I scrolled down to Walker’s name and waited for the call to connect.
“Hey, man. You’ve been on my list to call today.”
I sat back in my chair. “Oh, yeah, how come?”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you need to have another conversation with your sister.”
“Shit. What did she do now?”
Juliette had texted and said that she was going to stay in town for another few days so we could have lunch. I’d thought there was a chance she might be coming to terms with the changes I had made.
“She had Anna cornered on the street this morning, spewing some pretty ugly shit.”
“This morning?”
“Yup. Right outside the bakery when I was picking up breakfast.”
I took a long, steadying breath. I’d just laid a heavy load on Anna’s shoulders. She likely had forgotten all about that encounter with my sister. I glanced at my watch. Ten to noon. She’d had three hours to call and tell me. Hell, she could’ve just sent a text to give me a heads-up and say that we’d talk about it at home, but she hadn’t. She’d made the conscious choice to keep it from me. Again. I could hear Anna promising that she would let me know if my sister approached her. But, apparently, that promise didn’t mean much of anything to her at all.
I saton the back patio watching the sun lower in the sky and took a pull from my beer. I’d heard from Anna but only to tell me that she’d be a little bit late coming home. Not a single word about her run-in with Juliette.
The knowledge made my skin feel too tight for my body. This person I’d fallen for, opened every locked door to, was still hiding things from me. It made me wonder if she wasn’t sharing other things.
The back door opened, and footsteps sounded on the pavers. “Hey. I thought we were having wine. Changed your mind?”
I looked at Anna as she slid into the chair next to mine. God, she was beautiful. “Have you?”
“Have I what?”
“Changed your mind.”
“About wine?”
There wasn’t even a flicker of regret in her expression. That killed most of all. “I thought we were going with total honesty. Even when it was inconvenient.”
Anna’s brow furrowed into little wrinkles. “What are you talking about?”
“My sister.”
She was quiet for a moment, her fingers curving around the wide-planked arms of the Adirondack chair. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“You promised me you’d tell me if you had a run-in with her. Are our promises not a big deal to you, either?”
“Of course, they are. But we’ve been through a lot, and we finally caught a break with the ruling yesterday. I just wanted us to have a chance to breathe without some sort of drama raining down on our heads.”
“You don’t get to make that decision for me. Juliette is my sister, and I want to know if she’s making trouble for you. And if you’re not honest with me, it makes me question everything.”
Anna looked as if I’d slapped her. “So, I’m exactly what she accused me of being because I didn’t call you immediately? Because I wanted a night for just you and me to forget all the horrible stuff that’s going on right now?”
I pushed to my feet and went to her. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Anna stood and moved out of my grasp. “No? Is that what you think? That I’m a liar. A con artist. That I’m taking advantage of you?”
“Of course not. But I don’t want to question whether I can trust you to keep your word.”
Her eyes glistened in the amber light of the setting sun. “I’m not a liar because I didn’t report to you immediately.”
I snapped my mouth closed. This was getting us nowhere. “I think I need to take a walk and cool off.”
