Page 89 of Deadly Little Scandals
Get to the point,I thought. But somehow, in my head, the words came out muddy. Slow. I felt suddenly like I was seeing double. I tried to say Sadie-Grace’s name. I might have succeeded, but I wasn’t sure.
I was sure that, across the table, Sadie-Grace was now slumped over.
I tried to stand, grabbing at the table in an attempt to find purchase. But all I ended up doing was knocking over the lemonade.
The lemonade.
I could see Ellen in the kitchen, her back to us. I could hear her putting what I’d thought was ice into the drinks.
“What…” I couldn’t keep standing. I was going to fall. Things were already fuzzy around the edges, and those fuzzy edges were going black. “Why would you…”
“Because,” another voice said from the hallway, “I asked her to.” Heels clicked against the linoleum as their owner strode toward me.
I went down. Ellen caught me under the armpits. I couldn’t even feel her grasp as she lowered me to the floor.
I could barely see the person standing over me. I blinked, forcing things to come briefly into focus.
“You brought this on yourself, young lady,” Aunt Olivia told me. Then she turned to Ellen. “Thank you for your assistance, Mama.”
iv made it back from delivering Trina to wherever it was she’d come from and greeted Charlotte with a smile—and an order. “Help me unload the car, Char.”
It soon became apparent that what Charlotte was supposed to unload was camping equipment—several thousand dollars’ worth, at least.
“I tried to talk her out of it,” J.D. said as he hauled the tents and sleeping bags down from the car. He’d gone along with Liv to drop Trina off.
Charlotte wondered what else Liv might have come back with if he hadn’t.
“You drove?” Charlotte asked him quietly as she helped him unload the supplies.
“Of course I did,” J.D. replied. “The last thing she needs is a DUI. Liv’s not herself right now, Charlotte.”
Charlotte wanted to agree, but she thought back to the way Liv had gone hurtling off the edge of the cliff, the way she’d lorded her power over Trina, then turned on a dime and decided they could be friends.
That wasclassicLiv Taft.
J.D. was just too smitten to see it.
Charlotte woke in the middle of the night to find that Sterling wasn’t beside her. He had been, when they’d fallen asleep.
He’d kissed her.
Charlotte could feel her heart beating, just thinking about it. She sat up and realized that Sterling wasn’t the only one missing. Julia was asleep on top of her sleeping bag. Thomas was passed out beside her.
But J.D., Sterling, and Liv were gone.
Charlotte stood up. It was dark, but the moon overhead was bright. She heard something in the distance.
In the direction of the cliff.
Wishing she had a flashlight, Charlotte followed the noise. There was a giggle, and another, unmistakable sound.
Cheeks burning, Charlotte quickly turned on her heels. What J.D. and Liv were doing out there wasnoneof her business.
And then, on the way back to her sleeping bag, she ran smack-dab into J.D.
woke up in darkness. At first, I thought there was something wrong with my vision, but as my eyes adjusted, I realized that it was the dead of night. It took me a second to focus visually and longer than that for my brain to catch up. Scant moonlight overhead made it possible for me to just barely see—and eventually,realize—where I was.
A hole.
