* * *

“Where were you really?” I asked licking the frothy, pink foam off my upper lip. Marti’s eyes were daggers, her face frozen in a frown again. I wished I hadn’t said anything.

  “At the store.” She said coolly.

  “But where else?” I persisted, my worry for her over-powering common sense. “I know you Marti, and I know when you’re hiding something from me. And you are.”

  “I’m not hiding anything.” She snapped.

   “Then tell me where you were.” I said, feeling myself slip back into dangerous territory.

   “Oh Meg, why can’t you ever understand that what you don’t know won’t hurt you?” She sighed and stood, swinging recklessly out of the tree. I shivered watching her drop effortlessly onto the grass below. I set my glass down and inched my way over to the rope, sliding cautiously down after her.

  “Because, what I don’t know could hurt you.”

  “It’s nothing, alright? You wouldn’t get it and I don’t want to tell you.”

I was hurt.

  “Fine then. You don’t have to.” I fidgeted with a strand of hair and stared pitifully out at the water.

  Marti rolled her eyes. “Oh stop it, Miss Drama Queen.” She smiled and hugged me with such a silly smile that I had to laugh.

  “Come on. I want to finish that chapter I was on. Sebastian still hasn’t found Cosette, and the evil Vladimir is still threatening to make her marry him.”

I laughed again, wondering how Marti could stand to read such trash.

I walked inside and took a shower. When I came out Marti wasn’t on the porch. Her book lay open on the shays lounge where she’d left it.

  “Uncle Gerry, where’s Marti?” I called, but he’d already left for his weekly meeting up at the capitol. I walked down to the water. Marti was sitting on the dock, her legs hanging over the edge into the water. She wasn’t reading. She was on her phone.

That same voice, deep down inside of me, told me not to make a sound. Logic and conscience nagged at me to say something, but before I could decide which to listen to, I’d heard half the conversation. And that half was so intriguing that it was impossible not to hear the other half.

 
  “Don’t tell him ok?” Marti said urgently. “He’s not going to understand and neither will she. Look I just want to try it. Who knows? We could have fun.” She paused and laughed at whatever the speaker on the other end of the line said. “Oh don’t be a spoil sport.”

  I shook my head. Don’t do it, whoever you are!

How many times had those words gotten me into trouble? Too many. And now this other person was facing Marti’s charm for himself. I had few doubts that it would get him into trouble too.

What was the favor she was asking, and who was she talking to? My mind was awhirl with possible candidates. Someone from Madelene’s last night? Or Madelene herself perhaps?

I wished I knew.