AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I hoped. Call it temporary madness. I hoped you’d be distracted by CloudFest and wedding planning. Guess I shot myself in the foot.” She hesitated. “I’d still prefer it didn’t become everyone’s business.”
“Don’t want your folks to know?”
Leah spread her hands. “Not sure they’d understand.”
“Okay. I’m not going to tell anyone.” Faith said. “Do your worst.” She paused. “What about Mina?”
Leah shrugged. “I’ll leave that one to Zach. So don’t you tell her until he can.”
Faith nodded. “Trust me, I intend to think about this as little as possible.”
“Good,” Leah said. “So how about we change the subject and I find you Nessa’s recordings?”
“Deal,” Faith said. “And while we’re on the subject of wedding planning—or somewhere near the vicinity of the subject—I had a call from Elise Ng’s salon last night.”
“About your dress?” Leah asked. She and Ivy were Faith’s bridesmaids. Mina was going to be maid of honor. The four of them had had a few crazy days in New York in March visiting so many bridal salons and designers that Leah had lost count.
“Yes. Apparently Elise can come to Lansing next weekend for a fitting. Which is good because my schedule is getting too jammed for me to get back to New York before CloudFest.”
“You’re the one who wanted to have a summer wedding,” Leah said. “So your pain is self-inflicted.”
Faith shrugged. “Maybe. But one of the functions bridesmaids fulfill is to support me in my hours of need. So, one girls’ afternoon at my place next Saturday for dress fittings.” Faith smiled goofily. “You three need fittings too, after all.”
“I’ll be there,” Leah said and tried to think about weddings rather than the conversation she was going to have with Zach.
Chapter Twelve
“So, busted, huh?” Zach said, looking at Leah across the kitchen table at the guesthouse. She’d arrived on his doorstep mid-afternoon bearing pizza for what she claimed could be a late lunch. Then she’d told him about Faith and the tape at the studio.
She pushed her piece of pizza around on her plate. She’d hardly eaten anything yet. Was she upset that Faith knew? Or about the way she’d found out? Ignoring the fact that it was his sister who’d heard them—that part was bad—he thought the way the recording had happened was funny. But he couldn’t tell yet how Leah felt, so he kept that to himself.
“Yes. Sorry,” she said.
“It was bound to happen sooner or later.” After all, he’d told her that from the beginning. No point her feeling guilty about the inevitable. “How did Faith take it?” Zach asked.
“Surprisingly well,” Leah said.
He wondered if the answer would be different if he’d been the one talking to Faith. After all, Faith wasn’t going to yell at Leah. But he hadn’t wanted to keep it from his sisters in the first place, so he wasn’t sorry the news was out, even if Faith did read him the riot act. Maybe. He refilled Leah’s water glass and studied her a moment, still trying to figure out what she was thinking. “So what happens now?”
She stabbed at the pizza some more but still didn’t eat any of it. “What do you mean?”
“Is Faith the only one we’re going to tell?” Faith would keep a secret if Leah asked her to. Well, she might tell Caleb, perhaps, but he wasn’t going to tell the whole island.
“Faith said if you want Mina to know, you have to tell her,” Leah said.
What did that mean? “Do you want Mina to know?”
A shrug.
“Can I get something more definite? We need to be on the same page here.”
“I don’t know.” She didn’t look at him. Okay, definitely not happy.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I think Faith has proved my point. You can’t keep secrets in a place this size. Maybe we should just accept the inevitable.” He’d understood why she’d wanted to try to keep it a secret. He just hadn’t thought it would work. But maybe Leah had? Question was, how upset was she now that it turned out he’d been right about that? Upset enough to call the whole thing off? His gut clenched as his whole body tensed at that thought. Having Leah in his bed was something he wasn’t anywhere near ready to give up.
“Easy for you to say,” she said, frowning. “You’re not the one who has to live here afterward.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
