Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend (25 page)

have included my name in the text.

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“Nobody,” I said quickly, turning away from the doorway and

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reaching for my phone.

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“And it says the text is from Sophie,” the girl continued, her

brow furrowed.

“No it didn’t,” I said quickly, hoping I didn’t sound as pan-

icked as I felt.

“Yes it did,” she replied, jutting her chin out at me.

“You don’t know how to read,” I reminded her. “That’s who it’s

to
. Me. Sophie.
From
my friend Gemma.”

“
No,
” the twin said stubbornly, but I grabbed the phone away

from her before she could prove her (correct) point.

But as I retrieved the phone, I let go of the string, and the

twin made a break for it. I cursed under my breath and ran after

her, stopping short when I heard a loud crash and the sound of

glass shattering, followed by silence. I put the phone in my pocket

and ran toward where the crash had come from, my heart sink-

ing as I realized it was Bruce’s brag room.

I stepped into the silent room to see the girls staring up at me

with identical guilty expressions. There was sand tracked all over

the room and handprints on the glass cases. But most distress-

ing was Bruce’s Spotlight award, lying on the ground, the glass

globe broken cleanly off.

“What . . .” I managed. I could feel my panic start to rise, in

addition to my frustration. What was
wrong
with these kids?

Were they child sociopaths, like I’d seen on
Child Sociopaths
?

“Sorry,” they both muttered, and they actually did look sorry,

and ashamed of themselves. I took a breath, preparing to give

them a lecture anyway, when my phone beeped. I realized that it

was probably Sophie again, and I chastised myself for being a

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terrible best friend. I’d never called her back that morning like I

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promised, or responded to her texts. But when I looked at the

screen, I saw the message was from Hallie, telling me that she

was on her way and would be there in a few minutes.

I let out a sigh of relief that the people down on Quonset

Beach could probably hear. “This is what’s going to happen,” I

said in a tone that didn’t allow for any other suggestions. “You’re

going to leave this room very carefully and not step on the bro-

ken glass. And then we’re going to get your things and wait out-

side.
Now
.” Maybe they heard in my tone that I was done messing

around, because they complied and didn’t even protest or try to

steal any more candy.

I was able to mask the fact that Bruce’s award had broken by

resting the globe on top of the base. It balanced, and looked fi ne

from a distance, but it wasn’t a permanent fi x, by any means. I

knew I’d have to either tell Bruce his pride and joy had been bro-

ken on my watch, or fi gure out a way to repair it without him

fi nding out, but I fi gured I would just sort that out later, when

hopefully some brilliant solution would come to mind.

After I’d hidden the damage done to Bruce’s award, it took a

few minutes to gather up the twins’ things while making sure

neither of them went rogue again, but we were packed up and

waiting out in front of the house before Hallie arrived, giving me

a moment to try and do some damage control.

“So,” I said as casually as I could muster, “I don’t really want

to tell Hallie about how you two misbehaved.” Since Hallie saw

these girls every day, they obviously didn’t act like this around her.

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And I didn’t want to make it seem like I was totally incompetent

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around small children, or make her feel bad that she’d asked me

to do something that had turned out horribly.

“She won’t care,” one of them said immediately, and with

great assurance.

“Bell!” the other hissed at her, glaring. She was clearly trying

to keep her sister from getting into any more trouble by lying.

And I now realized they’d given me the clues as to which was

which.

“I think she will care,” I said, and both twins immediately

looked down at the gravel of the driveway, avoiding eye contact.

“But,” I said, dangling the word like a promise, “maybe I won’t

tell her.”

The twin I now knew was Olivia, the one who’d been with me

in the kitchen, looked up at me with suspicion. “Really?”

“Oh, sure,” I said in what I hoped was a blithe manner. “And

you don’t have to mention that thing with the text I got.” Olivia

frowned and I added quickly, “I don’t want Hallie to know I was

texting.”

“But you weren’t,” Olivia said. “You just
got
a text. From

Sophie—”

“Look, there’s Hallie!” I said loudly, cutting her off. Hallie’s

Jeep pulled into the driveway, and she killed the engine and hur-

ried toward us.

“I’m sorry that took so long,” she said when she reached us.

She stopped and did a double take at my appearance, reconfi rm-

ing what I already knew— I really, really had to change before

Josh picked me up.

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“It was fi ne,” I lied. “Is everything okay?”

“I think it will be,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough. Did

they behave for you?”

“Yep!” I said, breaking eye contact with her and brushing

some stray rosemary off my hands. Sure enough, when I looked

back up at her, Hallie’s expression was skeptical. After a mo-

ment, though, this disappeared, and she smiled at me. I realized

that she probably knew just what a nightmare these girls could

be, but hadn’t wanted to tell me before I agreed to sit for them.

And it seemed like we were both just going to pretend that they

had been angels.

“Go get in the car,” Hallie said, nudging the twins in the di-

rection of her Jeep. “I’ll be there in a moment.” Proving that they

were willing to listen to Hallie and not me, the twins turned and

ran to the Jeep without a word of protest. “Thanks again,” she

said to me. “I seriously owe you.”

