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  “You’re right, that is weird. I hope she’s all right.”

  “Me, too,” Georgia replied, her lips scrunched for a moment in thought. She smiled again and picked up a tray. “Anyway, off to work!” Then she flounced into the main room, leaving Brooke standing behind her and shaking her head.

  Paula came around the corner before Brooke could gather herself enough to follow after her friend, and she swallowed back her apprehension as she smiled at her supervisor.

  “Brooke! Thanks so much for coming in early,” Paula said with a genuine smile.

  “It was no trouble,” Brooke replied. “Is anyone waiting on me?”

  “Shelly just sat the Buchannons at table seven,” Paula stated easily. But before Brooke could take more than a step away, she added, “Oh, and before you leave tonight, you have to tell me what you were doing earlier with Blake, got it?”

  Brooke froze. How could she possibly— Realization swept through her, and she barely bit back a groan. Paula had to drive that way to get to the diner; if she’d had to run home or been late, she could’ve seen their cars in the parking lot. And she would make far too much out of any situation that involved Brooke and Blake interacting no matter what the reason. Turning back to smile again, Brooke said, “It was really nothing. I should go greet Mr. and Mrs. Buchannon.”

  “I suppose you should,” Paula agreed with a knowing smile. She said nothing more, and Brooke took the opportunity to slip away, praying her face wasn’t crimson.

  When Brooke was within sight of the table, she realized it was not just Mr. and Mrs. Buchannon this time. They had brought their two daughters, Chloe and Clarabelle, as well. Chloe, the recently engaged elder sister, was sitting beside her father and opposite her sibling.

  “I’m feeling special,” Brooke declared as she stepped up to the table.

  The family turned their attention to her and smiled. It was Katherine who spoke first, saying, “Brooke! We haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks now, how are you doing?”

  Brooke returned their smiles. “Oh, I’m doing fine, Mrs. Buchannon. But I’m horribly curious, what brings all four of you out my way?”

  “That would be my fault,” Clarabelle declared with a light laugh.

  Chloe spoke up before her sister could continue, leaning forward slightly and saying, “It’s Clare’s twentieth birthday, so of course we had to celebrate.”

  “Birthday, huh?” Brooke teased easily. “Well, I firmly believe in going all-out on birthdays myself, so I’ll see if I can’t help a little.” Throwing in a wink for good measure, she added, “But you should definitely come back again next year, too.”

  With a laugh, Clarabelle said, “I’ll try to remember that.”

  “Good,” Brooke replied with a nod. “Now then, as the Birthday Girl, you get to order first. So tell me, what would make you happy today?”

  ****

  “We should make a list,” Logan declared as the conversation again fell silent. He, and all of his brothers, were gathered at Blake’s house Monday evening. They had agreed to meet up to talk more about everything they’d learned after Angela’s near-death experience.

  “List?” Nate repeated, clearly confused. “You mean like a grocery list of possible suspects?”

  Logan narrowed his eyes slightly and shifted on the couch, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “No, genius. I mean a list of people that we know know our secret. People we’ve told.”

  Dean shifted his weight on the couch. “What good’s that going to do?”

  Swinging his serious gaze around the room, Logan replied, “It’s a solid place to start, for one. We could eliminate the people we know are out of town—and have been. And the people who’d have struck years ago if they were guilty.”

  “What about the people we’ve lost contact with?” Dean asked slowly as he leaned forward, removing his feet from the coffee table in the process.

  All three brothers looked over at him with silent expectation.

  Dean sighed and looked away, saying, “It’s possible I said something to one or two of my ex-girlfriends…”

  Blake sighed and shook his head. “You told Lila, didn’t you?” He was referring to the cheerleader Dean had dated for over a year in high school. They had been very solidly together, until one day Lila had shown up at school holding another guy’s hand. Dean had lost his temper, words had been exchanged, and it had taken all three of them to keep him from hurting the guy. Dean and Lila hadn’t spoken since.

