Page 18 of Our Little Secret
Meet me. TODAY!
The messages had been repeated, every hour on the hour, throughout the wee morning hours.
“Dear God,” she’d whispered, an edge of panic to her thoughts as she erased them. It was as if Gideon was losing his mind.
And she wasn’t far behind.
How had he known that they’d ordered dinner from Alphonso’s last night? What had tipped him off? She’d never mentioned the Italian restaurant to him. She’d tossed and turned all night, wondering.
It had been all she could do to appear “normal” this morning after reading the messages and stuffing both phones into her purse before heading downstairs. Everything seemed off a bit.
She was jarred back to reality when Marilee returned to the kitchen. “Ready?” she asked, setting down her coffee cup and grabbing her purse.
“I guess,” her daughter said sullenly.
The drive to school was uneventful, rain clouds gathering as if Indian summer had disappeared overnight. As Brooke turned toward the side street running past the school, Marilee insisted on being dropped off two blocks before they reached the campus.
“It wouldn’t kill you to be seen in a crumpled car with your mom,” she said.
“No? Not sure about that.” But Marilee managed to scare up a smile, and Brooke was reminded of the girl her daughter used to be, a sweet, funny, and imaginative kid. A girl who loved books and climbed trees and dabbled at the piano when she wasn’t forever cartwheeling around the house.
But all of that had changed with the dawning of Marilee becoming a teenager, which just so happened to collide with Brooke’s diagnosis and the subtle cracks in her marriage to Neal.
“So be careful today,” she warned, thinking of the two girls who had gone missing. “Well, every day. Be careful every day.”
“God, Mom, Iam!”
“I’ll be here to pick you up. Right after school.”
Marilee rolled her eyes.
“And when you get home? We’re going to have a serious talk about your attitude,” Brooke said.
“Myattitude?”
“Uh-huh.” Brooke pulled onto a side street, where a parking space had opened up and leaves had piled near the curb. “It needs to improve. A lot.”
“Yeah right.” Marilee was out of her seat belt in a second. She started to close the door but thought better of it and managed a quick “Bye” before slamming the passenger door shut and jogging along the sidewalk toward the school.
Brooke watched for a moment, then pulled into the street and followed her daughter. In tattered jeans, a sloppy sweater, tennis shoes and her dark hair pulled into a ponytail, Marilee crossed the school lawn and wove through clumps of students.
Brooke nosed into a spot in front of the school. With her SUV idling, she waited until she saw her daughter actually walk through the glass doors and into the building. Safe for now.
Brooke pulled away from the curb and nosed into the flow of traffic.
Then, mentally girding her loins, she headed toward the dock where Gideon’s sailboat was moored.
He wanted a face-to-face confrontation?
Fine.
He was damn well going to get one.
CHAPTER 5
Gideon was waiting for her. Standing at the bow of his sailboat, he leaned over the rail to watch her approach. Flint-colored clouds gathered overhead. The wind was up, whipping Gideon’s open shirt away from his body to reveal his torso, one she knew all too well.
Sipping from a mug, he stared at her as she climbed out of her SUV and slammed the door shut.
