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Lyria shrugged. “Could it be a friend, an uncle, an aunt, a long-lost cousin, an ex?”
I lifted an eyebrow. The locket was in the shape of a heart. Clearly, it was a love thing. It could’ve been an ex. But why did she still have it? If this hadn’t been coupled with me clearly seeing her kiss another man, then I wouldn’t have been as suspicious.
After a beat, Lyria’s chin lowered to her chest, and her voice thickened with emotion. “We have to be sure. It’s right to tell him what you saw, but we can’t go to Alec with insinuations that might not be true.”
“I know,” I said, my voice quiet.
“But I hope you’re wrong.” Her eyes were fierce with that hope.
I exhaled a long sigh. “I’ve never wanted to be more wrong in my life.”
We both watched Brandy get her nails done from across the way as we hid behind a wall. A somber silence settled between us.
Brandy was just about done when Lyria shot up, back stick straight. She gripped my wrist with such force that she’d leave an indentation for sure.
“Justin …” Lyria hissed.
“What?” I frowned.Justin, like … her high school ex-boyfriend, Justin?
In the next second, she sprinted across the mall without a second look back.
Seriously?Now,thatwas a high school–level move.
Justin—yes, her high school ex-boyfriend—spotted me right away and waved. I waved back, but my focus was steadied on Brandy now paying at the front.
I didn’t have time for small talk. Definitely not now.
“Hey, Sydney.”
Justin worked at the bar our grandmother owned. When my father had checked out of life after our mother died, going on his own world expedition and leaving the bar that he owned, Nana had taken over. She’d been there, handling business, from the beginning anyway.
“Hey, Justin. You off today?”
“Yeah, Nana said I could take the day off because I’ll be working all the way up to the wedding.”
Justin had always been with Lyria, so when they’d broken up, the whole Loverly clan was devastated. We didn’t understand why two perfect people meant to be together had had to break up.
I smiled awkwardly at him, my eyes blinking back to where Brandy was paying at the counter.
“Is our man ready for the big day?” He grinned, revealing a dimple.
“I guess so. You failed at your job, ya know. You were supposed to tell him that marrying at twenty-three is way too young.”
A deep chuckle vibrated from his chest. “He’s done with school, earning his own. He’s a grown man, Sydney. Even though I’m sure all the Loverly clan would love to keep Alec at home.”
Given the years Justin and Lyria had been together, there was no denying that he knew our family. He had been there through some of the toughest moments in our lives, even during the death of our mother.
Brandy exited the nail salon, and my pulse increased in tempo, like a mariachi band was playing on the inside of my chest.
“So … I hear Lyria’s back in town,” Justin, said, diverting my attention back to him. “I’m assuming briefly? For the wedding?” I heard the hurt behind his voice, saw the sadness in the green irises staring back at me.
In that moment, I wanted to slap my sister silly. Some things were out of people’s control, like my mother dying or Brandy cheating—maybe.
But Lyria, she was the one who had left. She’d chosen to move to New York. And she’d chosen to leave a good man behind, breaking his heart in the process.
The smile slipped from Justin’s features. “It’s funny … if it wasn’t for the wedding, I’m sure she would have stayed away. It’s weird, sharing everything with someone one minute and being strangers who avoid each other in the next.”
His gaze was unfocused, and then he slapped a smile on his face as though Lyria were a mere passing thought. “Anyway, I’m sure I’ll see you around. Tell her …” He swallowed around something, and I knew my sister still meant a lot to him. “Tell her I said hi.”
