Chapter 12: Guess What

Lacey came down the stairs one step at a time.

She was smiling again, and her braid hung over one shoulder, and she looked tired and a little hurt.

"Meg," she said gently. "Honey. What are you doing here in a towel?"

Meg took a step back against the counter.

"She's telling the truth," I said.

"About what, Nor?"

"The chat called Four. The text you sent Wes from my phone. The mail you collected in the lobby."

"That's three things."

"Then answer one."

Her eyes moved over my face, and then over Wes's.

"I don't know what Meg told you. She's been very emotional lately, you've seen her." She turned a little toward the stairs. "Josh, honey?"

Josh stood at the top, in a T-shirt, with sleep creases on his cheek.

He came down slowly.

He looked at Meg's wet hair, and at my face, and at Wes with his arms folded against the stove.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," Lacey said. "A bad night. Everyone's tired."

"Meg," I said. "Show him."

Meg's hand shook as she held out her phone.

Josh took it.

He read the screen for a long time.

I watched his lips move over the line at the bottom, the date, the little kissing face.

N stays ours.

"I don't understand," Josh said.

"Handled," Wes said. "She means me. Nine years ago, she texted me from Nora's phone, and then she hid my letters. That's why I never came back here."

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Canceled My Ticket, I Canceled Them from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.