Page 94 of The Secret to a Southern Wedding

Imani shrugged. “Pitiful, in pain, what’s the difference?”

Halle flipped Imani the bird and they both laughed. “I can’t believe I fell down the damn stairs.”

When Imani’s mom said Halle was in an accident she’d automatically assumed it was a car accident. Instead, Halle had fallen down the stairs at the middle school and broken her arm. Though she was bruised in other places and taking some leave time, the damage to her ego seemed to be worse than the broken arm.

“I can believe it,” Imani said grinning. “You were always so clumsy.”

“Everyone is clumsy as a teen. I can’t believe I’m clumsy as a thirty-five-year-old.”

Shania skipped into the room. “All teenagers aren’t as clumsy as you,” the girl said grinning at her mom.

Halle cut her eyes at her daughter. “Didn’t you want to go to your friend’s house later?”

“I do.” Shania held out a small plastic container. “Spit in this.”

Halle cringed. “What? I’m not spitting in that.”

Shania pouted and continued to hold out the container. “I need a DNA sample.”

The humor in Halle’s eyes evaporated and she sat up straighter. “For what?”

“We’re doing an ancestry project in social studies. I have the family tree from Grandma’s Bible, but I wanted to see what I could find with DNA. So...” She waved the small container.

Halle shook her head. “Nope. Not doing it. You’ve got the family tree and that’s enough. No DNA samples here.”

“But what if I—”

“Shania, I mean what I said. Go throw that away. We aren’t doing that.”

Shania’s shoulders slumped before she grunted, spun on her heels and rushed out of the room. Imani looked in the direction she’d gone before turning to Halle. “Why not do the DNA sample?”

“Because,” Halle said stiffly.

“Because why? It’s pretty harmless.”

Halle stretched her neck and looked in the direction Shania had gone before looking back at Imani. “Because I don’t need her finding stuff she doesn’t need to know.”

Imani frowned. “You’ve got to tell her about her dad one day.”

“Today isn’t the day.”

Imani raised a brow and leaned forward. “Are you going to tell me?”

Halle pursed her lips and shook her head. “It’s not the day for you either.”

Imani sighed but didn’t push. Whatever reasons Halle had for keeping Shania’s dad a secret were her own. She wished her cousin would be open with them, but figured the memory must be painful for her to keep things to herself. Still, she didn’t want her cousin to think she would judge her for the situation.

“You know you can tell me anything and we’d be good.”

The stiffness in Halle’s shoulders disappeared and she smiled. “I know and I appreciate that. I’m not afraid of judgment. I just don’t want Shania to change...that’s all.”

“Change how?”

“Are you going to see Cyril?”

They spoke at the same time. The sudden change of subject did what it was supposed to do. It quickly distracted Imani from the original point of the conversation.

“What? No! Why would I go see him?” she scoffed and shrugged.

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