Every single person flinging a similar question in their direction.
Except for Holden. He sat there, his chin in his hands, looking unsurprised by the announcement but sick to his stomach. I caught his eye, trying to see if he knew about me and Silas, but his gaze brushed over me like my pain meant nothing and Christy’s meant everything. So it was true. Christy wasn’t making it up. And Silas had told Holden about their engagement, but nothing about us.
“We’re not engaged!” Silas finally shouted. A deafening silence permeated the room and, for a split second, I thought he was about to make everything right. I was sure of it. Right until he said, “I mean, we were, but we’re not anymore.”
“Were?” Christy choked. “You told me we were pausing.” Her voice was semi-hysterical. Those weren’t crocodile tears falling down her face. She was as broken by this as I was. “That we would reset as soon as you got done with this littlepretend family thing you were doing and we would make it official.”
Jenny jumped up and slapped the table. “You were engaged to Christy and?—”
Anna’s sob ripped through the air, flash-freezing everything—the chaos, the yelling, the accusations. Silas’s gaze skittered over, taking the two of us in, his face full of guilt, shame, and…admission.
Christy was telling the truth.
“I knew this would happen,” Anna cried. “Everyone I love leaves me. My dad. My mom. You said we would be a family!”
“Anna. It’s not like that.” He took a step toward us, begging with those eyes. “Just let me explain.”
I shook my head, somehow managing to keep the tears inside my eyelids. “No.I’vegot her.” Pulling Anna toward me, I turned her around, catching Holden’s expression as I did. He looked pained, like he was holding back from comforting Christy. I didn’t have time to ponder that.
“Clem, come back.” Silas’s voice was desperate, but I wouldn’t believe it. Apparently he had some hidden acting talent I’d never known about. And, apparently, he was the worst kind of cheater. The kind that played with your heart so hard that you’d tie yourself up and repel over a thousand-foot cliff, fully believing he had you. And as soon as you were over that ledge, he would cut the rope and watch you fall to your death, all for kicks.
I’d thrown myself at him. Had he seen an opportunity and taken it?
Christy balled her fists and stomped her foot. “Why can’t you call her Lemon like everybody else?” It came out in a half-crazed shriek.
I stood frozen in disbelief, my chest heaving for two seconds. Other women might’ve gotten a kick out of witnessing the downfall of their rival, but I found no joy inanother woman’s scorn. Christy was completely wrecked. And I knew that feeling all too well. If she’d been anyone else, and if my heart and Anna’s hadn’t been bleeding out onto the floor, I probably would’ve tried to comfort her.
I hurried Anna out the other side of the kitchen, across the dark living room and down the hall, trying to get her out of earshot. Jenny’s muffled voice was the last thing I heard before shutting the door of the Flamingo room.
We collapsed onto the queen bed, and Anna buried her face in my shoulder. Huckleberry, who’d been napping on the pillow, waddled over and laid his head on her thigh.
I tried. I really did. But the tears were torrential and I couldn’t stop them.
The person I thought I could trust more than anyone in the world was a liar and a cheat.
Just like Billy.
I couldn’t breathe. I was sobbing so hard.
“Lemon, it’s okay.” Anna gulped, smoothing her hands over my hair. “Aunt Lemon.”
“You’re scaring her,” Jenny said, suddenly there. She pressed a hand against my arm. “Lemon, you have to get yourself together.”
I made the mistake of making eye contact. Jenny didn’t have to say a word for me to know exactly what she was thinking. Sophie should’ve left Anna to her and Bo to raise from the get-go. I wasn’t mature enough to handle this, and neither was her idiot son. And this summer-long experiment had done nothing but prove her right.
I nodded, wiping my face. “I’m okay. I’m okay.” I managed to get out. But I couldn’t have been further from okay if I tried.
“I’ve got her,” Jenny said. “I’ll take her to my room so you can have a minute.”
I nodded again, shifting Anna into her arms. Annaglanced back at me, unsure, and I don’t know how, but I pasted a smile on my face. “I’m okay. You go.”
As soon as they were gone, I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face in my hands.
For twenty consecutive years, that beach house had brought me nothing but happy memories. Card games, board games, Spoons, late-night snacks, fish fries, Ford’s moonlit guitar sessions, and more laughter than one person deserved. And in one afternoon, those memories were wiped out and replaced with this disaster. And it was no one’s fault but my own. Well, I wasn’t going to hang around to ruin any more. The Duprees deserved better than that. Well, most of them did.
I grabbed my purse and my suitcase off the floor, carefully popped the door open, and tiptoed myself right out of that nightmare.
twenty-seven