  Dean cringed and nodded. “Yeah, I told Lila.” He fell silent for a minute, but it was obvious from his tone that he wasn’t done. And then he quietly added, “I told Emily, too.”

  “God, Dean,” Nate exclaimed, slumping back against the couch beside Blake. “Did you tell that reporter girl you dated freshman year of college, too?”

  “Of course not,” Dean defended immediately, glaring at his sibling.

  Blake lifted one hand and massaged his forehead for a long minute as he interrupted their budding argument to say, “It doesn’t matter now. You’ve lost touch with both of them, right?”

  Dean shifted his attention to Blake and nodded. “Yeah. But last I heard, Emily moved out of town anyway.”

  Inclining his head, Blake replied, “I heard that, too. So probably we wouldn’t have to worry about Emily.”

  Nate sat up once more. “But shouldn’t we consider their families, too? I mean, anyone we told could have talked to their parents, or siblings, or close friends.”

  Logan nodded. “That’s part of my point. The list is a starting point, not a hardcopy of our only suspects.”

  “Okay,” Dean acknowledged, “but we still wouldn’t have to worry about Emily. Her family never lived near here, and from what I remember, her closest friends didn’t live in town, either.”

  “That’s good,” Blake said. “Then you’re probably right. And I remember hearing that Lila left town after high school.”

  “Who’d you hear that from?” Dean asked curiously, unaware that his brother had more information on his ex than he himself did.

  Blake shrugged. “Mom heard it from Katherine Buchannon. Remember Lila’s mom was close to Katherine before she died?”

  Dean made an embarrassed sound and leaned back into the couch, and as his feet returned to the coffee table, he declared, “Nah, I’d forgotten. But that rules out Lila’s end, except for any guy she might’ve talked to.”

  Logan smirked now and cut a look to his brother. “I hate to break this to you, but she probably didn’t go around bragging about you to her other boyfriends.”

  “Shut up,” Dean returned, rolling his eyes.

  “How ‘bout you, Logan?” Nate asked, shifting the focus away from their hot-headed brother.

  “I’ve only told one person,” Logan assured them. His eyes were downcast and his voice stable, but tight. They all knew who he was referring to.

  After a long moment, Nate said, “I told two. In middle school I told Kirk, and in high school I told Laura.” He shrugged. “I haven’t talked to Laura in a while, but since her family moved a couple years back to be closer to her, I’d guess she’s clean. And I’ll vouch for Kirk.”

  “I think we all trust Kirk,” Blake assured him. Kirk was Nate’s long-standing best friend, the kind that was as much family as a person could get without being blood-related.

  Dean looked over to Blake and declared, “That leaves you, bro. So who’ve you told besides Jason and Brooke?”

  Jason was Blake’s own best friend. The two of them had been partners in crime since the eighth grade. It had been their third year of high school when Jason found out about Blake’s secret, but the choice to tell Jason had been taken from him. Jason had only grinned after he found out and, voice weak from the water he’d half-drowned in, he’d said, “I’m one lucky son of a bitch, aren’t I?”

  None of them doubted Jason—not any more than they doubted Kirk.

  And Blake just assumed they were all giving Brooke t
he benefit of the doubt.

  “Okay,” Dean finally said. “I’ll ask the hard questions.”

  Blake lifted his gaze to Dean but said nothing.

  “You obviously trust Brooke,” Dean began, sitting forward again. “We don’t really have any reason not to, either. But what about her family? Is she from around here? Did she come here to see where her parents or aunts or uncles grew up?”

  Remembering what Brooke had told him about her past, Blake shook his head. “She’s not from here, and even if her family were I doubt she’d know. She lost her biological family when she was young. She didn’t say anything about her adoptive family, really, but I think she’d have mentioned it if they’d suggested the area.”

  Silence held for a moment as the brothers processed his point. At length, Logan said, “I’m comfortable with that, then.”

  Nate and Dean nodded, and Dean resettled into his preferred position.

