How to Keep a Secret

He glanced at her and she found herself staring into eyes exactly like her own.

She swallowed.

Did he know? Did he see what she saw?

She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. Instead he placed his fingers on her mother’s wrist and checked her pulse.

Then he let go of her mom’s wrist and stroked her hair away from her face. “Laurie—”

Laurie?

Mack stared at him. No one ever called her mother Laurie. She was always Lauren. And she’d never heard anyo

ne use that tone before when talking to her. Not even her dad. Ed. Scott’s tone was gentle. Personal. More like a purr than a bark. Like he really knew her.

Feeling self-conscious and insecure, she sneaked another look at her grandmother.

Her mom had told her that Grams hadn’t known about Scott, but she had to know, otherwise why would she have brought him here? Maybe they’d had a conversation over the phone and her mom had forgotten to tell her. There had been plenty of occasions when her mother had tried to talk to her over the past few weeks and Mack had rebuffed her.

Of course she wouldn’t have rebuffed her if she’d known she was going to die.

“Should we call 911?” Her grandmother’s voice was thready and weak and she was looking at Scott Rhodes as if he was likely to have an answer for every problem.

Mack was surprised by the trust she saw there.

Why were her grandmother and this man so comfortable around each other? Why wasn’t she yelling at him for having killed her daughter? Or making her pregnant? It was hard to know which might seem worse to an adult.

“She’s going to be fine. Let’s get her to the house.” He slid his arms under Lauren’s limp body and lifted her easily.

Mack knew her mouth was open but she couldn’t help it.

Not in a million years would Ed have ever picked her mom up. In fact Mack had never seen a man pick a woman up before, except in the movies. She’d always assumed that in real life you’d probably put your back out. “Where are you taking her?” What if he was going to drop her mom in the cold water or something? Maybe he was angry she’d married Ed.

“I’m taking her to the car.”

Mack was relieved to hear her mother give a moan of protest as Scott placed her on the seat of the pickup. If she was moaning, that meant she was alive, didn’t it?

Relief turned her legs to water.

She saw her mother’s eyes open and widen as she stared at Scott.

In that instant it was as if the rest of the world had vanished.

They gazed at each other for so long that Mack wanted to yell, I’m still here!

She felt like crying, and she wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion after the flight or relief that her mother wasn’t dead.

She wanted to get to The Captain’s House before she broke down and embarrassed herself. She was way past the age when it might be considered okay to cry in public.

Scott, however, didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He worked at his own pace. He leaned across to fasten the seat belt and Mack saw her mom turn her head away, as if she didn’t dare have her face that close to his.

Mack was relieved when Scott opened a door and gestured to the pickup.

She climbed in with a small chin lift of defiance, as if she hadn’t almost thrown up on the pier and died of fear. If first impressions counted, then she’d blown it. He was probably thinking she wouldn’t have been such a wimp if he’d raised her.

Fortunately it was a relatively short drive to her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother started asking Mack about schools, exams and friends—normal stuff. She didn’t mention the fact that Ed had died or that her mom had passed out on the dock.

Hello, can we talk about some real issues here?