Page 48 of Escape to Lighthouse Cove

And at the same time, he didn’t want to tell her any of it. Not one word, not onesyllable.

Which was probably why he was feeling so jumbled up inside right then.

Sighing, Noah stepped into his study—and came to a complete stop. Jacob wasn’t there. For a second, he felt a white-hot blaze of panic that at least part of him knew was unreasonable, but still he felt it. Suddenly he was walking into another room, looking for Jem, some part of him already knowing…

No. He wasn’t going to go there. He couldn’t.

“Jacob?” he called, his voice sounding shakier than he would have liked. “Jacob—” He stopped suddenly at a rustling sound. Slowly he looked around the room… and saw Jacob hiding behind the heavy curtain. Noah breathed out slowly, relief flooding his body, turning him weak and almost dizzy. “Hmm…” he managed, tapping his chin in a parody of thoughtfulness. “Hmm… I wonder where Jacob is. Did hedisappear? He wouldn’t leave this chessboard like this, would he, with the opening half played?”

To his astonishment, Noah heard a sound from behind the curtain. Agiggle. It was the first sound he’d ever heard Jacob make.

“Hmm…” he said again, louder this time, as he paced around the room. “Is he up on the ceiling? No. Is he under this chair? No. Hmm…hmmm…” He waited, and heard a drawn breath, like Jacob was trying to stifle a giggle. His heart filled with a happiness that was so intense ithurt. “I wonder where he is! I just can’t find him anywhere.”

As Noah stood in the center of the room, looking all around, Jacob suddenly shot out from behind the curtain. For a heart-stopping second, he thought he might speak, but then he realized it didn’t matter if he did or not. The grin splitting his face was enough.

Noah pressed one hand to his chest and pretended to stagger back in shock while Jacob grinned and grinned. Then the little boy grabbed his hand, tugging it meaningfully. Just like Jem, Noah knew exactly what he wanted.

“You want to play hide and seek?” he guessed, and Jacob nodded decisively. Noah thought of the house yawning all around them—empty, forlorn, forgotten, and a perfect paradise for a child to hide in. “Should we ask your mom to play?” he asked, and Jacob nodded harder. “Okay, then.”

Downstairs Grace was wiping off the bookshelves with one of the dust sheets. She startled as they came in, her eyes widening when she saw Jacob.

“Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s great,” Noah assured her. “And wow, this room looks… it looks like it used to.” He glanced around in appreciation, before his gaze settled on the table of photographs, and he saw the picture of him and Jem. It felt like a punch to the chest, and yet he realized it wasn’t abadfeeling. Just… an intense one.

He forced himself to look away from it and smile at Grace. “Jacob wants to play hide and seek.”

Grace was still looking startled. “He… does?”

“Yep. One hundred percent. We thought you could play, too.”

“Hide and seek… in the whole house?” She sounded surprised, but also cautious. “We might get lost forever.”

“True,” Noah agreed. He was feeling weirdly cheerful. Maybe it had been Jacob’s laugh. It had been such a sweet, pure sound. “Should we say second floor only?” He glanced at Jacob for confirmation, who nodded solemnly. “And shall I be the seeker?” he pressed, and Jacob nodded again.

Grace was looking between the two of them with a kind of emotional amazement. “You guys have really connected,” she said softly, and Noah felt that pain in his chest again. A good pain.

“Okay, how about I count in here?” he suggested. “To fifty. Ready? Go!”

And covering his eyes, he started to count.

27

Grace took Jacob’s hand as they hurried out of the study. She was still kind of stunned that Noah had seemed so cheerful, that they were playing hide and seek in the rooms that had felt forbidden not long ago, and that her son seemed soanimated. They were all like little miracles, and she was so very grateful.

At the top of the stairs, she turned to Jacob. Noah was already nearing twenty. “Where do you want to hide?” she asked, and in response he took off down the hallway, clearly having his own agenda. Grace watched him go in bemusement. Okay, she guessed they weren’t going to hide together. Which meant… where was she going to hide? Noah was already on thirty.

She hurried down the hall, opening a door at random and stepping into a bedroom that smelled of must and mothballs, the beds stripped of covers, the only other furniture a huge wardrobe like something out of Narnia.

Cautiously she opened the door, the creak making her jump, and then peered inside. It was empty, and big enough for her to stand in. Laughing a little, feeling like she was in a fairy story, Grace stepped inside. She’d readThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobeto Jacob last year, and the line about being sensible never to shut oneself in a wardrobe flitted through her mind as she was careful to hold the door closed without latching it. She also held her breath, which had suddenly sounded loud in the near-empty room.

In the distance she heard Noah call, his voice light and full of mischief, “Ready or not, I’m coming…”

Suddenly Grace had to stifle a giggle. She was hiding in a wardrobe, and it felt so silly… and sofun. She was glad that Jacob was having fun, and Noah, too. He’d seemed so much lighter when he’d come back downstairs, and it made Grace glad.Reallyglad, even if she didn’t understand the change.

“Let’s see…” Noah’s voice carried down the hall as he came toward the room. Grace found she had to press her hand over her mouth. “Where is everybody…” Noah mused, calling out, Grace suspected, so she and Jacob could hear him. A giggle slipped between her fingers and she pressed her hand more tightly to her mouth.

The door to the bedroom creaked open. Grace stood as still as she could. She realized she both wanted and didn’t want to be found, which was a strange feeling. She heard footsteps coming closer and then stopping right in front of the wardrobe.