Page 1 of Keeping Secrets

CHAPTER 1

"And you like your new place?" Mom asked.

"It’s perfect," Keely assured her.

Actually, at that moment the cottage was a mess of boxes that she was halfway through unpacking. Jackets and notebooks and charging cords were strewn across every available surface as she struggled to find a place for everything and put everything in its place.

Despite all that, though? It was perfect.

Keely was twenty-four years old, and she had never lived alone. She had gone from her childhood home to the college dorms to – a wall rose up in her mind, gray and menacing; she veered away from that black time and skipped ahead – well, back to her parents’ house, eventually.

Most recently, she had been staying with her big brother and his friend Travis. But couchsurfing was just as bad as living at home; it made her feel like a screw-up, like a homeless addict who couldn’t get her life together… a reality that was only a few months out of date.

It was past time for her to have a place of her own, and she was deeply grateful to be moving into a space as lovely as this one.

The furnished guest house was a tiny one-bedroom, but it was plenty big enough for one person. It had a workable kitchen, a comfortable bed, and a couch where she could stretch out and read. Books were a passion that had reignited recently, after she’d gotten clean, and she’d brought a whole box of novels and personal development books with her from Rocky Hill.

And then a whole other box for her cookbooks, which felt like a necessity even when there were millions of recipes available online. She loved the grounding, soothing ritual of standing in a quiet kitchen and flipping through her cookbooks, deciding which recipe she wanted to try next.

The quiet street she lived on was as perfect as the cottage itself. The couple in the main house seemed nice enough, though they traveled so often that she had only spoken to them on the phone. And best of all, Nick and Chloe were just a short walk away.

Her cozy new home was located in the idyllic town of Pelican Point, just down the street from her brother and his girlfriend. Keely didn’t want to be dependent on anyone, but it was a huge comfort to know that Nick was there if she needed him.

Pelican Point was the perfect middle-of-the-road sort of town, plenty to do without there being a crazy party scene. There were sweet little shops downtown, a weekly farmers market up by the lighthouse, and breathtaking views from the cliffs.

"You can come home anytime. You know that, right?" Mom’s voice was taut with worry.

"She knows," Dad said in a long-suffering tone. It was a front; Keely knew that. When he wasn’t putting on a brave face for Mom, he was just as worried about Keely as she was.

Once, their worry would have gutted her. These days, it was a familiar ache. Like a wound that might never heal completely, she had figured out how to live her life around the pain.

"I’m just saying," Mom told him sharply, "it’s okay to come home. It’s not a failure to come home. It’s okay to rest. To pause and figure out what’s next. I just want her to know we’re here."

"She knows," Dad said again.

"I wish you’d let us come with you," she fretted.

"I wanted to do this on my own," Keely said gently. "Everything is going to be okay."

"On that note," Dad said in a gruff voice, "we’ll let you get back to unpacking. See you next week for dinner?"

"Definitely."

"Let us know if you need anything," Mom said. "And don’t forget to–"

Her last reminder was lost when the call disconnected.

There was a strong knock on the front door. When she opened it, her brother pushed through holding a heavy box that she hadn’t brought in yet.

"The back of your car was open," Nick told her.

"Hello to you too."

"What’s in this thing, bricks?"

"Books."

"Close enough." He looked around. "This place is a wreck. Where do you want this?"

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