“You really don’t,” I said unthinkingly. I only realized what I’d

said when I noticed Hallie still staring at me, brow slightly fur-

rowed. “Because you lent me the bathing suit,” I said, thinking

fast. “So we’re even now.”

“Even so,” she said. “If there’s ever anything . . .”

A strange wheezing sound came from down the driveway,

and I looked up to see, to my horror, Bruce staggering up it,

wearing his new- looking workout gear, breathing hard, clearly

having decided today would be a good day to go actually running,

and not just for bagels.

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“We’re fi ne!” I said brightly, trying to usher Hallie in the di-

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rection of her car, so that I could prevent the two of them from

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interacting. Worlds were potentially about to collide, and I didn’t

like the look of it at all. Everything could be ruined, right here in

the driveway. “Totally even. I’ll see you around, okay?”

But Hallie was still looking at Bruce, alarmed, like maybe he

was some very out- of- shape Hamptons burglar. “Do you know

him?”

“Sure,” I said, as I tried to herd her toward the Jeep. “Family

friend. This is his house, actually. We’re staying with him for the

summer.”

“Oh,” said Hallie, and despite my best efforts to get her to

leave before I would be forced to make the introductions, she was

still looking at Bruce, frowning, like she was trying to place him.

“So I’ll talk to you soon!” I said, stepping between Bruce and

Hallie so she wouldn’t be able to get a good look at him and pos-

sibly remember where she knew him from. “Bye now!”

“Bye,” Hallie said. She fi nally looked away from Bruce, then

gave me a quick hug, not seeming to care that she might get

marjoram all over her shirt. “Thanks again,” she said. “You’re the

best.”

“No worries,” I said, trying to sound light, speaking around

the unexpected lump that had just formed in my throat.

Hallie got into her car, waving at me as she headed down the

driveway. Bruce reached me as she pulled out of sight, bending

double, resting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his

breath.

“Hey,” I said, relieved beyond mea sure that I’d been able to

avoid an encounter between the two of them.

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“Hegggggeh,” Bruce wheezed.

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“So you went running without me?” I asked, and Bruce

straightened up, wiping away beads of sweat from his very red

face.

“It was Rosie,” he muttered, in between large gasps of air.

“Apparently she bet your father that I couldn’t make it from

downtown to the house without calling for help.”

“Well, looks like you won!” I tried to sound as enthusiastic as

possible, since it actually looked like Bruce might have won a

visit to his cardiologist.

“Yeah,” he muttered, walking past me, limping slightly. He

turned back, hand on the doorknob. “Did I recognize the girl who

was here before?”

“I don’t know,” I said, grateful that Bruce had phrased the

question this way, since I had no idea if he recognized Hallie or

not. I didn’t think I needed to tell him that there was a very good

reason he might have recognized her. Bruce pulled open the door,

and I suddenly had a vision of him seeing the house in the state

the twins had left it in. I said, all in a rush, “So I was babysitting

earlier, and the house might be a little . . . disarrayed. But I’ll

clean everything up. I promise.” I thought about adding that

there was no reason to look at his award, that all was fi ne with it,

but had a feeling that might fuel his suspicions, and so just gave

him my best trustworthy smile.

Bruce just stared at me for a moment, and it looked like he

was contemplating getting upset, but then he must have decided

he valued his breath more for respiring than lecturing, and he

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nodded and limped inside.

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I waited just a moment, and when I didn’t hear any scream-

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ing about what a disaster the house had become, I knew it was

safe to follow. I had just pulled the door open when I heard the

sound of tires on gravel.

I pulled out my phone to check the time, my heart sinking

when I realized that it was a minute before seven. And, sure

enough, when I turned around, there was Josh, stepping out of a

truck, carry ing a small bouquet of fl owers, coming to pick me up.

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I looked down at myself in horror and ran my hands through

my hair in an attempt to get it to look less terrible. But even as I

did this, I knew it would be no use. And I couldn’t just fl ee, at this

point. Josh had seen me, and I would look utterly bizarre— even

more than I already did— if I turned and ran into the house.

“Hi,” he said, coming closer, his expression becoming more

confused as his eyes fl icked down to my outfi t and then back up

to my face. “You look . . . um . . .”

“Hey, Josh,” I said, giving him a big smile, deciding at the last

minute to try and brazen my way through this. Even as it was

happening, I was already regretting the decision, but didn’t think

I could turn back now. “What’s up?”

“Um . . .” he said. He looked at my outfi t again, and the cor-

ners of his mouth twitched violently. “Not a whole lot,” he said,

sounding like he was trying not to laugh. “What’s . . . up with you?”

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“Oh, you know,” I said with a shrug, trying not to notice that

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as I did so, some cinnamon fell off my elbow. “Nothing much.”

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“So.” He raised an eyebrow at me and I realized that we were

in somewhat of a standoff, both of us pretending I was wearing

something normal, each waiting for the other one to crack and