The silence that followed my question was charged, and I looked over at my brother to see his face a wall of concern. Khiley shook her head at him, looking so much like a blonde version of her mother, Aunt Cam, that it was sometimes eery.
“It’s just Edie,” Stephen said, tugging at Khiley’s hand, pulling her fingers into his.
Stephen and Khiley had been born a few months apart and had learned to talk and walk together, had played together, gone to school together, and then fallen in love together. Or maybe they’d never not been in love. You rarely saw one without the other, as if they were more twins than our almost-cousins, Ginny and Ty.
I knocked Stephen on the shoulder, squeezed Khiley’s arm, and then hugged Marina. “These two giving you a headache?” I asked Marina.
Marina’s hair was mostly gray now. She didn’t bother dyeing it because she said it rarely lasted, but her eyes were still warm in her wrinkled face. She was the epitome of a Southern grandmother. All sweet tea, cookies, and friendly ears to listen.
“When’s Garrett getting into town?” Marina asked, rubbing my belly.
Khiley watched Marina’s hands on my stomach for a second and then took off out of the room like a frog who’d been startled by a cat. I frowned at Stephen. “What’s wrong with ‘Ley?”
He shook his head. I could tell he wanted to spill his guts, but instead, he turned to Marina and ratted me out. “Edie’s been spewing some bullshit about Garrett having to be in Scotland with his grandmother.”
I wasn’t surprised that Stephen thought it was bullshit. In the four years since Garrett and I had started dating, he’d never once gone to Scotland for the holidays. So, regardless of what I’d said, my family was having a hard time swallowing that he’d suddenly disappear in our first official year of marriage with our baby due in a matter of days.
I turned away, grabbing one of Marina’s famous chocolate crinkles off the cooling rack, so I wouldn’t have to face any of them as I continued my lie. “His grandmother hasn’t been feeling well. She’s his only family. How could he not go?”
“But you’re about to burst,” Stephen said, just as Khiley walked back into the room. Her face crumpled like she was going to cry, and she shot back down the hallway to the bathroom.
“Christ,” Stephen said, rubbing his hand over his face in a way that was so like our dad that it made me smile. Then, he took off after her.
I sat on the stool he’d vacated.
“So want to tell me the real reason Garrett isn’t here?” Marina asked.
I ignored her question. “What’s going on with the lovebirds?” I asked.
She wagged her finger at me. “You’re avoiding my question.”
“Margery’s been sick. She needed him, and she’s never once asked him to come at the holidays, so he knew it had to be pretty bad,” I told her. None of it was a lie. Margery had been sick, and she had asked, but with her, it was more of a demand. More of a test.
I understood why Garrett felt the need for her approval. Having a mom who abandoned you left those kinds of holes. Even after more years of love than abandonment, my psyche still felt it at times. It was one of the things that had drawn us together. The matching set of scars dug into us by our real mothers.
Marina eyed me, waiting for the truth I was aching to share.
The front door burst open, leaving the moment behind as Ty and Ginny walked in, bickering. They shared more than just their dark, wavy hair and gold and green mosaic eyes. They shared words and moods in that crazy way known only to twins, but when they disagreed on something, it was like water and fire—completely opposite. Just like their parents, Mia and Derek, seemed like opposites until you got to know them and saw how similar their hearts were.
“I smell chocolate crinkles,” Ty said, kissing his grandmother on the cheek and then reaching for four cookies.
I watched as Marina took in Ty with a flash of heartache, which she quickly hid with a warm smile. I couldn’t begin to imagine how hard it was to watch her grandson when he was so much like the son she’d lost. Looking at the pictures on the wall of Jake and then seeing Ty was like looking at the same person. With Ty’s god-like football status mimicking Jake’s, the similarities were even more pronounced.
“Geez, pig, leave some for the rest of us,” Ginny said, grabbing one of the cookies from his hands.
“There are, like, six dozen over there. Get your own,” Ty said, stealing the cookie back.
Marina smacked Ty on the shoulder. “Don’t steal from your sister.”
He looked at Marina, mouth dropping. “You saw she stole from me first, right?”
“But she’s your sister and younger.”
“By, like, all of five minutes,” Ty groused.
Ginny grabbed a cookie off the rack and sat on the barstool next to me. “Where’s Khiley and Stephen? I saw the truck in the driveway.”
“Solving some unknown crisis,” I said.
“Wait. The lovebirds have a crisis? How is that even possible?” Ty asked.
“Just because you think you’re the only one with issues, doesn’t mean that’s true, Tiras,” Ginny snapped at him.
He groaned. “Don’t use that name.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “It is your name.”
“Because Mom read it in some dumbass book,” Ty groaned for the millionth time in his life about being named after a fantasy hero in an Amy Harmon novel.
“Don’t swear,” Marina said. It was the only thing she really ever scolded us about.
“Sorry, Grams,” Ty said, but he didn’t look sorry. Ty rarely looked sorry about anything. His ego was about as big as his throws. Hundreds of yards long. “But you have to admit, Stephley rarely have problems. They’re like the golden children of the family.”
“Don’t use that stupid ‘ship name. You know they hate it as much as you hate Tiras,” Ginny defended the absent couple.
Khiley and Stephen made it back into the room. Khiley’s gray eyes looked like she’d been crying, and Stephen’s were full of sadness and regret. When I tried to catch his gaze, he purposefully avoided me.
“If we’re the golden children, what does that make you?” Stephen snorted. “Some platinum god? Because I think you’re the only one the town named a park after.”
“Everyone, please, can we focus? We only have a few minutes. We need to finalize the details for the surprise party.”
“Mayson texted me. He said he’s almost here.” Khiley gave her update on her brother’s location in a monotone voice so unlike her it only emphasized what we all saw: something was terribly wrong. Khiley and Stephen weren’t known for having issues, especially not ones that would make the sassy, nonstop Khiley burst into tears. I itched to get my brother alone to make him spill his beans but was afraid it would backfire on me.
For now, I was going to have to let it all be. We’d each have to keep our secrets until they spilled out on the front lawn like the garbage on trash day.