Secrets by Leanne Davis

entire life. It’s my home.”
    “Even in high school you didn’t seem to fit here. You seemed like the type who would graduate and never look back.”
    She rolled her eyes. “There again, you thinking you know anything about me.”
    “I don’t think I’m that wrong.”
    “Yeah, well, why do I still live here if you’re so right about me?”
    He frowned, arms crossed, he tapped a finger on his bicep. “Boyfriend?”
    “No. No boyfriend. Not the reason I came back. I came back because I love it here. Simple as that.”
    He shook his head. Who loved it in Seaclusion? It rained three hundred days a year. It was small and forgotten. There was nothing to do and little to see. A single street of shops and businesses, none over three stories, made up the “town.” The only buildings of any heights were the hotels the tourists stayed in. The only interesting thing that ever happened was usually caused by one of the tourists. It wasn’t the place he planned on spending the rest of his life. He was only here because of Vanessa and Angie. There was no leaving them, so here he was. If not for them, he would be long gone. And his life would be far different. “Okay, put the claws away. I don’t know you, I just know of you. I concede I may have judged you a bit harshly.”
    “A bit? Why do you judge me at all?”
    He glanced at her sharply. Why did he? She’d done nothing but be kind to Angie, and in fact, help him out. Maybe that was why. She’d noticed things about Angie he was supposed to notice, and he resented her ease with Angie, when it took all of his coping skills getting her to even grunt at him.
    “I guess old habits.”
    “But why? I haven’t done anything to you.”
    “I might have gotten my hackles up when you didn’t have a damn clue who I was.”
    “Excuse me for not noticing you ten years ago. I mean, really? That’s what you’re going to use to judge me about?”
    “Not anymore,” he said briskly. Realizing he was nothing, not even a shadow to her subconscious, was bruising on the ego.
    “Thank you,” she said her tone soft. She turned and leaned back against the wall to wait some more.
    The air between them was taut with something, what was it? It wasn’t but a few minutes before the door opened but it felt like an hour.
    Scott listened to John, having trouble assimilating what he was saying about Angie. She was six months along, the in-room ultrasound showed a healthy baby. The estimated due date was August twenty-fourth, just three months away. And it was a girl. He bit his lip, suppressing a groan. Of course, it was far enough along to determine the baby’s sex, but knowing that, made the baby seem far more real, than not knowing. A girl. He shut his eyes and breathed in deeply, his little girl was having her own little girl. What the hell was he supposed to do with that?

Chapter Five
    They left the clinic. He glanced at Angie, she was smiling. He blinked in surprise. Why did she look so happy?
    “Did you hear Dr. Tyler? He says I’ve done a good job so far taking care of the baby. But now that I have some pre-natal care I have to do a little better. He said it’s because of me the baby is so healthy.”
    Scott grasped his wayward niece in a bear hug. She was freakishly happy over any kind of approval from any authority figure. It made Scott flinch. It stemmed from Vanessa not telling Angie things she needed to hear and from her picking at Angie’s already fragile self-esteem. But still, for Angie to be so proud of how she’d hidden her pregnancy made him furious at himself and Vanessa.
    “We must talk, Angie.”
    Angie nodded. “I know. But Cindy asked me to meet her and Clarissa at the pizza place. I mean, that was so stressful in there. I just want to forget it for a while. Please, can’t I? We’ll talk later. After I get home.”
    How could Angie go get pre-natal advice one hour, and go hang out with friends the next? It was as if the most life-altering news of having a