The Sweetheart Secret by Shirley Jump

Author:Shirley Jump
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-07-08T21:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

The straw that broke the camel’s back in Emma’s world popped up in her Facebook newsfeed like a weed in a rose garden. Roger Jennings is separated.

Her husband. No longer. If there was one evil about social media, it was its ability to put a public and undeniable stamp on things. Denial was harder to hold on to when the words were there in black and white.

Emma stared at the sentence for a good five minutes, but the words didn’t disappear. She stared at that singular sentence until her eyes blurred and reality smacked her hard. Her marriage was over. As over as a relationship could get.

Why had she thought otherwise? He had moved out over two months ago. They’d been physically separated all that time, and now he was simply making it official. But for some reason, until she’d seen the actual truth in print, Emma had retained this little nugget of hope that they could fix things, regain what they had lost. That that one night before he’d moved out meant there was still a foundation to fall back on.

By the end of the day, Emma had packed her bags, loaded her car, and called her mother. “Daisy wanted me to take a few pictures of the Hideaway, to use in a brochure. I’ll be back soon. Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, totally fine. If I need anything, Masie next door can come by if I need her. Willow is out of town again”—Clara let out a dramatic sigh at Willow’s constant whim indulging—“but Masie is nearby. Besides, I’m feeling better every day.”

Emma thought her mother’s voice sounded stronger, and her spirits were high. At her doctor appointment yesterday, she’d gotten a clean bill of health, as long as she didn’t push herself too hard and cause a recurrence. All good signs, which made it easier for Emma to justify leaving for a few days. A weekend, no more. Just long enough to stop obsessively sending the Facebook dagger a little deeper into Emma’s heart.

The whole drive down to the Hideaway, Emma debated detouring from her path and holing up in a hotel instead. But her mother would have asked questions, and as much as Emma was maintaining a fiction about her marriage, she wasn’t about to outright lie. A sin of omission, like failing to mention Roger had moved out, was far better than a sin of commission, and telling a bald-faced lie to her mother’s face.

A little after eleven on Monday morning, Emma pulled into the circular drive that fronted the Hideaway Inn. Weeds covered the gravel surface, and the once grand wraparound porch sagged in a frown, but to her, it still looked the same. She’d always loved the Hideaway, with its rustic charm and expansive views of the Gulf. For the last five years, those sweet memories had been intertwined with heartbreak, though. As much as Emma wanted to leap out of the car and embrace the Hideaway like an old friend, another part of her wanted to peel out of the driveway and never see the place again.

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