How to Keep a Secret

“If my mother notices it, I’m blaming you.”

“I’ll tell her you strolled into the kitchen wearing your thong and I walked into the wall.” But his gaze was gentle. “Your mom has a lot on her mind right now. She’s confessed to her daughters that she has no money and that her marriage was miserable. I think she’s going to have more important things to think about than the state of the cushions on our sofa or a mark on the paintwork. Lauren, too.”

“Lauren has barely answered her phone for the past few days. It keeps going to voice mail, and when she calls me back she always seems to be anxious to keep it short. She and Mack had a big fight. Lauren yelled, and was upset about that. I’m worried about her. I hope Mom’s confession didn’t tip her over the edge. It was a bit of a shock.”

“I’m sure. You both found out your dad had affairs. That’s a lot to adjust to.”

Jenna felt her cheeks heat. “Actually that wasn’t the part that was a shock. We already knew about that. At least, we knew about one of them.” She felt him still and then he eased her away from him.

“What are you talking about?”

“We knew about Dad.”

“What? How?”

There wasn’t much point in keeping it a secret now, was there? “Lauren and I saw him—”

“With a woman?” He released her suddenly and dragged his hand through his hair. “When?”

“Years ago. Mom was away. We went to the Sail Loft and he was there—with her.” And even now, so many years later, she could picture it as if it had happened the day before. The two of them had peered through the window, shocked and disbelieving.

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t see her face. Just—well, you don’t need the detail.” She didn’t want to think about the detail.

Greg said nothing for a full minute. “How old were you?”

“Eight.” She saw a muscle flicker in his jaw.

“You saw your father screwing another woman when you were eight years old and you never told me?”

“I never told anyone.”

“I’m not anyone, Jenna.”

“I know, and you have no idea how much I wanted to tell you, but we had to keep it a secret. We knew that if anyone found out, we wouldn’t be a family anymore. They would have split up and it would have been like Meredith.” At least, that’s what she’d believed at the time, but now she wasn’t sure. What if they’d got that part wrong?

Greg ran his hand over his face. “This is a huge thing, Jenna.”

“That’s why we didn’t tell Mom. We didn’t know what to do. I guess we hoped it was a one-off. Turned out it wasn’t, but we had no way of knowing that.”

“I’m not talking about the affair. I’m talking about the fact that in all these years together, you never once mentioned it to me.”

Her heart started to pound. Damn Lauren and her sudden revelations. “Everyone has things they don’t like to talk about, Greg.”

“Not you. You’re an open book, or so I thought.”

“Are you saying there isn’t a single thing in your past you haven’t told me?”

“You were there for almost all of my past. You witnessed it firsthand.” He looked shell-shocked. “Our lives have been tangled together for as long as I can remember, which is why I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have mentioned it. I didn’t think we had secrets, and now I discover that you’ve had a massive secret for a long time.”

Her palms grew clammy. “Please don’t make a big deal out of this.”

“It’s a big deal, Jenna.”

“It isn’t! It—”

“It’s a big deal to me.” His voice had thickened. “A very big deal. You didn’t trust me enough to tell me.”