrowed it. Your car was unlocked and I was going to sit there for a while but I didn’t want anyone coming out to tell me to come inside before I was ready to. I came down here and made myself a nice little nest over the back there.” She yawned. “What time is it?”
“It’s getting close to 4. Wine and cheese time.” Imogen, patently bored with the situation now that they knew Macy was unharmed, stepped back out into the rain. “I’m going back inside. Make sure you all bring some wood when you come in.” She vanished around the edge of the cabin.
“Weren’t you scared of rats?” Lily craned her neck in an attempt to see where Macy had made her ‘nest’.
“Not really.” Macy stepped over a few scattered pieces of wood and joined them. “I can’t believe I slept most of the afternoon away.”
“You missed a lot,” Lily said excitedly, talking quickly before anyone else could say a word. “Imogen is gay and Jack is a pervert.”
“What?” Macy scratched at her plump, sawdust-covered cheek. “What are you on about, Lily?”
Bree bent to pick up some wood. The thought of going back into the cabin and shutting herself away in her room, maybe even diving under the covers and pulling the blankets up over her head to close out the world, was suddenly almost overwhelmingly enticing.
“Imogen is leaving Sam. It turns out that her one true love isn’t a man – it’s a woman named Andy and Imogen is looking forward to her new life as a stepmother to Andy’s daughter,” Lily gushed.
Collie put her boot on the piece of wood that Bree was about to pick up. “Don’t get that one. There’s an enormous spider on it. See? You can see its hairy legs poking out of that crack.”