  Blake drew the focus from himself and asked, “Does anyone know if Angela’s told Eric?” He watched as his siblings exchanged equally uncertain looks before he finally sighed and said, “I take it that’s a ‘no’.”

  With a grin, Nate replied, “Hey, you’re the oldest—you ask her.”

  “Yeah,” Dean jumped in, “you know how much she hates talking about that punk.”

  Blake gave his brother a pointed look and said, “Gee, that couldn’t be because some of you always put him down or threaten to massacre him?”

  Before Dean could retort to Blake’s comment, Logan said, “Well, one of us should talk to her. Whether or not we like him, he’s just a teenager. He could’ve told the wrong person.”

  “I agree,” Blake declared with a nod.

  “Great,” Dean began, “then you can do it. Probably, if I tried, I’d end up accusing him, and she’d just get all pissy.”

  Logan reached over and smacked Dean upside the head. “She’s our sister,” he said. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

  Rubbing the back of his head, Dean said, “Oh, come on, she’s seventeen. She gets pissy. And I can say it ‘cause I’m her older brother. It’s expected.”

  “At the risk of having my head knocked clean off my shoulders,” Nate interrupted, “he has a point. She does get kind of touchy whenever one of us talks about him.”

  Blake shook his head. “Do I really need to reiterate myself?”

  Dean gave him a pointed look. “Don’t tell me you like the kid.”

  “I don’t,” Blake assured his brother. “But the more we blatantly dislike him, the harder she’s going to cling to him. Or don’t you remember the rebellious stage?”

  Logan smirked. “He can’t remember it, Blake. He’s still stuck there.”

  Nate laughed, and Dean rolled his eyes at them.

  Taking a deep breath, Nate pushed down his lingering amusement and said, “Okay, so Blake’s gonna talk to Angie about what’s-his-name, but we still need to figure out our other options. Does anyone have any other ideas?”

  ****

  Blake was leaning patiently against the driver’s side of his Mustang when the high school let out the next day. He’d called ahead and convinced his mother to let him pick Angela up from school, though it hadn’t taken much effort once he’d explained his reasons. So now all he had to do was wait for his only sister to come into view. And as he waited, he watched the other teenagers run around, celebrating their temporary freedom. He could still easily recall his high school days, and watching the largely unfamiliar teenagers had him remembering why he was glad those years were behind him.

  But none of that mattered, as his eyes locked on to the dark-haired girl he’d been waiting for. She was walking in synch with her now-eighteen-year-old boyfriend and laughing faintly. Neither appeared to have noticed him, parked as he was at the curb off to the side of entrance. When they were close enough that he wouldn’t have to bellow, Blake called out, “Angela!”

  Several heads turned in startled curiosity, but Blake paid them no attention. When his sister and her boyfriend looked over, he lifted a hand in a lazy wave. He watched silently as they exchanged looks before altering their course and heading over to him.

  “Hey, Blake,” Angela said hesitantly. “What’re you doing here?”

  Cocking an eyebrow and keeping his tone light, Blake replied, “What’s it look like? I’m giving you a ride.”

  “It’s a nice day,” Angela argued, “we were going to walk.”

  “I was gonna walk her straight home,” Eric offered helpfully.

  “No need,” Blake said, pulling his keys from his pocket. “I’ll drive you home, and then take her home.”

  Angela frowned at her brother. “That’s not necessary,” she insisted.

  Holding her gaze pointedly, Blake said, “Humor me.” He clicked the button as he spoke and unlocked his car. When he had the door open, he smiled and said, “Hop in.”

  Heaving a martyred sigh, Angela looked over to her boyfriend and said, “I’m sorry. Apparently my brother’s in a strange mood.” Then she turned and ducked into the car.

  Eric hesitated, his eyes flicking to Blake, and Blake inclined his head. “Go ahead, I won’t bite.”

  “Uh, thanks.” Eric moved around him and ducked into the car.

