Tell Me Lies by Jennifer Crusie Read Free Book Online

mistake now.
    Treva was still marveling. “This is amazing. I didn’t think you could keep a secret from me for twenty minutes, let alone twenty years. And your mother never found out?”
    “No, thank God.” Maddie sat up straighter, galvanized by the thought. “I never told anybody. Can you imagine what would have happened if that got out? I never told anybody.”
    “Yeah, but he didn’t, either,” Treva said. “That must have taken some self-control.”
    “I never thought about that,” Maddie said, surprised. “That was pretty sweet of him.” She tried to remember what she had thought about. “I worried myself sick about it for a couple of weeks, but nobody said anything, and I got my period, and there was a lot going on. It was near the end of senior year, and right after it happened you and Howie got married and there was that flap, and then there was graduation, and everything happened at once. And then I left for college, and the next year he graduated and left town forever, and I sort of forgot until he turned up today. He said he wanted to talk to Brent.”
    “Brent? What about?”
    Maddie blinked at her. “You know, I didn’t ask. I didn’t care.” She drew a deep breath and asked the question she’d been dreading. “Treva, you’ve got to tell me. Does everybody know about this already? Am I the last to find out? Because I don’t think I can—”
    Em stuck her head in through the back door, and Maddie cracked her face into a smile. “Hi, baby.”
    “Hi.” Em came in and leaned on the table, and Maddie could see the tension in her face. “Aunt Treva, can I come stay at your house tonight? Mel and I need to compare our school lists so we can share some things and save you money.”
    “How thrifty of you,” Treva told her without taking her eyes off Maddie. “Of course you can stay.”
    “Cool.” Em slipped out the door again, and they heard her yell, “Hey, Mel!”
    “Are you okay with that?” Maddie said. “Were you going out tonight? I don’t want to dump her on you.”
    “Forget that,” Treva said. “You need time alone to scream at Brent. Three can sit them if I can’t. They’re the least of our problems.”
    Maddie slumped back. “Em’s the most of mine. I’m having nightmares about what happens when she finds out what everybody knows.”
    “I don’t know what everybody knows. I only know what I know, and to answer your question, I didn’t know about this.” Treva put her hand over Maddie’s. “Forget Em for a minute. What do you want? If Em weren’t in the picture, what would you want?”
    “I think I’d leave him,” Maddie said. “Except then there’s my mother, having to face the town with the first Martindale divorce. And his parents coming after me. And Brent isn’t going to take a divorce sitting down, he fought like hell the last time. And—”
    Treva tightened her hand. “Will you forget everybody else for a minute? What do you want?”
    Maddie blinked at her. “I don’t know.” She tried to push away the guilt of not thinking about everybody else first. “I think I’d like to be on my own. In fact, I think I’d love it. Just doing what I want, not worrying about what the neighbors think—that would be wonderful.” She sat back, and Treva’s hand slipped away. “You know my naked-in-front-of-the-bank fantasy? I have another one, about being alone on a desert island with a lot of chocolate and books. Just me and Esther Price Hand-dipped Nuts and Caramels and the complete works of everybody. No neighbors.”
    “I have that one, too,” Treva said. “It used to be a lot of chocolate and Harrison Ford. And then one day I thought, Why is Harrison here? If he wasn’t, I wouldn’t have to do these damn sit-ups.”
    “I’d just like the aloneness of it,” Maddie said. “Nobody to keep happy. Nobody to feel guilty about. Just me forever.”
    “Forever?” Treva lifted an eyebrow. “Two weeks, maybe, but then I’d want my family back.