Page 91 of The Banned Books Club

“What a mess,” he muttered.

Duke was lying at his feet. The dog lifted his head off his paws and cocked it as if to say,What’s wrong?

“Everything,” Cormac said and scrolled back to the text that’d come in from Gia two hours ago.

Let me know when you get home. I’ll bring over some bread pudding. If you haven’t had it before it might not sound very good, but this was my grandma’s recipe, and it’s delicious. Trust me. ;)

He told himself he needed to respond. It was growing late; she had to be wondering what was going on with him. But he didn’t want to tell her that his father had caused yet another scandal and the whole town was talking about her. She’d definitely regret becoming friends with him, and maybe she wouldn’t know if he didn’t tell her.

Putting down his phone, he got up to get a beer while he tried to think of a nice way to put her off. He couldn’t keep spending time with her, anyway. As soon as her mom passed, she’d be gone.

24

Gia hadn’t slept well. She’d been disappointed by the text she’d gotten from Cormac saying he was exhausted and asking for a rain check on the bread pudding. Something about how long it took him to get back to her as well as his less-than-enthusiastic answer led her to believe he was pulling away. She knew a little about that type of thing, since she was usually the one doing it.

She kept telling herself she didn’t care—she didn’t know him all that well, anyway—and yet, strangely, she kept checking her phone hoping he’d sent her something else.

Her mother called her name. Her parents must’ve had a rough night, too, because they never slept late, and yet she hadn’t heard anything from them until now.

“What is it?” she asked, concerned that maybe Ida wasn’t feeling well. Her mother had been so fretful since Margot left. And knowing Sheldon had to be home by now only compounded the worry. No one could say what would happen next, what he would do, but his last words to Gia on the phone had certainly been ominous.

All of the anxiety had to be taking a toll—but, fortunately, Ida looked fine.

“I think it’s Margot,” Ida said as soon as Gia entered the room.

Stopping a few feet from them, Gia glanced at her father, who was wearing a pair of slacks and pulling on a shirt. He obviously already understood what Ida was talking about. “She called you?”

“No, look!” Her mother turned her phone so that Gia could see a beautiful picture of a beach at dawn. Neither Margot nor the boys were in the photo, but someone had drawn a huge heart in the sand.

“What’s this?”

“Someone just sent it to me. It’s Margot, don’t you think?” Tears filled Ida’s eyes. “It came in as a text from a number I don’t recognize, but it has to be her. This is her way of letting me know she’s thinking of me and she’s okay. Just look at that glorious, hopeful picture!”

Gia felt a measure of relief—but also a flicker of the old jealousy. She’d grown closer to her parents since she’d been home, mostly because she’d quit holding them so accountable for the mistakes of the past. She’d made her own mistakes and forgiveness was necessary on both sides.

But she’d never be what Margot was to them. Margot had been the perfect daughter. She was also the one who’d stuck around the last seventeen years. That was something Gia was just going to have to live with.

“I think so, too,” she said. The other good news was that her sister had used SMS instead of calling, which meant she hadn’t been able to block the number. “Here, let me see if we can get someone to answer.”

Using her mother’s phone, she called the number from which Ida had received that picture, and a man answered. “’Lo?”

“Um, yes, this is Gia Rossi. My mother just received a text from your number.”

“The picture of the beach?”

“That’s it.”

“Yeah, a woman and her kids drew that heart in the sand, then asked me if I’d take a picture of it and send it to this number. So I did.”

Gia arched her eyebrows as she stared back at her parents, who were clearly hanging on every word they could hear. “You’re obviously on the coast, but...where exactly?” she asked the man.

“Can’t say,” he replied.

Gia blinked in surprise. “Why not?”

“The lady who asked me to send you that pic paid me twenty dollars to keep my mouth shut. She said she just wanted to send a little love to her family and leave it at that.”

“That’s great, but...is she there with you now? If so, can you get her? This is her sister. I need to tell her something.”

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