Happy Place(100)

“Where do you think they are?” he asks, checking the time over the stove. “They should be back by now.”

“I’ll see if Kimmy and Cleo are in the guesthouse,” I say. “You want to see if Parth and Sabrina are upstairs?”

Wyn nods, and I let myself out onto the patio, heading through the gate at the side.

There’s no sign of life in the guesthouse, but I knock on the door anyway. Where is everyone? I type into the group text as I make my way back to the patio. On a whim, I go to the top of the stairs down to the shore.

Parth sits on the rocks below, sun gleaming off his dark hair and wind rippling through his jacket. I pick my way down, calling his name as I go. He glances over his shoulder at me, then goes back to staring out at the water.

“Where’s Sabrina?” I ask.

A shrug in response. It triggers a sinking sensation in my gut. I lower myself onto the rock beside him, stretching my clay-streaked legs out toward the water. “For what it’s worth,” I say, “Wyn and I, we’re really sorry we didn’t tell you.”

He looks up. “You should’ve. But I should’ve come straight to you when I saw Wyn’s text too.”

I follow his gaze out to a white boat drifting toward one of the small islands off the coast. “I hope eventually you can forgive us.”

His gaze flickers to me. “Forgive you? Harriet, you’re already forgiven. You’re like a sister to me, you know that? I’ll always forgive you. You’re family.”

My heart pangs. “I thought being family just meant you have limitless time to hold grudges.”

Parth scoffs and tucks an arm over my shoulders. “Maybe for some people. Not for us.”

“If you’re not out here contemplating how we’ve failed you,” I say, “then why all the forlorn gazing into the sea?”

He smiles, but it fades fast. “Sabrina and I got into a fight. She walked out.”

“Oh my god, Parth. I’m so sorry. This is my fault,” I say. “I’ll call her and—”

His arm slides clear of me, and he angles toward me. “It’s not,” he says. “Honestly, a part of me has been waiting for her to back out ever since we got engaged. I mean, she only agreed to get married because her world was falling apart. No matter what she said, I knew she wanted an anchor. And a part of me always expected her to run. Last night we argued, and she went downstairs to cool down, and when I woke up she was gone. Hasn’t answered her phone all day.”

“She’s scared, Parth,” I say.

He scoffs. “We’re talking about Sabrina. She isn’t scared of anything.”

I puzzle for a minute over how to explain it. “You know what you just said to me? That we’re family?”

He nods.

“Well, for you and Cleo and Wyn and Kimmy, that means one thing,” I say. “For Sabrina and me, it’s different. In our families, there was no coming back from fights. Her dad would rather divorce than apologize, and in my house, arguments always ended with everyone leaving. Things never got resolved; they calloused over.”

“What are you saying?” Parth asks.

“Sabrina didn’t run because she doesn’t want you,” I say. “She ran because she’s scared that, in the end, she won’t be worth chasing.”

Parth’s eyes lock onto mine, his face slackening as he takes it in. “Shit.” He scrambles to his feet. “We need to find her.”

“We will,” I promise.



* * *



? ? ?

CLEO AND KIMMY have just gotten back from their massages when we reach the house. They haven’t heard from Sabrina either, and after we all take turns calling and texting her to no avail, we accept that we’re going to have to look for her.

“You two were supposed to spend the morning together,” Cleo points out. “What were you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Parth says. “She’d planned it all, and there were no details on the itinerary.”

“No address?” Wyn asks.

Parth stares at him. “Oh, yeah, there was an address, but how could that possibly benefit us?” he deadpans. “No, nothing! For all I know, she left in the middle of the night. For all I know, she’s lying in a hospital bed right now!”

“We’ll find her,” Wyn says. “Don’t assume the worst.”

“This is my fault,” Parth says. “I was upset about how everything went down last night, and I blamed her. Like I hadn’t been totally on board. I was, completely, and when it blew up, I turned it around like I’d had nothing to do with it, and now she’s gone.”

Cleo’s eyes go distant as she retreats into thought. “We need to be logical here.”

“You’re gonna hate this,” Wyn says, facing Parth, “but what if we called her family?”

“There’s no way she’d go to them,” Parth says. “She hardly tells them anything. I mean, my family’s already planning a blowout wedding, and hers doesn’t even know we’re engaged yet.”

“Then we’ll look around town,” Cleo says.

“We’ll find her,” Kimmy promises, rubbing Parth’s shoulder.

“We should split up,” I say.