Page 37 of Never Fall Again
“A little bit of everything. Landry’s new house, the new Favors layout, Landry’s pottery. They looked quite chummy.”
“I bet they did.” Mo grinned. “I bet Aunt Carol loves Landry. And Eliza.”
“Enough. Both of you.” Cal hadn’t meant to speak in the tone he’d used, but it wiped all the humor from his cousins’ expressions.He tried to speak calmly. “You know I can’t. You know why I can’t. Please don’t make this any harder on me.”
Mo dropped his head forward. Meredith bit down on her lip. “Sorry, Cal.”
They sat in silence for a solid minute before Meredith spoke up. “Do you remember that time we were grounded? I don’t even remember why. But we hadn’t seen each other in two weeks, so we snuck out and met in the barn?”
Cal remembered. They were eleven or twelve. “I think we were grounded because we got in trouble for laughing during church.”
“We totally disrupted Uncle John’s sermon.” Mo chuckled. “I don’t remember what we thought was so funny.”
“Did you notice that after they found us, they never tried to keep us from seeing each other. No matter how much trouble we were in, the punishment didn’t include Cal,” Meredith mused.
“I think they realized it was a lost cause. I heard Mom tell Dad one time that she’d given birth to three kids, but she might as well have had five. Chad and Connor are so much older than me, she was glad I had the two of you.” Cal looked away. “I guess I am too.”
“My point,” Meredith said in a tone that refused to give in to Cal’s teasing, “is that I’ve missed having you both around. I’m not happy about all the junk we’ve been through that’s brought us here, but I’m so glad to have you both around all the time.”
She stood. “And now that I’ve said that, I’m going to join the party. Catch up with some old friends. Make some new ones. If you two want to hide in here, that’s fine. I’ll find you later.”
When the sound of her footsteps faded, Mo pointed at Cal. “You should go too.”
“You coming?”
“Maybe later.”
Before Cal could move, feminine laughter filtered down the hall. “The bathroom’s right here, Eliza.” Mo closed his eyes asBronwyn’s voice reached them. “We’ll be down the hall in that room on the right. Come find us when you’re done.”
And then Landry and Bronwyn were standing in the doorframe. Both of them stared at Mo. Landry looked confused. Bronwyn looked like she’d seen a ghost.
Cal waded in. “Having a good time?”
“Yes!” Landry’s grin was infectious, and despite the tension in the room, Cal couldn’t stop himself from smiling back. “Your family is hilarious.”
“Are you sure you’ve been talking to my family?”
“I’m sure. They’ve been telling stories about you and Mo and Meredith when you were kids.”
Mo groaned. “Lies. All lies.”
Landry leaned against the doorframe. “You don’t even know what they said.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Mo doubled down. “All lies.”
“Some of it was good.” Landry spoke in a cajoling voice.
“That confirms it. You can’t believe anything they say about us. The bad stuff wasn’t nearly as bad. The good stuff wasn’t nearly as good.”
“So the story of how the three of you decided to hike to the top of the mountain but didn’t tell anyone?” Landry gave Mo and Cal a questioning look.
“That’s not entirely true.” Bronwyn spoke.
“It isn’t?” Landry frowned. “You didn’t say anything while they were telling the tale.”
Bronwyn held up a hand. “I just got back in. I’m not going to incriminate myself and get kicked out.”
“So what part wasn’t true?”