Page 7 of Deadly Little Scandals
“You say that like it’s a bad thing, Daddy.”
The back-and-forth between them was so easy, so natural. There was no ignoring that.
“What say you, Niece?” J.D. turned toward me. “Ready to brave the ocean deep?”
This wasn’t the ocean, and I wasn’t hisniece.
“I think I can handle it,” I said, spotting the Jet Skis on the far side of the dock. I started toward them in hopes of ending this conversation before Lily caught on to the fact that something was off. I’d done a good job of avoiding her dad for the past few weeks. He’d been pulling late nights at work and had made more than one trip up here to check on the boats.
Think about that. Don’t think about…
“Hate to tell you this, Lilypad, butThing Oneis out of commission. Can you and Sawyer double up onThing Two?”
“Not a problem,” Lily responded.
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “That’s my girl.”
He didn’t seem like the type to sleep with his wife’s little sister. The type to sleep with someone our age when he was twenty-three. The type to call me Niece when he knew quite well that I was his daughter.
Don’t think about it. Think about the White Gloves. Don’t look at him.
“Earth to Sawyer.” Lily was suddenly standing beside me. I hadn’t even notice her approach. She held out a purple life vest.
I took it and slipped it on.
“Are you okay?” Lily asked.
I could feel Uncle J.D. looking at the two of us. Watching us.
“Right as rain,” I said, turning back to the duo of Jet Skis. “Which one isThing Two?”
’d known for a while that Lily had a deep-seated need for perfection. I hadn’t realized that she also had a need for speed.
“Boat incoming!” I yelled in her ear, my voice nearly lost to the wind and the sound of the engine revving as Lily angled the Jet Ski into a major wave at forty-five degrees.
“I see it,” she yelled back, her blond ponytail whipping in the wind—and at my face. “Hold on!”
My arms were wound around her waist, my fingers clutching the straps on her life vest. She cut across the main channel going full throttle, then hung a left past three massive coves. A small island, boasting a scattering of trees and the remains of a house, came into view. We barreled past it and into a long and narrow cove on the far side. Lily eased off the gas, letting her hands fall from the handlebars as we cruised slowly to a stop near the back of the cove. Compared to the main channel, the water here was like glass. The world was quiet—remarkably so, given how loudly I’d had to yell to be heard a minute earlier.
“Nice place,” I told Lily, letting loose of her life jacket and shaking out my hands. “I especially like the way I can no longer see my life flashing before my eyes.”
As was her style, Lily remained utterly unruffled. “I have no idea what you could possibly be implying.”
For pretty much the first time since I’d met her, her hair looked unkempt—windblown and free.
Lily must have noticed the way I was looking at her, because she seemed compelled to offer an explanation. “The lake is my happy place. It always has been. Mama isn’t a fan of the heat. Or the water. Or the bugs. But Daddy and John David and I have always loved it up here.”
I couldn’t afford to let that hurt. “I can see why,” I said instead, letting my head fall back and taking in the wide expanse of sky above.
“That’s King’s Island.” Lily gestured to the small blot of land we’d passed on the way in. “No one’s lived there for years.”
“King’s Island,” I repeated. “On Regal Lake.” You would have thought that this was the Hamptons, not a man-made body of water in a region of the state known for its red dirt and surplus of deer. “Looks to me like this is a place where we won’t be overheard.”
“I’ll tell you everything I know,” Lily promised. “Just let me turn around so we can face each other. When I go left, you go right. We should be able to keep our balance if—”
Feeling wicked, I hooked an arm around her waist and leaned hard to the left, taking us both over the side and into the lake. Lily might have swallowed a bit of water. She definitely snorted in a most unladylike manner.
“Sawyer!” She began paddling toward the Jet Ski, which had floated several yards away when we’d gone in.
