Page 32 of Kiss and Tell

Lucy shrugged. “I don’t think she even knew or cared. She just wanted off the mountain. That was part of what frustrated my dad, I think. That she suddenly seemed to hate the place he loved so much. The fighting went on until…”

“Until?”

“She left.”

Miles frowned. “She left?”

Lucy nodded. “I had just turned nine. Woke up one morning, got ready for school, and came downstairs to find Dad sitting at the kitchen table. He was usually out of the house by that time of day. He told me that Mom was taking a vacation. That was what he called it. A vacation.”

“I’m guessing that’s not what it was.”

She shook her head. “Apparently Mom had hit her limit, and she just took off, left us.”

“How long did it take before you realized she wasn’t coming back?”

Lucy grimaced. “I’m nothing if not an optimist. I bought the vacation story for four months before Everett sat down next to me on the bus home from school. We’re close in age, him just a year ahead of me. He told me my mom wasn’t coming back.”

Miles scowled, but Lucy cut him off, raising a hand.

“He didn’t say it to be cruel. He was worried about me because I’d stopped playing, stopped running around the farm, doing kid crap with him, my cousins, my sisters.”

“What were you doing?” Miles asked.

“Hanging out on the front porch, waiting for Mom to come home.”

Miles started to take her hand, but then he hesitated and pulled back. “You said your parents died together.”

Lucy sighed. “She came home after a year away. Not to stay. She wanted a divorce. By that point, I think Dad was all too happy to give it to her. She’d deserted us, left him on his own with four daughters, all of them missing their mom.”

“I’m sorry,” Miles said softly.

“They went to town to see a lawyer. On the way home, they hit some black ice and the car ran off the road, smashed into a tree. My sister, Nora was with them.”

“Jesus.” Miles ran his hand over his head.

“She was seven, and she’d been playing at a friend’s house. Mom and Dad picked her up after their meeting with the lawyer. Because the front of the car took most of the damage, she was actually able to walk away from the accident. But…” Lucy hated this part. Hated saying it, hated thinking about it. “It was several hours before anyone went looking for them. She was trapped in the car with Mom and Dad and…”

This time Milesdidtake her hand. “They were dead.”

She nodded, even though his words weren’t a question. Lucy looked out the kitchen window, taking a minute to gather herself, and wondering why in the hell she’d just told him all of that.

“Wow.” She forced a smile, dug deep to turn the conversation around. “Talk about bringing the room down. I haven’t talked about any of that in years. Of course, I don’t have to because this is Gracemont. Everyone already knows.”

“No secrets in small towns, huh?”

She gave him a sad smile. “Not many.”

Miles squeezed her hand, then released it. “I’m sorry all that happened to you and to Nora. We don’t have to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to.”

“Thanks,” she said, touched by his compassion. “So, new subject.”

“Okay.Kiss and Tell,” he said, grinning.

Lucy groaned playfully. “Oh God. Alright. Hit me with it. What did you think of it? You can be brutally honest.”

“It’s sappy as shit with all that cheesy talk about love and forever,” he said, not cracking a smile until she narrowed her eyes, her spine suddenly ramrod straight as she prepared to defend her show to the death.

Miles quickly held up his hands in surrender. “I’m kidding! I liked it, Lucy. A lot. It’s a really cool show.”

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