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She glances down at her phone. “And, we take really nice pictures together too. We should get some with Sophia and—”
Her voice cuts off as her expression darkens.
Immediately Sully is leaning toward her protectively. “What is it? Is everything all right?”
“I just…” her eyes dart around the table, glancing at each of us. “There’s something I forgot to tell you.”
“Like what?” Royce asks suspiciously.
She leans forward, then covers her mouth modestly when the wine steward comes over to deliver the Chilean wine. It takes forever for him to give Royce a sample, get that sample approved after Royce is done swirling it over his teeth like he knows what he’s doing, and then for all of us to get a glass. Finally he leaves.
“Like what?” Brock asks this time.
“When we were in Nantucket,” she begins, her eyes cast down, “I took Sophia into town to do a little shopping, remember?”
My stomach tightens with dread.
“I remember,” Spencer chimes in. “That was the day we signed the paperwork, right?”
She’s talking so quietly, I have to lean forward to hear her.
“When I was in town, in addition to discovering that the general store does not accept the Black Card—”
“I’ll have to take care of that,” Sully mutters.
“Let her finish,” Brock says.
“I am letting her finish,” Sully objects.
“Guys? I’m trying to tell you something serious here,” she interrupts, her eyebrows raised.
I can’t tell what’s in her expression. Remorse? Embarrassment? Guilt?
“Okay, so what I’m trying to say is,” she begins again, “I ran into… Nina.”
“Where?” Brock asks, alarmed.
“In Nantucket,” she repeats, confused.
“What? How?” Brock says.
“She lives there,” Spencer explains in a quiet voice.
“She lives there?” Royce repeats, his voice rising. “How did we not know that? Right there? By our family home?”
Spencer shrugs. “Well she has to live somewhere, doesn’t she? She took the settlement and moved to Nantucket.”
“All this time, and you didn’t tell us?”
“Tell you what? That she is still alive?” Spencer shoots back irritably. “What’s the big deal? That’s the first time we’ve been there in fifteen years. I thought her being there was fine, and probably a good way for us all to avoid each other. I didn’t know that this was going to be an issue.”
“Of course it’s a fucking issue!” Sully says, dropping his hand on the table so hard the wine glasses teeter dangerously.
“Is anyone going to listen to me?”
Bunny looks around as we all grind our teeth and try to stifle our emotions. I’m not sure if we feel defensive or angry or just shocked. Perhaps this is something we should have protected her from?
“Well, she was nice, sort of,” she continues. “She held Sophia for a minute. She… talked about you guys, but just a little. She’s very pretty.”
