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“You know how Monica is. She is legal to a fault. That woman isn’t ever going to prison, including for tax fraud. I am pretty sure she pays more taxes than we do. More than she has to.”

“Again, that’s what happens when you crawl up from the bottom. You’re not letting anyone or anything pry you away from the money you’ve earned. In the long term, anyway. Monica is one of the smartest women we know. She has impeccable business acumen.” Caitlyn paused her steps to laugh. “Forgive me, but I trust her more than Damon. He’s had a couple of bombs since the pandemic.”

“How was he to know that lockdown was coming the moment he opened an elite massage parlor? You cannot recover from that.”

“Didn’t it open literally on the day of the governor-mandated lockdown?”

“He does not like to talk about it.”

“Most men don’t like to talk about their failures, yes.”

Usually, Jane would laugh, but she was still noticeably stoic.

“What’s up?” Caitlyn prompted.

Jane took a few seconds to respond. “What do you mean?”

“You’re being kinda cagey and not your usual self. Everything all right over there?”

“God, can’t get anything past you, huh?”

Caitlyn practiced not tripping over her feet as she was distracted from her walk up a rocky driveway. “Personal or professional?”

“Suppose my niece is pretty personal.”

For a moment, Caitlyn forgot the scent of the cedar trees bursting with autumn’s life around her. Maybe it was olfactory fatigue, or maybe she had held her breath for that long. “What happened to Cecelia? Is she okay?”

“According to her, life is over. But yes, she is fine. No need to go to the doctor.”

“Oh, dear. How serious it is?”

“Let’s say she is grounded for lying to her old Aunt Jane.”

“Grounded? You?” Caitlyn slapped her hand against her chest to suppress her startled guffaw. “I’m shocked you even knew of the concept!”

“Excuse me. My mother attempted to ground me multiple times when I was her age. It simply did not work due to the nature of my home and upbringing.”

“What did she lie about?”

“She asked me last night if she could go to a friend’s Halloween horror movie party and I told her yes. Turned out she was… well, she was with a boy. When I found out, I lost it. But I did the right thing, right? Taking her home and grounding her?”

It took Caitlyn a second to catch up with what Jane was telling her.Cece lied about going out with a boy?That was certainly cause for concern. It was one thing to lie about going to a friend’s house and instead taking one’s self out for a romp at the mall – something Caitlyn did a couple of times when she was in high school. “If you had proof she lied…”

“Oh, I had proof, Cait. I saw the boy’s pecker two inches away from our Cece’s hand.”

That was one way to cause temporary blindness – for them both! “I’m sorry,what?”

Jane proceeded to tell her the important parts of the whole story, from Ceceila lying, to seeing her and the boy at the bistro, and following them to the address Cece had given in case there was an emergency. Caitlyn didn’t know if she considered Jane lucky or Ceceliastupidfor giving the real address and not a fake one!That’s lying to your parents 101, Cece. Come on!

“They were having sex?” The lake house was within sight, but Caitlyn hung back, not wanting either Christine or Rebecca to see her having a heated conversation on the phone.

“They certainly were not playing a rousing game of cribbage, that’s for sure.”

“Jesus!”

“What’s worse is that this bloke is eighteen, Cait. Still in Winchester Academy, but eighteen! That iswaytoo old for her, right?”

Caitlyn had to do the real math since she was so used to thinking of Cecelia as sixteen when she was still fifteen. “I do not like that, no. Who was it? I thought her date to homecoming was in her class.”