Page 62 of Deadly Little Scandals
“Everything okay?” I asked her, deciding that theWhat are you doing here?was probably implied.
Lily flipped onto her stomach. “Everything’s fine,” she said. “I just wanted to catch some sun.” She turned her face to the side and closed her eyes. “And,” she added, as if it was of no particular import, “I just broke up with Walker.”
When it became clear that I wasn’t going to get anything else out of Lily—and that she had no intention of leaving Nick’s boat and didn’t need me hovering,thank you very much—I called Campbell. Trying to have a conversation with her was made somewhat more complicated by the voices I could hear in the background.
One was Walker’s.
One sounded like Boone’s.
It took me almost a minute to realize that the third was female. I asked Campbell who was there, and she didn’t lie to me.
“Don’t overreact, but Walker invited a friend over.”
He and Lily hadjustbroken up. “What friend?”
showed up on the front porch of the Ames family’s lake house, because some things needed to be said in person. “I didn’t realize that Walker and Victoria were friends” was one of those things.
“Join the club.” Campbell stepped out onto the front porch and closed the door behind her. “Apparently, they’ve been talking.”
I thought of Lily. I’d left her in good hands—Nick’s—but I didn’t trust the lack of emotion she’d displayed. I could buy Lily deciding that she didn’t want to be in a relationship right now, or reaching the conclusion that she and Walker had grown apart, or even that a large part of their relationship had always been based on other people’s expectations.
But I couldn’t buy any of those conclusions not hurting.
“How long has Walker beentalkingto Victoria?” I asked Campbell. “And what do they have to be talking about?”
“Right now?” Campbell arched an eyebrow at me. “They’re talking about Ana’s baby.”
“I want to meet with Ana.” Victoria’s voice was audible as Campbell and I rounded the side of the house to the back deck. “But she won’t see me unless my father sees her.”
I didn’t wait for them to see me to chime in. “And your father won’t see her?”
Walker, Victoria, and Boone turned toward me, their conversation grinding to a halt.
“You’re looking lovely, devious, and/or vengeful today,” Boone commented. “Whichever you’re most likely to perceive as a compliment.”
Walker recovered his voice before Victoria did. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Sawyer…” He softened the words with a trademark smile. “But this really doesn’t concern you.”
I got the feeling that he wasn’t just talking about this conversation. He was talking about his relationship with Lily.
“Irritated in an aesthetically pleasing manner!” Boone tried another compliment on for size.
“To be fair,” Campbell said, “Sawyer’s been ineffectually trying to locate Ana’s baby for weeks.”
Considering that Campbell hadn’t been any more effective than I was, I could have replied to that in any number of ways, but instead, I decided to reply to Walker’s assertion that I had no place here.
“I may be the only person on this deck who’s not related to Ana’s baby,” I said, “but that baby and I have an awful lot in common.”
I thought back to my conversation in the cemetery with Lillian—and everything I hadn’t been able to put into words. I wasn’t sure how many of my secrets Campbell had let slip to Walker, let alone Victoria, but at the moment, I wasn’t sure I cared.
“Right now, the ‘I Owe My Entire Existence to a Stupid Teenage Pregnancy Pact’ Club has a membership of one,” I continued, like I was ripping off a bandage. “If any of you know what it’s like to be the result of a planned, adulterous, underage pregnancy that’s done a total number on your sense of self, parental relationships, and understanding of the universe, I’d be happy to chat. But otherwise…” I crossed the deck and took a seat at the table. “I think I have at least as much reason to be here as someone looking for their great-niece or long-lost cousin.”
Victoria didn’t say anything about thegreat-niececomment, but Boone did try for another compliment, which didn’t bear repeating.
I ignored him in favor of Victoria. “You were saying that Ana wants to see your father?”
“My father has…” Victoria considered her words. “…favorites. Favorite sons, favorite grandchildren. Back in the day, I’ve gathered that was Ana. Her mother’s a Swedish socialite who’s very good at playing to my father’s ego. I guess Ana was, too.”
“And then she got pregnant,” I said flatly.
