Page 88 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

CHAPTER 16

An hour later, I found Rebecca in the wicker rocking chair on her front porch, feet tucked up under her, a paperback in her hand.

“Where is everyone?” I asked by way of a greeting.

“Kids are in bed, Jake is watching the Tigers game.” She set the book on the glass-topped table next to her as I took a seat in the glider. “I kind of thought you might stop by.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Really.”

She grinned. “That was some kiss.”

I groaned, running my hands through my hair. “It was that obvious?”

She shrugged. “To me. I don’t know if anyone else noticed.”

Well, I guess that was better than nothing. Before I could respond, she sat up a little straighter and I knew, immediately, that something was wrong.

“What?”

“There’s something we should discuss before we get into your saliva swap with Andrew.”

I started to object to her description, but her face had taken on that carefully guarded expression she so often got when she wanted to downplay something that she knew was going to make me stressed.

“What’s going on, Beccs?”

“Mom is gone.”

I was on my feet before I even realized I’d moved. “What?”

“Sit down, Riley,” she said, her voice patient and calm. “Everything is fine. She went to the mainland—to her sister.”

That brought me up short. “Aunt Lynn?”

Rebecca nodded, and I swore under my breath, sinking back into the swing.

My mother and her sister didn’t speak. Not entirely surprising, considering my mom had ruined her older sister’s second wedding reception by getting wasted, knocking over the cheese table, and trying to hook up with the groom’s married father. I couldn’t exactly blame Aunt Lynn for cutting her sister out of her life after all that. But in doing so she’d cut out Rebecca and me as well. Oh, she'd tried not to spin it that way; she'd assured us she would be there for us, that we could call her if we ever needed anything. But since what we’d always needed was help with our mother, her assurances hadn’t carried much weight with either of us.

“What happened?”

“She called me this morning.”

“You knew she was gone this morning?”

She held up her hands. “Don’t give me that look. You had enough to deal with today.”

“Rebecca, you should have told me.”

She raised an eyebrow—looking an awful lot like our mother, come to think of it. “Like you’ve never hidden anything from me to protect me? Like, say, what Mom said to you last Saturday?”

My face colored and I was grateful that it was dark out. “Jake told you?”

“Of course he did. God, Riley. I’m so sorry—”

“It doesn’t matter.” I didn’t think I could stand her pity. “Just tell me what happened.”

She released a breath. “She called this morning to tell me that she needed a change of scenery. She sounded mortified about the whole spending-the-night-in-jail thing. I think it was a wake up call.”

How many wake up calls did a person need?I wondered. Rebecca’s eyes searched my face. “She mentioned you, too.”