Colton ran back into the house, all gangling limbs and loud feet. When had he gotten that tall? It hadn’t been that long since Anne had been over to Brooke’s, had it?
Hal adjusted Kaisley in his arms and cleared his throat. “Something happened between you and Mom. What was it?”
This was not a conversation she wanted to have. Not one bit. “It’s—well. It’s complicated.”
“Which means you fought,” Brooke translated. “So why can’t you make up? What could possibly be so awful that Sadiewould run over here?” She sighed, hands on her hips. “More importantly, why the hell amIhere? You’re grown women, this is your own business to figure out, and I still have to pick up a few things before I go home and make dinner.”
“Agreed entirely,” Anne said with immense relief. “So why don’t you take the kids and—”
“Why does my mother have a dark spot on her neck?” Hal blurted out, then paled, looking for all the world like he regretted asking.
Anne’s stomach plummeted to a depth somewhere below the earth’s crust.
“Shewhat?” Brooke looked at Hal, clearly astonished by this new information, and then at Anne. “What kind of dark spot? Did she get hurt or something? What the hell’s goingon?”
Somehow, Anne managed to refrain from putting her face in her hands. Why should anything be easy, ever? Why should she be able to keep anything private? “Let’s just go inside the house and have a civilized conversation without any yelling, please.”
As they walked into Hal and Talisha’s pristine living room, noisy footsteps thundered above. Then, inevitably, a loud bang and crash, followed by a wail.
Anne didn’t miss those days. Not one bit.
Brooke sighed heavily. “Can you hold Kaisley while I go make sure no one’s dying?” she asked Hal. “Obviously, I’ll pay for whatever my children just destroyed. I’m so sorry.”
Hal patted Kaisley’s back soothingly. It was clear he relished the idea of getting in a little baby practice before his own kid arrived. “Kais and I are doing just fine,” he said softly and then sat down in one of the oversized chairs. “She’s not going anywhere.”
“Be good for Uncle Hal,” Brooke told the sleeping baby, then bolted toward the stairs.
UncleHal? That was new.
Anne took the chair opposite Hal and crossed one leg over the other. With each passing second, they were rapidly tunneling toward a conversation she really, really didn’t want to have.
Hal wasted no time. “So that dark spot wasn’t there the last time I saw Mom, which was a few days ago. At first I thought it was an ink stain, but it’s way too purple for that. And Mom’s ink stains usually end up on her hands and arms. I went through all the options I could come up with, and I just kept ending up at the same place. The same completely impossible place.” His expression begged Anne for a simple explanation.
“Not impossible,” Anne said quietly. Self-consciousness made her itch. “Hal, I don’t know how to say this—look, I’m going to tell you. It’s just so hard to—”
“Son of mine, that spot is a hickey,” a voice said from behind them. “Which Anne gave me. Sexually.”
They both turned around to see Sadie in the archway to the living room.
Her brown hair was wild and loose, spitting in most directions. She looked exhausted, her shoulders slumping. The dark circles under her eyes were sharp against her pallid skin.
She was so, so beautiful.
“Sexually?” The pitch scaled to heights Hal probably hadn’t reached since puberty. He looked at Anne again and then at his mother. “I was right? It was—that?”
Anne nodded.
Hal made a shocked, inelegant noise that fell somewhere between a snort and a honk. “Whoa. That’s, uh… Holy shit.”
“?Holy shit' is right.” Sadie strode into the living room, hands in her skirt pockets, and stood next to Anne’s chair. “The holiest of shits. We’ve reached fully beatified dung-heap levels. So. Would you like to tell me what’s flashing through that precious keppie of yours?”
“What do I even say? Tell me what I’m supposed to say. Please. I mean it.”
“There’s no script.” Light apprehension laced Sadie’s voice. “Say what you feel.”
“It’s—fuck, Mom. Exactly how long has this been going on? Why didn’t you tell me? You always tell me everything that’s happening.”
“This is a very recent development.” Sadie took the chair next to Anne. “Technically measured in hours. Anne? Should I tell him? Or would you prefer to do it?”