Page 25 of Call Off the Dark

“I am.”

“What is your name, Wade’s wife?”

“Helen.” The circle closed tighter around her.

Isaac returned the book to the side table and faced her. He wasn’t going to go outside anymore and she didn’t know how to make him. She needed to find her shoes and socks. It wasn’t right that she was standing in the kitchen with her toes bare, the tips of her toenails white against her pale skin.

Then headlights briefly passed through the kitchen and broke apart the circle.

“That’s him,” Helen said, and Isaac visibly tensed. Interesting that he seemed composed when threatened with a knife, but now he rocked impatiently from one foot to the other.

Isaac watched the door expectantly, and Helen watched Isaac carefully. As she noticed the way he pressed his fingertips into the side of his leg, she realized her vantage point had shifted. Now she was far outside the circle, a spectator waiting to see what would unfold in this strange saga.

The front door opened and Wade appeared, smiling.

His smile fell away when he saw the man in the kitchen, and fear flashed there instead.

Chapter Eleven

Ten years, one month, and two days ago

Tyler’s hands gripped the steering wheel at ten and two. Normally he drove with his left hand at six and his right hand in his lap, relaxed but ready. Helen wished she could kiss away the tension in his hands, but no matter what reassurances she gave him, it didn’t seem to make a difference in his mood.

He flipped on the blinker and took the exit for Chuckanut Bay, in the southern part of Bellingham where he’d grown up. Helen and Tyler had been dating for six months now, and tonight they were staying at a bed and breakfast he had booked for them. Tomorrow, Helen would meet Tyler’s father, stepmother, younger brother, and younger sister at a gathering at his father’s house. She’d already met his mother and grandmother in Portland: both lovely women—funny, warm, endearing. It was no surprise to her that he had such a cool mom, but he’d been hesitant to introduce her to the rest of the family.

“You want a latte?” Tyler asked.

“Sure,” Helen said. “Let’s split one.”

She wasn’t really in the mood for a latte, but she could tell he was, and she wanted to lift his spirits.

He pulled into a drive-through espresso stand off the exit. The girl in the window who leaned out to take their order was a gorgeous little sprite, probably a college student at the university in town. The fall quarter was just beginning. The girl brightened when she made eye contact with Tyler.

“Can I please get a vanilla latte?” Tyler asked. That was their normal order.

“Of course you can!” The girl smiled at him, and she held it a beat longer than normal. Helen knew the girl was appreciating how attractive he was. Girls often did that, but for the most part, he seemed oblivious to it.

When Tyler and Helen had started dating, she had expected to see him move through the world with the same charm he’d given her that first day when they’d roamed the entire floor of his company looking for a pretend Daphne. But instead of a playful charisma, she’d seen him exhibit a reserved kindness and politeness with most people. He’d told her he used to be a shy kid, and the more time she spent with him, the more she realized he really was on the quieter side with most people and didn’t go out of his way to charm strangers. His humor was appreciated by his closest friends and family as private asides that made you feel like you’d been invited to an exclusive party. He rarely put his jokes on public display. He said he’d been that way with Helen that first day in the office building only because he’d felt an irresistible pull to her. Something about her had made him feel comfortable joking right away. He’d never felt anything like that until her.

Those were the kind of words they used with each other: Never. Until you.

In her mind, Helen tended to categorize her past romances. There were two ex-boyfriends she wished well, but those relationships had run a (somewhat) satisfying enough course and ended as preordained. There was an off-and-on situation that had both excited and confused her and stretched on far too long but now only gave her feelings of indifference. A messy handful of disappointing dates, initial attractions that fizzled before things ever got going, and one asshole that she hoped would fall off a mountain face.

This romance with Tyler wasn’t like any others. It was the love story she had always wanted to live. When she’d brought him to her family’s Fourth of July picnic and introduced him around the lakeside gathering, she’d observed a curiosity and attentiveness among her relatives that neither of her ex-boyfriends had ever inspired. Helen’s aunt had literally spooned the potato salad into a bowl for Tyler and wiped the tines of a fork on the front of her own T-shirt to make sure it was clean. “Sorry, picnic dirt,” she’d apologized. That day was the second time Helen’s parents had seen Tyler, and when Helen had commented that everyone seemed to like him, her mother had said, “Of course they do,” as if it were a foregone conclusion.

Helen hoped Tyler saw her as a foregone conclusion too. She knew he found her energy irresistible: her outbursts of enthusiasm over how soft fleece was and how fascinating the gorillas at the zoo were and how simultaneously sweet and bitter real black licorice was. He said life was a million times more interesting with her in it. He was always saying sweet things to her.

As he pulled away from the espresso stand, she reached for the latte.

“Wait, it might be hot,” he said, not relinquishing the cup. He brought it to his lips and took a small sip. “It’s not too bad,” he said, and passed the cup to her.

She was only going to drink a little bit. She had a hard enough time falling asleep as it was. Getting caffeinated in the afternoon wouldn’t help matters, and she didn’t want to feel and look exhausted the next day when she was to finally meet the rest of Tyler’s family.

A couple of months ago, when Helen had broached the topic, Tyler had said, “It’s always drama with them.”

“So?” she replied. “Isn’t that family?” As an only child with just a few cousins, she thought the chaos of a big family sounded appealing.

Tyler’s mouth tightened. “They’re not like my mom.”