  Once the teenagers were settled in the backseat, backpacks at their feet, Blake re-positioned his seat and angled himself into the car. He had it in motion in no time, and as he eased into the after school traffic, he called over his shoulder, “Your sister hasn’t moved, right?”

  “No,” Eric replied easily.

  Blake nodded to himself and started the easy drive to Emma’s home. He said nothing, keeping his music low and pretending to ignore the hushed conversation going on behind him. It took him only a few minutes to reach the suburban neighborhood that Emma and Eric Matthews called home.

  As he pulled into the slightly slanted driveway, Blake couldn’t help but reflect on what he knew of the siblings’ history. Emma was a couple of years older than him, and so he’d only seen her in passing during his first two years of high school. From what he’d heard through Angela, Mrs. Matthews had died only a couple of years earlier, and when she had, she’d left her two children alone.

  “Here you go,” Blake declared as he put the car in park and set the brake. Then he eased out and pulled his seat forward so that Eric could actually exit the car, stepping back to try to keep the situation from being more awkward.

  Eric unbuckled and grabbed his backpack in one hand. Turning to Angela, he said, “Uh, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

  “Yeah,” Angela replied, cutting a pointed look at her brother before returning her attention to Eric and quickly leaning forward to cover his lips with hers. She pulled away a heartbeat later, blushing, and murmured, “See you tomorrow.”

  Eric swallowed and nodded but said nothing as he scrambled from the car. He deliberately kept his gaze on the ground as he stepped wide of Blake, and it wasn’t until he was several feet from the car that he turned back to call, “Thanks for the ride.”

  Blake nodded silently and remained standing until Eric had disappeared inside the house. Once the front door had shut, he turned to look into his backseat. “You want shotgun?”

  Angela crossed her arms. “I’m fine here.”

  Oh, good, Blake thought with an internal sigh as he reclaimed his seat and pulled the door shut. Her being angry will make this so much easier.

  Chapter Nine

  Awkward silence settled over the car after Blake switched off his radio and eased out of the driveway. When he was back on the main road, he heaved another sigh and finally said, “Angie, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I need to talk to you about something.”

  Keeping her eyes pointed out the small back window, Angela replied, “That’s what they invented phones for, Blake.”

  Blake tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “I need to talk to you about what Mom learned from Uncle Nicholas.”

  In the rearview m
irror, Blake watched as Angela’s eyes widened marginally and her posture relaxed. After another moment, she turned her gaze forward and let her arms fall to her sides.

  “Did you figure something out?” she asked, her frustration almost gone from her voice.

  Blake shook his head. “No, we’re still pretty much clueless. But the four of us got together yesterday, and Logan suggested we run over a list of everyone we know of who knows about us.”

  Her frown returned, but her voice was much the same when she asked, “And you want to know if I’ve blabbed to my boyfriend, right? Like Dean and Nate with their girlfriends? Like you?”

  Fearing where she was going to take the conversation, Blake replied, “Well, I wasn’t going to word it that way, but … yeah.”

  Pursing her lips for a moment, Angela finally said, “I haven’t. I certainly could have, and we’ve been together long enough none of you would have the right to give me a hard time about it, but I haven’t.”

  Genuinely surprised, Blake asked, “Why not?”

  Angela shrugged, her gaze returning to the side window. “I don’t know, it just … hasn’t felt right. Besides, I don’t know for sure what he’s doing for college yet; if we end up breaking up, or doing the long-distance thing, then it’ll be better if I don’t.”

  Curiosity mounting with each word she said, Blake found himself asking, “Are you two having trouble?”

  “No!” Angela asserted quickly, turning forward again and meeting his gaze fearlessly through the rearview mirror. She took a breath and calmly explained, “I’m just being cautious. I know that most high school relationships don’t work out, so I’m not going to assume it will until I have a little more to go on. But we’re fine, so don’t go celebrating or something.”

  Blake couldn’t help the grin that curved his lips as he said, “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  They fell into silence until Blake pulled to a stop in front of their parents’ garage. He was reaching for the handle on his door when his sister’s quiet voice carried to his ears.