Page 1 of Open Secrets
Prologue
The house is finally quiet.
I move barefoot down the hallway, fingertips trailing the wall as if the plaster might steady me.
First stop: Remi’s room. He’s stretched across the bed, one arm slung over the basketball he insists on keeping close. His mouth twitches like he’s arguing in his sleep. I smooth his hair back, but only for a second. He hates when I hover.
Taylor’s door creaks when I push it open. She’s half-buried in blankets, hair spilling across the pillow, phone glowing on the nightstand. I flip it face down. She doesn’t stir. Her lips part in soft snores. For once, she looks harmless.
Rain sleeps curled like a question mark, stuffed fox crushed under her chin. Her blanket has slipped to the floor, so I pull it back over her shoulders. She sighs, the sound tugging at something deep in me, and burrows deeper. There was a time I thought I wouldn’t get this again—her asleep in her bed. I leave before she wakes to me crying in the doorway. Again.
August is last. Flat on his back, book open across his chest, thumb tucked in his mouth like he swore he didn’t do anymore. I slide the book away. His lashes flutter, but he doesn’t wake as I put his favourite dinosaur next to him.
I stop in the hallway, listening to the rhythm of their breathing. Four rooms. Four lives. The house feels still, like it’s holding its breath along with me.
I rest my head against the wall, a gentle thud, and I can’t ignore it anymore. There was a time this was the dream. Now I stall, avoiding my own bedroom.
I wonder if this is what Lyle imagined when he asked me out all those years ago. God, it feels like another life.
Chapter One
Maria — Present
I don’t know what people picture when they imagine Texas in the late ’90s, but it’s never what it really was. Outsiders always think boots, rodeos, ten-gallon hats. We had some of that, sure. But mostly it was Friday night football, sweat dripping down your back before lunch, and the whole town watching your business whether you wanted them to or not.
That was my world. Small-town Texas, where most girls figured their lives wouldn’t stretch much farther than the county line. And then Lyle showed up.
His dad got stationed at Fort Hood, so his family moved into town. It was like a celebrity had rolled up — someone new, someone different, someone not already mapped out by everyone else. My first time seeing a boy my age who wasn’t carved out of the same local dirt as the rest of us.
And thanks to a favour I called in, I got the job of showing him around school.
He was polished in a way I wasn’t used to. Clean boots, neat hair, a smile too wide, like he didn’t know yet that you had to earn your place here. I walked him through the hallways, pointed out the shortcuts, the teachers you buttered up and the ones you ignored. He listened close, tried to keep pace, but I’d already made up my mind — I wasn’t about to let this one slip.
So when he asked me out, barely two weeks later, I didn’t play coy. I just smiled like I’d been waiting my whole life for it.
Twenty-Seven Years Ago – Gatesville, Texas. 1998.
“Maria!” Daddy’s voice roared from downstairs, sharp enough to rattle the frames on my wall. “Get down here, now.”
I rolled my eyes and stomped down, dragging my feet out of spite. “What, Daddy?” I sweetened the drawl on purpose.
He didn’t answer right away. Just jerked his chin toward the door.
And there he was. Lyle. Standing tall, awkward, trying to look confident while it was obvious he didn’t belong in our house yet.
Daddy jabbed a finger at him. “You wanna explain this?”
I glanced at Lyle, then back at Daddy. “What? You never seen a boy before?”
Daddy’s jaw set tight.
“Lyle, what’re you doin’ here?” I asked, pretending casual.
“The date,” Lyle said evenly, no stumble, no twang. “Or did you forget?”
I smirked. “Our date’s tomorrow.”
His brow furrowed. “We said Friday.”
