Page 63 of That Secret Something

Panic shot straight through my heart. My grip tightened on the glass. “You know me. Work. Wine. Reading.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, come on. You must have something juicy to tell me. Any more dates?”

Heat prickled my neck. “No. Not since Jade. We decided we’re better off as friends.”

“Oh. How come?”

Because of your sister.

“Erm…” Words. Words, Jess. Use them.

“You just not feeling it?” Lily filled in for me. Thank the lord.

“Yeah, exactly. We don’t have that spark.” Unlike with your sister, who is an absolute raging inferno.

My phone vibrated on the sofa arm, and both of us turned instinctively to look at it. Rebecca’s name lit up the screen, and my stomach dropped.

Lily’s face crumpled in confusion. She glanced at me. “Rebecca? Why is she texting you?”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

I scooped my phone up and darkened the screen. “Don’t look.”

“What?” The crease on her forehead deepened.

This was not good. What could I say? My mind filled with crickets. I had nothing.

“Well…I, uh…we…” I stumbled over my words, my eyes catching on the scissors on the rug. I needed to move those, sharpish.

But instead of stabbing me in the chest for this betrayal, Lily bobbed her head, her features softening. “Ahh. I see. I see.” She tapped her nose. “I didn’t see anything.”

“What?”

“Are the two of you planning something?” She held her hands up. “No. No. Don’t tell me. I’d rather be surprised.”

Surprised? The realisation dawned on me. She thought we were throwing her a bridal shower.

I supposed that wasn’t the worst outcome. But it wasn’t ideal.

I was just relieved Rebecca hadn’t changed her contact info to ‘Raunchy Rebecca: call for a good time’, like she’d wanted to. That might have been a bit harder to explain away.

“Okay, good.” I let out a breath of relief, holding my phone a little tighter.

“Maybe there’s hope after all,” Lily commented.

“What do you mean?”

“My sister. I’d started to think maybe she wasn’t up to it.”

My heart stilled. “Rebecca? Why’d you say that?”

She finished her drink, then rested it next to her. “Come on, Jess. You know what she’s like. She’s so preoccupied with herself half the time that she forgets the smallest things. She’s unreliable. Self-involved. She doesn’t live in the real world.”

Her words hit a sore spot, especially after what Rebecca had confided to me in the car. I tightened my grip on my glass. “I don’t think that’s fair at all. She’s really trying.”

“What? Rebecca?” Lily laughed. “You must be seeing something I’m missing entirely.”

“If you’d really look, you wouldn’t be missing it,” I snapped, surprised by the venom in my tone.

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