Chapter 1
Sloane
Ellie’sface turns to stone. “Thanks for the faith in me, sis.”
I tiltmy head and smirk, displaying how ridiculous she sounds. “You allbut swept him under a carpet back there.” I state, recalling howshe regards her lover Maverick as a piece of grade A beef, and allin the same breath, spoke of her future plans to sleep with a golfpro. “Does he know?”
Snatching the package out of my hand, she hisses. “No, hedoesn’t. And I’d like to keep it that way, thank you.”
My teethare grinding together I’m so angry at her. “Ellie, he has feelings.Don’t you think he might want to know about this?”
“Yes. And that’s precisely why I’m not telling him. Andneither are you. So, you keep your mouth shut the next time you’reout at Halen Ranch, riding a horse. The less Maverick knows thebetter.”
“How dare you.” I seethe. “You’ve sunk to an all-timelow.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion.” She says, and the way shesays it, her nose might as well be in the clouds. “Just what do youknow about being in this predicament?”
“Nothing. But if I did, I certainly wouldn’t be keeping itfrom the person who should know the most.”
Shepulls the plastic stick out of the bag and looks at it, as thoughdisbelieving, and in need of a secondary look. There is a clearpink line indicating a positive result. Any fool can tell that.After a beat, she stuffs it back into the bag. “And you didn’t knowanything about this, either.”
“You expect me to lie about this?”
“Are you saying that you’re going to go and blab? He’ll neverbring it up, otherwise.”
“Not unless you start giving him the silent treatment. Youstart ignoring him and he’ll get suspicious. If he asks why you’vestopped calling him, I’m not going to lie. Forget it.”
“I didn’t plan on not calling him, Sloane. I’m not thatcruel.”
“Do you even like him? Aside from the fact that he has a ‘fineass’, as you put it downstairs?”
After aharrumph, she sighs. “Yes, of course I like him. But I don’t likehim enough to just…settle with him.”
“You should have thought of that before sleeping withhim.”
“Look, I know that you’re all miss high and mighty here, butsome of us aren’t all about falling in love first, and thensleeping together, okay? Some of us are imperfect humans, you know,Sloane. And I’m not in the mood for a lecture, so please, justspare me.”
“And what did you and your ex-husband just go through,huh?”
Sheraises an errant hand. “That was completely different, and you knowit, Sloane. Don’t go there.”
“Fine.” I sneer. “But if I find out you did somethingcompletely selfish and insensitive about this, Ellie, I’ll neverlook at you the same way again, and I mean it.”
Hernostrils flare, and I know that she’s about to say something, butshe refrains. As I hear her stomping down the hallway to herbedroom, I hear the rustling of the plastic bag, and then shecloses her door. I strain to listen for a moment. It’s so quiet inhere you could hear a pin drop. The boys are still outside, takinga break, and this house is so goddamn big, you could be having aparty in the basement, and still not hear it from upstairs. Exceptfor the din from the air conditioning, that comes onintermittently, one couldn’t hear a thing.
After abeat, I rise, as my stomach tells me that something is wrong. Iwalk down the hallway and tap on the bedroom door with my knuckle.“Ellie?”
Asniffle, but no answer.
“Ellie, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” She says, but I can tell that her voice iswet.
“Can I come in?”
“No.”
I’venever listened to my sister, and I figure now isn’t the time tostart. I open the door and see Ellie sitting on the floor. There isno furniture in the room yet, just her bed frame, and her cedarchest, plus her bags of clothing, stuffed close to her walk-incloset. Her eyes are red, and her intermittent swallowing tells methat she’s fighting back tears.
