Page 50 of Our Little Secret

“Better.” Leah glanced up, taking her eyes off the screen for a second. “But what’s with Mari? She barely said hi to me.”

“It’s a long story and she’s mad at me, not you. Or maybe she’s mad at the world.”

“Why?”

“Basically, I called her out for kissing a boy in the front of the school.”

“Oh. Wow. Like that’s nothing you would’ve done?” She was typing, painted nails clicking, her gaze once again on whatever she was composing.

“At fourteen? No way.”

Leah sent her a knowing look over the screen.

“You want a glass of wine?”

“Nah. Gave it up.”

“You . . . don’t drink?”

“No. Not much. I know I suggested one earlier, but that was just a joke. Maybe a bad one.” Leah managed a thin smile. “Alcohol didn’t help when Sean and I fought. So I cut back.”

“You won’t fight. Sean’s not here,” Brooke pointed out and found a bottle of red in the wine refrigerator Neal had installed just last year.

“But you are.”

“Ooh. Ouch.” Brooke scrounged in the drawer, found a corkscrew, and opened the bottle. “Someone’s claws are out.”

Leah sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.” She put down her iPad as Shep settled into his dog bed near the window.

“Me too. I’ve been tense lately.” Brooke let the wine breathe while she checked on the lasagna thawing on the kitchen counter. It was still cold, frozen in places, but it would work for dinner.

“You’re tense?”

“Mm. A lot going on.”

“The job hunt?”

That, fortunately, was the least of Brooke’s worries, but she told her sister about the missing girls and her struggles with Marilee as she poured a glass of wine and sipped it while putting together a salad of spinach, red onions, and tomatoes.

Leah sighed, watching Brooke with an envious eye. “You’ve still got Neal and Marilee will come around. And hopefully they can find the girls. Maybe they just ran away. Doesn’t that happen all the time? You know how emotional teenage girls are.”

“I hope you’re right and they come back.”

Standing, Leah stretched her neck, then eyed the wine bottle. “Okay. I changed my mind. I’ll join you.”

“Good. You know what they say? That it’s never good to drink alone.”

“That had to be made up by an extrovert,” Leah said as Brooke poured another glass, then handed it to her. “But maybe you should chill a little.”

She took a swallow from her own glass and eyed her sister. “What does that mean?”

“Don’t be so hard on Marilee.” Leah clicked the rim of her glass to Brooke’s. “She’s just a kid trying to figure it all out, where she fits in in the world. You know, like you did once.” She took a sip. “It’s not easy being a kid these days.”

“And it’s easy being an adult?”

“Well, no. Of course not,” Leah admitted. “Point taken.”

“So, what happened with Sean?” Brooke asked, suddenly feeling a thread of connection to her sister.

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