Winnie clicked the door shut just as Eleanor came around the corner of the house from where she’d parked on Winnie’s driveway.
“Eleanor! Hey!” Winnie said, trying to sound casual and surprised. She sounded neither casual nor surprised. She sounded extremely weird.
Eleanor’s raised brows, so like those of her brother from just a minute ago, made Winnie feel as though she was about to shake apart with nerves.
“Hi, Winnie,” she said with exaggerated calm, as though she was hoping to reach one regular mood between them.
Winnie put her hands on her hips, then dropped them to her sides.
“What are you doing here?” she asked brightly.
Eleanor was looking around her like she expected someone to jump out and yell that she was being punked.
“Um, I wanted to run some potential future book club titles by you. I know it’s my turn to pick, but I’m stuck between a few, and I saw your car was here…”
She trailed off. Winnie was still trying to figure out what to do with her hands.
She’d never been a good liar, but she’d never really had much opportunity to practice the skill.
“Do you want to come inside?” Winnie asked, a beat too late in the conversation. “Like, all the way in? To the kitchen? Past all this stuff?”
“Are you okay?” Eleanor demanded. “I feel like I’m about to find out this is a hostage situation.”
Winnie’s laugh wasextraordinarilyawkward.
“Okay, I’m not sure what’s happening here, but if you need me, I am here for you,” Eleanor said kindly, still clearly completely baffled. “I will ask you about the books later though, because you’ve clearly got a lot going on at the moment.”
She gestured at all the stuff in the hallway, but Winnie was pretty sure that her weirdness was more of the issue.
“I like your sweater, though,” Eleanor said in a heroic effort to bring the level of normalcy back into acceptable range. “Did you get it at Diana’s shop?”
“Oh,” Winnie said, blinking down at the sweater. “I… think so.”
“You didn’t buy it yourself?”
Winnie inwardly chastised herself, because Eleanor wasn’t looking quite so confused anymore. She was looking downright suspicious, as if this detail had been the one to convince her that Winnie’s caginess was about more than just the riot ofthingsin her hallway.
“Hm, no. But, by the way, did you see all this stuff for the event?”
Winnie’s attempts at deflection were just as bad as her efforts at lying.
“Was it a gift?” Eleanor asked, undeterred.
“Um, yeah. So, I’ve got all the tables out front. You saw those. And then there’s going to be stuff that goes on the tables. Different stuff. Historical stuff.”
Stop saying ‘stuff,’she mentally scolded herself.
“Honey, what is going on?” Eleanor demanded hotly. “You’re acting super weird. Something is clearly up and, frankly, I am starting to worry.”
Winnie opened her mouth to say… well, she didn’t know what she was going to say. But ultimately, it didn’t matter.
Because that was the moment that Shane fell out of the closet. Shane plus five inflatable Union soldiers, that was.
Eleanor yelped and had to take a quick step back to avoid getting knocked over. Winnie put her hands over her face.
Shane grinned sheepishly up at his sister.
“Hey, Ellie,” he said.
