Page 4 of April Flowers

But then a text came in that changed everything.

It was from Sam E.

Pete chuckled. “They won’t give up, will they?”

Margot didn’t respond. A name wiggled through the back of her mind. Sam E. Sam E. Who was that?

She opened it.

The text read: Hey Margot. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I reached out. Years and years! I regret how long it’s been. Could you give me a callback? I need to talk to you.

With love from your (ex) sister-in-law, Samantha Coleman

Chapter Two

After Margot read the text from Samantha, she stood and walked to her bedroom. She sat on the edge of the mattress and stared into space as her heartbeat echoed in her ears. Samantha Coleman. How old would she be now? Margot was thirty-eight, which meant Samantha was forty-seven. How old would that make Darcy and Rachelle? Names and faces swirled through her mind. Her arms ached with the sudden memory of holding both Darcy and Rachelle in her arms, of watching them play. They’d been so little when she’d left. Did they remember her?

For a full minute, Margot forgot Pete was still in her apartment. But then he was there in the bedroom doorway, looking down at her in a panic. “Margot?” he asked, suddenly down on his knees in front of her. “You look flushed.”

Margot pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes and filled her lungs.Breathe.

“Did something happen?” Pete asked. “Is it a guy?”

Margot ripped her hands down and gaped at him. “Are you kidding me?”

Pete looked like he’d been smacked. But Margot couldn’t believe it. He’d belittled the experiences of her life down to thepotential of an ex-boyfriend. He’d grown immediately jealous over a text message he could never understand. It disgusted her.

“It wasn’t an ex-boyfriend, Pete.”

She said his name with such annoyance that he stood and backed up.

Margot felt herself wilt.Don’t be mean to this guy. He likes you, she told herself.Don’t make him pay for it.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting any of this,” she muttered.

Pete folded his lips.

“It’s from my older brother’s wife,” Margot said stiffly.

“Oh!” Pete scratched the back of his neck, suddenly nervous. Margot had never mentioned her family—not once. Did he realize that?

“I haven’t seen her in like twenty years,” Margot said.

Pete gaped at her, then disappeared. Margot stared at her feet until he returned with both glasses and a new bottle of wine. He sensed she needed it.

“Twenty years,” Pete said coaxingly.

But Margot had no plans to tell Pete everything. Whatever he wanted, he’d have to drag it out of her.

“Is she on Nantucket?” Pete asked.

“I assume she still is,” Margot said. “In the text, she calls herself my ex-sister-in-law, so it sounds like she and my brother got divorced.”

“And you didn’t know?”

Margot shook her head and sipped her wine.

“Wow. You haven’t been back to Nantucket in twenty years?”

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