True believer - Nicholas Sparks [131]
Nerves, a voice inside his head answered.
No matter. If she wasn’t here, she was probably at home.
One of the elderly volunteers was emerging with an armful of books, and her eyes lit up when she saw him approaching.
“Mr. Marsh?” she called out in a singsong voice. “I didn’t expect to see you again! What on earth are you doing here?”
“I was looking for Lexie.”
“She left about an hour ago. I think she was heading to Doris’s to check on her. I know she called earlier, and Doris didn’t answer.”
Jeremy kept his expression steady. “Oh?”
“And Doris wasn’t at Herbs, I know that much. I tried to tell Lexie that Doris was probably running some errands, but you know how Lexie worries. She’s like a mother hen. Drives Doris crazy sometimes, but she knows that it’s just Lexie’s way of showing that she cares.” She paused, suddenly realizing that Jeremy hadn’t explained his reappearance. Before she could say another word, however, Jeremy cut her off.
“Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve really got to talk to Lexie.”
“About the story again? Maybe I could help. I have the key to the rare-book room, if you need it.”
“No, that’s not necessary. But thank you.”
He was already past her when he heard her voice behind him.
“If she comes back, do you want me to tell her you came by?”
“No,” he called out over his shoulder. “It’s a surprise.”
He shivered as he stepped into the cold and ran back to the car. He pulled onto the main road, followed the curve to the edge of town, watching as the sky grew even darker. Above the trees, he could see stars, thousands of them. Millions. For an instant, he wondered how they would look from the top of Riker’s Hill.
He turned onto Lexie’s street, saw her house, and felt something give way when he saw no lights shining from inside and no car in the drive. Reluctant to believe his eyes, he passed the house slowly, hoping he’d made a mistake.
If not at the library, if not at home, where was she?
Had she passed him on the way to Doris’s? He tried to think. Had anyone passed him? Not that he remembered, but he really hadn’t been paying attention. He was sure he would have recognized her car, anyway.
He decided to swing by Doris’s just to make sure, and—driving too fast through town while watching for her car—he sped back to her white bungalow.
One look was all it took to see that Doris had already gone to bed.
Still, he paused in front of the house, trying to figure out where Lexie had gone. It wasn’t that large of a town and the options were few. He thought immediately of Herbs, but remembered it wasn’t open in the evening. He hadn’t seen her car at Lookilu—or anywhere else downtown, for that matter. He supposed she could have been doing something mundane: grocery shopping or returning a video or picking up dry cleaning . . . or . . . or . . .
And with that, he suddenly realized where she was.
Jeremy gripped the steering wheel, trying to steel himself for the end of his journey. His chest was tight and he could feel himself breathing too quickly, just as he had earlier in the afternoon, as he’d taken his seat on the plane. It was hard to believe that he’d started his day in New York thinking he would never see Lexie again, and now here he was in Boone Creek, planning to do what he thought was impossible. He drove the darkened roads, still unnerved by the thought of what Lexie’s reaction to his return might be.
Moonlight lent the cemetery an almost bluish color, and the tombstones seemed to glow as if lit dimly from within. The wrought-iron fencing added a spooky touch to the ethereal setting. As Jeremy approached the cemetery’s entrance, he saw Lexie’s car parked near the gate.
He pulled up behind it. Climbing out of Doris’s car, he could hear the ticking of the engine as it cooled. Leaves crackled underfoot and he took a deep breath. He placed his hand on the hood of Lexie’s car and felt the warmth radiating through his palm. She hadn’t been here long.
He passed through the gate and saw the magnolia, its leaves black and shiny, as if they’d been