Page 57 of Escape to Lighthouse Cove

“I’m sure. Convincing my mother might be another matter, but as I’ll inherit the house eventually…” He shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Do you think she might resist?” Grace asked, and Noah sighed.

“Honestly, I have no idea. As I told you, I haven’t spoken with my mother in eighteen months. I’m really not sure what she thinks about anything anymore, including me.” His cheerful expression faltered briefly, and Grace’s heart ached for him.

“Maybe,” she suggested softly, “this can be a way to heal. For both of you.”

“Maybe,” Noah agreed, but he didn’t sound convinced.

Grace knew she shouldn’t get ahead of herself. Her mind was racing with thoughts and plans, but it was still all very new. She needed to give Noah time to catch up, although to be fair, he’d come on board very quickly.

As they came around a curve in the road, Noah hoisted Jacob from his shoulders. “Sorry, buddy, but the deltoids need a break,” he said, tousling the boy’s hair. Jacob skipped ahead, only to skid to a sudden halt, his body going completely tense and still.

Grace glanced at him in concern, and then looking ahead, she saw what made Jacob come to such a surprised stop. A person—a man—was standing in front of the lodge. And as she walked closer, she realized who it was.Brad.

For a second, her mind felt frozen along with her body, and she simply stood there, unable to make sense of it. Brad, here.Why?She’d told him she was going to Maine, she said she’d got a job at a nature reserve—he’d made a snide remark—but she hadn’t given any details. He shouldn’t have been able to find her.

And why would he find her, when he’d more or less told her he never wanted to see her again, along with making her life a total misery?

He caught sight of them, and a smile broke out across his face. Grace knew that smile. Wide, blindingly white, and 100 percent fake.

She started to shake.

But the sight of Brad wasn’t as shocking as the words that came out of his mouth.

“Noah Lawrence, my man! How’s it going?” And Brad strolled toward Noah, his fist outstretched, which Noahbumped, murmuring back, “Hey, Brad. Good to see you.”

Grace stared at them in complete incomprehension. Wait… they werefriends? Brad was grinning at Noah while Noah smiled faintly back.Good to see you?Grace felt as if her mind had stuttered to a complete and utter halt.

“I knew you had a place in Maine, but this?” Brad shook his head, whistling as he glanced up at Grayhaven looming above them. “Whoa.”

“Yeah, family summer seat and all,” Noah replied with an uncertain laugh. He looked flummoxed, like he couldn’t understand why Brad was here. It was obvious, Grace thought numbly, that Noah and her ex-husband were buds.

But before Grace could think any further aboutthat, the air was split by the most unearthly, awful shrieking she’d ever heard, one long note after another, howls of pure pain and fear.

They were coming from Jacob.

31

“What the hell?”

Grace didn’t miss the tone of surprised annoyance from Brad. She ignored him, dropping onto her knees in front of her son. “Jacob…Jacob.” She took him by the shoulders, looking earnestly and urgently into his face. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’sokay. It’s just… Daddy.” The word felt misshapen in her mouth, large and lumpy.

Jacob just kept screaming, tears streaming down his face as he shook his head back and forth, a shrill sound coming from his mouth like a siren or a whistle. Instinctively, Grace glanced at Brad, who was looking surprised and unsettled, maybe a little irritated too. He didn’t attempt to comfort his son. Grace couldn’t bear to look at Noah, not after that stupid fist bump, the bro banter. Theykneweach other? She’d wondered that once, but now she found she simply couldn’t get her head around it.

“Jacob,” she said again, helplessly.

“What’s wrong with him?” Brad asked, a little peevishly. “Hey, Jakey!” He adopted a jovial tone that he always did with Jacob, and which Grace suspected was pretty fake. “I thought my little man would be glad to see me after all this time.”

Jacob just kept screaming.

“Obviously he isn’t,” Grace stated, trying to keep her voice level. Her nerves felt frayed, scraped raw. Jacob’s screaming was hurting her ears, her son was in distress, NoahknewBrad, and… she felt entirely out of control of this situation.

Then, suddenly, Jacob stopped. He sagged, his shoulders slumping, his face still streaked with tears.

And he spoke the first words Grace had heard in six months, in little more than a whimper.

“He said… he said hewouldn’t.”