Page 158 of Vows We Never Made

Usually, she’s laid-back, happy to let the world revolve around her as long as she’s comfortable in it.

Not now. There’s something wild in her eyes as she jabs a finger at me.

“Ethan, what letter?”

“One Gramps wrote you years ago?” I shake my head. “It turned up stuffed in the old pirate ship. Had an envelope with it, like you read it and sent it back to him.”

“Oh, Jesus!” Mom almost sobs the word. “Why cannothingwith my father just stay buried? Do we have to jettison his ashes into the sun, too?”

“Mom—” Margot starts.

“Didn’t he do enough when he drove Ethan away and almost got him killed overseas?” Mom demands, angrily twisting her water bottle in her hand, fury vibrating through her. “Does he have to ruin this too? We’ve only just gotten you back!”

I keep staring long after she storms away, bewildered.

Goddammit, what is wrong with this family?

Margot chews her bottom lip, her expression pensive.

“Okay, now wehaveto know. Whatever this is, it’s big.”

I almost don’t care.

The secrets, the constant tensions, the boiling grudges, it gets tiresome.

Even here, it’s like the walls are drenched with them. Gramps might be dead and gone, but his ghost isn’t.

I catch Margot’s arm as she starts to leave the room.

“Hey!” She smacks my hand like a kitten.

“Hold up. Don’t push her. You won’t get anything useful out of Mom right now.”

“Ethan, I’m not stupid. I know,” she says scornfully, wrenching her arm free. “I’m not going to ask her again. No one wants another meltdown. I’ll try Dad later.”

The last of my drink hits the back of my throat, so potent I almost gag.

What the fuck ever.

If Margot wants answers to glaring mysteries that might be better off buried, she can knock herself out.

19

ALL AT ONCE (HATTIE)

Ismooth down the skirt of my dress.

We’re going out to a lovely French restaurant tonight—one of the best on this side of the Atlantic—and I’ve decided sleek and elegant white was the right choice for today.

You know it’s great food when you’re willing to risk a catastrophic stain.

“Good day with your dusty books?” Ethan asks as we pull out of the driveway.

“Amazing! It felt like one long maze of surprises. Good thing I set the reminder on my phone to head back or I’d still be there.” I can’t hide my enthusiasm and I love that he doesn’t ask me to.

This Ethan doesn’t laugh at me for geeking out, he just teases. He doesn’t look down on me because my heart and soul are bound to reading, and reading forever.

It’s refreshing to be with a man who accepts me for who I am instead of cruelly brushing off my ‘unserious’ obsession.