Madly Yours novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: Family Lunch

In the background, behind my mother's breathing, I heard Lexi laugh.

Then a man's voice, polite and interested.

"And when did you realize your sister had taken your place?"

My mother's voice dropped to a whisper.

"She wants a lunch. Tomorrow at one. All of us, the reporter too. She says it's a fresh start."

"Baby, please come. Please don't make this worse."

The line went dead.

Leland was watching me.

"Term one," he said. "You choose where and when."

I picked up the pen.

I wrote: One o'clock. My mother's dining room.

He read it and nodded.

Then he tapped term five with one finger.

I'm in the room.

The Sheridan house sat in St. Francis Wood behind a lawn my mother had paid a man to keep perfect for twelve years.

My stepfather was in Portland on a buying trip.

I think Lexi planned it that way.

She opened the door herself.

Platinum ponytail, cropped white jacket, a beauty mark by her lip, neon sneakers.

She looked straight past me at Leland.

He'd come in his darkest suit, grey at the mouth, leaning hard on the cane.

"Leland," she breathed. "You look terrible. Oh, I'm so sorry."

She hugged him.

He stood in it.

The reporter was already at the dining table with his phone face up, recording.

He was young and eager and had a little notebook too.

My mother came out of the kitchen with a salad bowl and couldn't meet my eyes.

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