How to Keep a Secret
“But eating ice cream on the beach does, so let’s go do that.” Lauren slipped her arm through Jenna’s and they walked across the parking lot.
Jenna thought about all the times they’d done this as kids. “Thanks for helping me escape. If you ever get put in prison, I promise to dig a tunnel and get you out.”
“You’d probably be the reason I was in there in the first place.”
Jenna tugged at her sister’s arm. “Hey, you’re the ringleader, not me.”
“If I were to ever find myself in prison, I’m sure it would be because I was covering for you, but don’t worry. No matter what they did to me, I’d never give you up.”
They were both giggling. “They’d find a way of making you talk. They’d wave a pair of great shoes under your nose and you’d yell, ‘Hell yes, she’s guilty now give me those Jimmy Choos.’”
“I would not give you up for great shoes. I’m not that cheap.”
“Lipstick?”
“No way.”
“Salted caramel ice cream?”
“That’s not fair.” Lauren stopped dead. “No one can resist that.”
“So if I was standing on the edge of a cliff with a tub of salted caramel ice cream and you could only save one of us, it would be the ice cream?”
“I’d push you off to get to the ice cream.”
“How did I get stuck with you as a sister?”
Lauren grinned. “I guess you got lucky. But now you’ve made me think of salted caramel ice cream. Where’s the nearest source?”
“We’ll pick some up on the way to the beach. But don’t you need to get back to spend time with Mack?”
“She’s sailing with Scott.”
“Again?” Jenna unhooked her arm from Lauren’s and stooped to tie the lace on her running shoe. “Is that a regular thing now?”
“Yes. Turns out she’s pretty good at it. She’s inherited Scott’s feel for the sea. And she’s been helping him in the boatyard, too.”
“And how about you? Are you seeing him?”
“He loaned me the money, so naturally I feel an obligation to keep him updated on my business.”
“When I asked if you were seeing him, that wasn’t what I meant. I meant, are you seeing him? As in, are you having clothes-ripping, breath-stealing sex?”
“Of course not.” Lauren walked away from her toward the car.
“Wait!” Jenna sprinted after her. “Why ‘of course not’?”
“It’s only been six months since I lost Ed.”
Jenna stopped dead. “Lauren Stewart, what is this crap?”
“I’m not Ste—”
“You broke me out of a boring yoga class and threatened to push me off a cliff. You’re definitely a Stewart. So what I want to know is how my ballsy, adventure-seeking sister who has basically been in love with the same guy her whole life, isn’t having sex on every available flat surface. It doesn’t matter that it’s only been six months. Where’s the rule that says you have to be miserable for a certain length of time?” Across the parking lot a couple climbed out of their car and glanced in their direction.
Lauren rolled her eyes. “If you speak a little louder they’d maybe hear you on Nantucket. It would save me sending out a bulletin. I definitely think you should repeat the part about sex on every available flat surface.”
“How long are you going to wait? Ed wouldn’t want you to wait, I can tell you that.”