How to Keep a Secret

“I know a lot of things. I’ve just never had the chance to do them before.” Lauren handed the board across to her mother, who studied it for a moment.

“I love this.” Nancy reached into her bag for her glasses and took a closer look. “The colors are light and fresh. You have a good eye.”

“We’d need to refit a couple of the bedrooms. We need more closet space, maybe some bookshelves. And I have some ideas for the kitchen that shouldn’t cost a fortune. And I intend to turn one of the downstairs rooms into a media room.” Lauren picked up her phone and showed them some photos.

Nancy flicked through. “I don’t have the funds for anything this elaborate.”

“I’ve looked at the costs and I think we can make it work.” Lauren’s cheeks were flushed. “I’ve become something of an expert on managing money lately. I had a baptism of fire. Providing we can rent the place for the whole summer season, we can make a profit. Enough for you to live on in the winter, although I have ideas for that, too. And what I have in mind isn’t going to cost that much. But it would require you to go to work with your paintbrush.”

Jenna wondered if that plan was really about cost saving, or whether her sister was trying to get their mother to paint again.

“Where are we going to find someone to rent it? Are we going to list it with someone on the island? Won’t we need a website?”

Lauren retrieved her phone. “Yes, and that’s one of the things I can’t do myself.”

“I could do it,” Mack said. “I could build a website if you tell me what you want it to do.”

Jenna could almost feel her sister’s mood lift.

“That would be great. Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ll figure it out.” Mack toyed with the bread on her plate. “Maybe I’ll join the Coding Club at school. Someone there would probably be able to help me.”

Lauren nodded. “That sounds great. Thank you.”

“It’s probably suicide, but everyone’s got to die, right?” She flushed. “Sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“It’s okay.” Lauren stretched out her hand and squeezed Mack’s. “I don’t want you to feel you have to watch what you say.”

Jenna wished she’d watched what she said.

She glanced toward the kitchen, wondered why Greg was taking so long. “If this works and you rent it out for the summer, you still won’t have anywhere to live.”

Lauren let go of Mack’s hand. “There is somewhere, but I don’t know how you’re going to feel about it.”

Nancy sat up straighter. “Go on.”

“The Sail Loft.” Lauren passed another mood board across the table. “We could live there.”

Jenna was relieved she didn’t have food in her mouth at that moment because she would have choked.

The Sail Loft?

Lauren met her gaze and then looked away again. Color streaked across her cheeks, but her chin angled in a way that told Jenna she wasn’t going to be dissuaded.

“There are only two bedrooms.” Jenna tried logic first.

“Yes, but the master is huge. I’ve thought about the space and it would be easy to build a partition and divide the room into two, temporarily at least. It would be small, but I think it would work.”

Jenna wondered why she felt sick. It wasn’t as if she was going to be the one living there.

“Why not use the top floor?”

“Because it’s Mom’s studio. She needs it for when she starts painting again.”

She was making an assumption, Jenna thought. “When” not “if.”

Nancy frowned. “I haven’t been there since your father died.” Her voice sounded strange. “The place could be flooded for all I know.”