Page 42 of While You Were Trending

No no no no no.

It’s bad enough that my mother’s here, butDeclanwas the leak?

And he’s just—justowningit?

“What thefuckis wrong with you?” I snap at him.

He swallows and looks me straight in the eye. “I didn’t know it was that big of a deal.”

“Oh, Ginny, honey, it’s terrible.” My mother—my mother who’s not supposed to be here—grabs me in a hug. “This man told the press all about Caro’s wedding, and now they know everything.”

Cricket’s shaking her head behind my mother and holding her hands up.

I ignore Declan.

And the camera that sends anxiety through my stomach.

“What’severything?” Mabel asks.

Caro texted me five minutes ago that she and Mike had been made on their honeymoon, hence Mabel and me heading out here.

We wanted to watch Declan and Shade’s faces when we told Cricket and Heath that someone leaked.

To see if it was them.

But I still didn’t expect to find him confessing.

What an absoluteass.

“They know Ginny lives here and that her friends hosted Caro’s wedding,” my mother says as she rubs my back, while I go stiff at both her words and her touch.

“Theywhat?” Mabel says.

Cricket’s eyes go wide and my stomach takes an express elevator to my toes.

“They knoweverything,” my mother repeats dramatically. “But don’t you worry. Mommy’s here. I’m here, and I know how to handle this.”

Everything.

Everything my mother knows?

Or everything she doesn’t?

We were so careful to not say anything about restarting winery operations when she was here. Did Declan leak that too?

Does the world know our plans? We’re not ready for the world to know our plans.

I want Mabel and Olivia and Samantha and Dori and Cricket and Pip and Heath.

I donotwant my mother.

One weekend every few months is my limit, but here she is, right in the middle of drama that I didn’t ask for too.

She keeps patting my back. “It’s all over that CSA channel. Celebrity Secrets Anonymous? They’re talking about all of us. They’re even showing video again of that spectacle you made of yourself at poor Alex’s wedding.”

My head goes light as if all of the blood in my body has also hopped on that express elevator to my toes, and I suddenly can’t draw an even breath.

I shake my mother off of me. “I cannot—” I start, but it turns out the thing Icannotdo is finish that sentence.