Page 85 of Deadly Little Scandals

Another trip over the ledge, in the dark.

And now this.Charlotte let her body lean against his. He knew how she felt about him. He had to. But this was the first hint she’d gotten that he could see it, too.

What the two of them could be, together.

“Want to know a secret?” Sterling asked her, nodding toward the ledge, where Liv sat side by side with the townie girl. “I brought her here to make you jealous.”

“Want to know a secret?” Charlotte murmured back. “It didn’t work.”

Shortly thereafter, Liv volunteered to drive the local girl home.

here were days when I thought Sadie-Grace was the living, breathing embodiment of an exclamation mark. Today was not one of them.

“I’m tired,” she told me, practically wilting in the driver’s seat as we made our way back to the belly of the beast. “Audie isadorable, but he stopped sleeping. At night. Did you know babies can do that? They can stop sleeping. At night.”

All I could think in response was that Audubon Charles Richard Waters might not be the first baby that Lillian’s twin sister had given someone, in exchange for money.

Don’t get ahead of yourself. All you know is that Ana spent some time in a small town near the lake, after which she was baby-free and able to travel the world. You know that Ana says she gave the baby up.

You don’t know anything other than that.

That wasn’t quite accurate, I realized as Sadie-Grace pulled the car off onto the main road in Two Arrows.I also know that Ana has a history of asking people for money.My mom had adapted to life on a budget, more or less. I wasn’t sure that Ana had.

And if she did come to Two Arrows, if she left with no baby and money to travel…

I didn’t let myself finish the thought.

“Am I allowed to ask where Lily went?” Sadie-Grace asked me.

I was getting ready to tell her that I didn’t know, and then I saw Lily’s car. I wondered if she’d planned, when she left, to come here, to meet Ellen.

I wondered if Lily had even realized this was where she was coming.

This time, there was no welcoming committee. No guns. Sadie-Grace and I stood on the front porch of the house where we’d met Ellen—the house where Ellen’s granddaughter Beth had given birth to baby Audie.

The bell was cracked and broken, so I lifted my hand to knock.

The girl who answered the door couldn’t have been older than eleven or so. Her hair was tangled, her ponytail lopsided. The dirt on her knees made me think that she’d worked for every tangle and knocked the ponytail off center on purpose.

“We’re looking for…” I was going to say that we were looking for Ellen, but before I could get that out, I caught sight of Lily. She was standing just outside what I assumed was the kitchen. After a second or two, she turned toward us.

If she was surprised to see me there, she didn’t show it.

“You followed me?” There was a flicker of discernible emotion in her eyes, like I’d told her she didn’t get to leave me, and she’d responded,As of right now, I get to do whatever the hell I want.

“I had no idea you’d be here,” I said.

Lily didn’t enlighten me as to why she’d come. Instead, she turned back toward the kitchen. “You have guests,” she called.

I heard a harrumph. The sound of a chair scraping against linoleum floor came next, and a few seconds later, my grandmother’s twin stepped into the hallway behind Lily.

“Funny,” she said, in a tone that suggested it really wasn’t. “I don’t remember inviting you.” She swiveled her head pointedly toward Lily. “Any of you.”

“Thank you,” Lily told her, sounding more like herself than she had in an age. “For the conversation.”

What conversation?

Ellen didn’t reply—but she didn’t harrumph again, either.