Emma gulped a deep breath, pulling away from Maddy. Her ravaged face tore at Maddy’s heart. Her cheeks were blotched pink, and tears trembled on her lashes.
“You already know?”
“I—I saw them a week ago, on the beach,” Maddy confessed, tears filling her own eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to believe they’d do such a thing. I hoped I was wrong somehow.”
Something shifted in Emma’s eyes. Her gaze sharpened on Maddy in a way that put the fear of God into her.
“I—I know I should’ve told you,” Maddy blathered on. “But I didn’t want to hurt you, and I wasn’t for sure, for sure. It was dark, and her hair looked red, but I couldn’t be certain.”
The skin around Emma’s eyes tightened, as did her grasp on Maddy’s upper arms. “What—what are you talking about?”
Maddy’s stomach dropped to her feet even as a new kind of tension coiled inside her. Emma didn’t know about Nora and Jonathan, she realized suddenly. Something else had put those tears in her eyes. But Maddy had gone and opened her big mouth. And now it was too late to take back her words.
“I’m not sure of anything,” Maddy whispered, shaking her head. “Honest, I’m not.”
“Sure of what? Tell me, Maddy, tell me right now!” Emma’s grip tightened painfully.
“I—I thought I saw them, Nora and Jonathan, on the beach late at night.”
Emma’s face hardened in a way Maddy had never seen. “Doing what?”
A tear slipped down Maddy’s cheek. Regret pulsed inside with every beat of her heart. “It was dark. Really dark, Emma. I wasn’t sure. I’m still not sure.”
Emma’s lips twisted and her nostrils flared. “Doing. What?”
Electricity thrummed in the air between them. Maddy’s next words were going to send an irreversible jolt through Emma. But there was nothing else Maddy could do now.
“Kissing.” The word was barely audible over the sound of surf.
Emma flinched, as if absorbing a blow. Her breath hitched, her pupils flared, her fingers slowly loosened their grip on Maddy’s arms until they fell to her sides.
Maddy couldn’t look away from the hurt and anger on her sister’s face. She wished she could take it all back. She was so stupid! She’d gone and ruined everything!
“Maybe I’m wrong,” Maddy said. “I could be wrong.”
But deep down she knew she wasn’t. She hadn’t imagined the flirting she’d witnessed back in June or that flicker of red hair on the beach. Hadn’t imagined all the times Jonathan and Nora seemed to disappear at the same exact time—including today. If only she’d confronted Nora about it in the beginning, she could’ve stopped this from happening! Why, oh, why hadn’t she said something?
Emma’s eyes searched the horizon, and Maddy could almost see her stringing things together in her mind. As though Maddy had only exposed what Emma had already known somewhere deep inside.
Maybe it was fate, or maybe it was just a terrible coincidence that a car rumbled up to the cottage just then, tires crunching in the shelled driveway. Someone was home, and it had to be either Jonathan or Nora. Maddy didn’t know which would be worse.
Emma looked toward the side of the house as the engine went silent. A car door slammed shut. And then all was quiet.
A warm breeze lifted gooseflesh on Maddy’s arms as the moment stretched taut between them. Emma’s chest heaved, drawing in great gulps of air.
Maddy should say something—she just didn’t know what.
God...She prayed, but nothing else came to mind.
And then Nora was coming through the back door. Her hair flowed down around her shoulders, and she wore a hint of makeup. When had Nora started caring so much about how she looked?
“Hey, you two,” Nora said as she closed the door.
Maddy’s gaze swung to Emma in time to see her eyes rake over Nora’s navy top and a pair of white shorts that made her slender legs go on forever. She looked fresh and happy and sported a carefree glow Maddy had never noticed on her normally uptight sister.
“Well, look at you.” Emma crossed her arms over her chest, pinning Nora with a look. “Where’ve you been, Nora?”
Nora’s eyes shifted to Maddy, then back to Emma. “Um... I just ran a couple errands in town.”
