How to Keep a Secret

She was starting to believe him.

She felt an excitement she never felt when she was starting an English essay.

She was going to change the world. Maybe she’d get a job with NASA. She was so excited by what she could do with computers that there was no way she was giving it up.

They were people, she thought. Not geeks or nerds.

People.

Unfortunately they rarely ventured into the cafeteria for lunch, which was why she was still eating alone.

Mack forced herself to meet Kennedy’s gaze.

Her palms were slippery and her heart was bashing hard against her ribs. “I don’t know any losers. Only a bunch of really smart guys.”

“You’re new here and you just lost your dad.” Kennedy spoke with exaggerated kindness. “So I’m going to help you out for your own good. Maybe you don’t realize it, but those kids you’re hanging out with are nerds. Geeks. They are not, and never will be, part of the cool crowd.”

“Got it.” Maybe she could program a robot to smack Kennedy across the head.

The other girl’s mouth tightened. “Do you know what it’s going to mean for you if you carry on hanging out with them?”

Mack looked at Kennedy and saw that her makeup was so thick it looked like plastic.

This close up she could see the bumps on the skin that the other girl was trying to conceal.

Everyone had insecurities, she thought.

She stood up so that she was eye to eye with her nemesis. She kept her hands on the table in case her shaking knees gave way. “It’s going to mean I have good, genuine friends.”

“Oh please—” Kennedy stared at her and gave a short laugh. “So basically you’re a nerd, too.”

“No.” Mack discovered that her knees weren’t shaking anymore. “I’m a girl who can code. And do you know what that makes me? It makes me smart, Kennedy.”

26

Nancy

Purpose: the feeling of having a definite aim

and of being determined to achieve it

Over the next few weeks Nancy’s life took a direction she hadn’t anticipated.

With Lauren’s encouragement, she made appointments with a Realtor who specialized in renting to the luxury end of the market. Lauren went along to the meeting, too, and Nancy had been impressed by her daughter’s sharp, businesslike approach.

Nancy herself made long lists of things that needed to be done and people she needed to contact. It helped that she knew almost everyone on the Vineyard. If she didn’t know the right person, then she undoubtedly knew someone who did.

She woke with a feeling inside her that she didn’t even recognize.

It was excitement, she realized. Anticipation for the future. The feeling was so fresh and new she barely recognized it.

She no longer felt like a passenger in her own life, clinging for dear life in the back of a runaway car. She was the one in the driver’s seat and right now she was speeding along with the wind in her hair. There was still one more issue to be dealt with, of course, but she wasn’t ready to face it yet.

Humming to herself, she went through the house room by room with Lauren, making plans. Together they stripped the place back and built it up again. It had taken very little time for Nancy to realize that her daughter had inherited her feel for color.

It was Lauren’s idea to mix inky, cobalt blues with a blend of Mediterranean shades. In each room she included quirky touches like coastal motifs and found beautiful pieces of driftwood and shells. Some of it cost little, some nothing at all and yet it blended together seamlessly. The result was a house that felt as if it was part of the landscape.

Some of the biggest changes she made were to the room overlooking the water that they’d always called the garden room.