The Naked Truth (The Honeybrook Hamdens)

But definitely not fifteen minutes before she was supposed to see her family again.

As far as they were concerned, she'd finally gotten her act together. She wasn't wasting her precious youth as a barista anymore. Oh no, she'd found a job in the city. One where she could have her name on the door and people answering to her. One where she might have eventually become the designer she wanted to be.

That was, she could've gotten there if it hadn't been for Troy. The lying, stealing, manipulating...

She sighed and shook her head, but then Irene smacked her on the leg.

"Smoke that thing." She pointed to the cigarette still tucked between Julie's fingers. "And don't forget what I said about the sighing. You'll give me high blood pressure."

"Right." Julie puffed, held her breath for a moment, then let the smoke billow out. "Do you have brothers and sisters, Irene?"

The other woman shrugged. "I have a sister."

"Do the two of you get along?"

"As well as sisters do, I suppose. Though, once she got too big to steal my clothes, our relationship improved quite a bit." Irene chuckled. "I'll never forget that day. She tore one of my favorite dresses. Then again, it wasn't as funny when we found out she was pregnant. Still, it was a fine time to be me." Irene shook her head and Julie frowned, not exactly sure where to go from there.

"Um, I'm sure it was." Then an idea struck her. "What happened when everyone found out your sister was pregnant?"

"Oh nothing, dear."

"Nothing?"

"It was the fifties. Nobody found out she was pregnant. Not even my parents."

"But the baby..."

"Was born eight months into her marriage. She eloped. Covered the whole thing up. People whispered, but they could never say a word." Irene shook her head. "See, that's what people today don't understand. When something needs to be kept a secret, you keep it that way. What does it help to go spilling out your feelings like a damn broken fire hydrant?"

She flicked her cigarette, took a pull and the looked at the stick in her hand. "These were great for that. You have a problem? Smoke. You worried? Smoke. You don't have to go spewing everything to Doctor Phil or Rachael Ray or whatever crazy person you kids watch these days."

"But what if it's something important that might change the way people look at you?" Julie brushed ash off her skirt.“Like, say, if you finally got your act together and that nice dependable boyfriend your whole family thought was so great turned out to be using you in the worst way possible and you were too dumb to realize what was happening?”

Okay, maybe that was an over-share.

"Do you want that to happen?" Irene asked.

"Well, no, but it's hypothetical."

"Well then hypothetically, I'd say keep that shit to yourself."

The train dinged then pulled to a stop as the conductor squalled through the speakers. "Devonshire County. Next stop, Honeybrook Station."

Irene hooked her carpetbag under her arm, then hip checked Julie. "Move it, toots. This is my stop."

"Right. Well, thank you."

Irene smiled, then looked at her for a moment with an expression somewhere between pity and affection. Silently, she pulled the purse open again, dug through it, and then thrust the pack of Lucky Strikes in Julie's direction.

"Here, you need these a lot more than my husband does." And just like that, she bustled along, out the doors of the train. Julie staring after her, the pack of cigarette still clenched in her palm.

By the time the train got to Honeybrook, Julie had fake-smoked

The more she thought about it, the more she realized exactly how right Irene had been. There was no reason to tell her family about her break-up with Troy or about the atrocities at the office this morning.

As far as they were concerned, she was still perfectly happy, living her dream life in the city. And when she got back and put everything right, then she could briefly mention that she'd found herself a better situation.

Easy peasy.