A Secret Between Friends: A New Zealand Sexy Beach Romance (Treats to Tempt You Book 6) by Serenity Woods Page B

“We made them for a joke one night last year. We’d had a few to drink and we weren’t dating anyone, and we were feeling sorry for ourselves. I said we should come up with a list of things we could look forward to doing—things that would make us happy.” She gave a small, wry laugh.
    Of course, it had been her idea. Niall could picture his sister staring up at her, eyes wide, nodding enthusiastically at this new and wonderful scheme.
    He watched Genie read briefly through the lists. “What do they say?”
    She didn’t reply. Then, to his surprise, she stood, picked up the sweatpants and her cane, and limped off to the spare bedroom.
    He stared after her for moment. Was she upset? She’d never cry in front of him. What had got to her—was it the memory of making the lists with Ciara, or was it something in particular on the lists?
    Picking them up, he separated them and examined them. They were handwritten, and it would have been obvious which one belonged to which girl even if they hadn’t put their names at the top. His sister’s handwriting was small and neat, the tails of the “y”s and “g”s forming tiny loops she’d occasionally colored in. Genie’s writing was larger and rounder with distinctive flourishes. A graphologist would probably say it denoted a bubbly personality. Niall smiled.
    He looked at Genie’s list first. Instead of being written in list form, it consisted of bubbles drawn all over the page at different angles as the ideas had hit her. Most of it was what he’d expected—physical goals such as bungee jumping in Queenstown, sky-diving, taking skiing lessons, and leaping off the Sky Tower in Auckland. A few things surprised him—learning Italian was one, as she’d never shown much interest in languages when she was younger, and flower arranging, which made him laugh, as he couldn’t imagine her standing still for long enough to arrange a vase of flowers. But most of them summed her up perfectly, illustrating her desire for adventure and activity, demonstrating her restless spirit.
    Turning to his sister’s list, he stretched out along the settee to peruse it. The list also exemplified Ciara’s personality on paper. The items weren’t numbered and didn’t seem to be in any particular order, but they were in list form from the top to the bottom of the page. Crochet squares for a blanket for charity. Visit the Tower of London. Take a boat trip down the Nile. Read the top hundred most popular books. Learn more about classical music. Take cooking lessons. Learn how to embroider.
    Some of them were more active—cycle from Cape Reinga to Invercargill, learn how to serve better at tennis, take up yoga—but they didn’t have the risk element that Genie’s had.
    A couple of them made him smile wistfully—dance with a man in Central Park, find a guy to kiss on New Year’s Eve. He put down the list and stared up at the ceiling. She’d never be able to fulfil any of these now. Would never kiss a guy on New Year’s Eve again.
    Was that what had upset Genie? The realization that these wishes would forever remain unfulfilled?
    He sat up—there was still no sign of her. Leaving the lists on the coffee table, he got up and walked across the room to the bedroom. The door was slightly ajar, but he knocked anyway.
    “Come in.”
    He pushed it open. She stood on the opposite side of the room, staring out across the bay. She’d switched on the bedside light, and the window showed her reflection rather than the glittering lights of Paihia in the distance. She’d changed from her jeans into her sweatpants and she’d brushed her hair, which curled in a twist across one shoulder. She still held the brush, as if she’d got halfway through before being distracted. Her cane lay on the bed.
    He leaned against the doorjamb. “You okay?”
    She glanced over and cleared her throat. “Sorry. I was just thinking…about how she’ll never be able to do any of those things…” Her voice tailed