Page 14 of Little Buried Secrets

“You know why,” Rae said. “Georgiana’s here to help.”

“One of the reasons your mother hired me is to help take suspicion off of you,” I said. “In order to do that, I need to know a few things.”

Rae stood and placed a hand on Grant’s arm. “We should give Georgiana a moment with Bronte alone.”

“You’re leaving me?” Bronte asked.

“I’m not leaving you. I’ll be right inside. I’ve known Georgiana for a long time. I trust her. You can too.”

Rae followed Grant into the house, leaving the disgruntled teen at my side.

When the front door closed, I said, “How are you holding up?”

“Oh, well, let’s see. How would you be holding up if the fight you had with your sister caused her to leave and now she’s missing?”

“Fair point.”

“Are you here to question me like the cops did?”

“I am not,” I said. “I’m here to talk.”

Her cell phone buzzed. She read the message on the screen, muttered a few swear words, and slid the phone into her pocket.

“Do you need a minute?” I asked.

Ignoring the question, she said, “I can’t believe he has the nerve to reach out to me right now.”

“Who texted you?”

Her gaze dropped to the floor, and she shrugged. “No one.”

“Does ‘no one’ have a name?”

She leaned against the house and blinked at me. “You remind me of … I don’t know, a parrot maybe.”

I took it as a compliment.

“Parrots are one of the most intelligent birds,” I said. “I’ve been compared to worse in my day.”

The quip struck a chord, and she burst out laughing.

I laughed too, and for the first time since I arrived, she smiled instead of scowled at me.

“Love the vintage clothes, by the way,” she said. “And your car’s sick. What is it?”

Compliments from a teenager.

I felt like I’d struck gold.

I didn’t speak teenager well, but I’d heard ‘sick’ was the new version of ‘cool.’

“The car’s a ’37 Jaguar,” I said.

“What’s it worth?”

Cheeky question.

Then again, she seemed to be the type of girl who never hesitated to speak her mind. And while we were from different eras, something about her reminded me a little of myself when I was her age.

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