Page 77 of Our Little Secret

“You’re right,” Brooke finally admitted as they turned into their neighborhood. “I’m sorry. I waswaaayout of line. I got spooked. Because of Allison Carelli and”—she glanced at Neal to catch his reaction—“and I thought I saw someone watching the house lately.”

“What?” Neal said. “Who?”

“That’s it, I don’t know.”

“Someone was watching the house?” Marilee said, sniffing loudly. “And so that makes it okay for you to go all psycho and ruin my life?”

“I’m not ruining—”

“You are!” she argued. “I was so embarrassed! And Nick. Why do you hate him?”

“I don’t; we don’t hate him,” Brooke said.

Neal cut in. “Wait a sec. You said you think someone is watching the house?”

“I’ve seen someone, but I didn’t think it was a big deal until—”

“When?” Neal demanded. “Where did you see him?”

“I’m not even sure it’s a man, but it’s a feeling I’ve had. And I’ve seensomeonewho seems to be lurking, and tonight Leah said she’d seen him—er, a figure—too. Near the park. By the gate.”

“Across the street from the house?” Neal said. “There?” He pointed toward the hedgerow growing next to the fence surrounding the park.

“Yes.”

Marilee said, “So you and Aunt Leah see someone on the street and that makes you think I’m not at the dance?” She let out a disgusted breath. “Like that makes any sense!”

Neal turned into the driveway. “It freaked your mom out because of the missing girls.”

“You thought, what? That someone had kidnapped me or murdered me? Jesus, are you serious?” She was gobsmacked. “Mom, really, this issoooover the top!”

Neal said, “We tried to text and call you, but you didn’t respond.”

“I did!” she argued, and Brooke remembered the text with the cat emoji and how she hadn’t believed her daughter was really at the school.

“Well, later. We tried again.”

“But I wasn’t missing. I was at the dance!”

“Or,” Brooke said as Neal hit the garage door opener and the door started to rise, “more precisely, you weren’t at the dance but in the courtyard, making out with Nick.”

“Ooh. Gross! You keep saying I’m making out,” Marilee accused, unbuckling her seat belt.

“Because you were!” Brooke said as Neal drove into the garage and cut the engine. “And that only leads to trouble.”

“You should know!” Marilee flung open the door and sprang from the car.

“Wow,” Neal said, closing the garage door remotely.

Brooke couldn’t argue. “I guess I had that coming.” She and Neal had never hidden the fact that she was pregnant when they got married. Until now, it hadn’t been an issue.

“She’s right, you know,” Neal said as she heard the engine tick as it cooled. “You were acting as if you’d lost your mind.”

“If you say so,” she said, more harshly than she’d anticipated. She didn’t dare tell him the truth: that her lover—make thatex-lover—had been texting her, practically stalking her. The car’s interior dimmed as she recalled how he’d had the nerve to confront her and Neal and Marilee. How he appeared as a fake security guard after posing as a pizza deliveryman. Gideon was definitely stalking her and ramping up his intimidation. Phone calls and texts were one thing. Pretending to be a deliveryman or a damned security guard and cutting her off in traffic was another thing altogether. And what about the bracelet? Somehow he’d found a way into her house.

How far would he go?

Hadn’t he told her?