No Place Like You Read online

  “There was one tape though,” Faith said. “A song called ‘Air and Breath’?”

  The one they’d been recording yesterday. “Yeah, that’s what we’ve been working on this week with Eli. It’s shaping up.”

  Faith nodded toward the computer monitor where, now that she looked, Leah could see the file name. “I thought so. Interesting bridge though.” She pressed play and Leah heard Zach’s voice say, “Want to fool around?”

  Her gut clenched and her skin went cold as though Faith had dumped ice water on her heat. Holy crap. No. She’d turned off the recording last night. She was sure of it. Had she hit the wrong button? Left the recording going? For how long? She slapped pause on the keyboard without thinking. “How much of that did you listen to?” She dropped her bag and leaned against the desk, feeling ill.

  “I hit pause right about when you did,” Faith said. “So, you’re sleeping with my brother?” She sounded kind of incredulous.

  “Er—” Leah wasn’t sure there was a good way to answer that question.

  Faith shook her head. “So that’s a yes? What were you thinking?”

  That your brother is smoking hot? No. That would be the dumb thing to say in this situation. “It’s … complicated,” Leah said.

  “You know, he’s leaving, right? He’s not going to stick around.”

  “Oh yeah, that part is crystal,” Leah said. “That’s the only reason I’m sleeping with him.”

  Faith blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “I’m not clueless, Faith. I know Zach.”

  “Apparently so. Better than I thought.” Those Harper eyes, so like her brother’s, narrowed. “You know, I always thought you had a crush on Zach when we were in high school.”

  “I kind of did,” Leah said. Understatement of the year.

  “Is that why it’s complicated?”

  Leah hesitated. Faith was her best friend. They didn’t have many secrets they didn’t share. But she’d kept this one a long time. And maybe it was time to tell her best friend. So she could keep her from doing the same stupid thing all over again. If she told Faith this was just a fling, then Faith could make sure she didn’t lose her head. Maybe she could say she was just using Zach to finally have a rebound fling.

  Which was also true. Just not totally true.

  “That’s not the only part that’s complicated.”

  “Why?” Faith asked. “Forget that I’m his sister.” One side of her mouth quirked. “I’ll try to do the same—that might make the rest of this conversation easier.”

  Leah smiled. This was why she loved Faith. Because she was always there, no matter what. Always had been there. She had a lot of Grey in her but it was well tempered with a lot of Lou. “Okay, deal.” She took a breath. If she was busted, she might as well come clean about everything. “Well, it’s like this. I slept with Zach at my eighteenth birthday party.”

  Faith looked startled. Then enlightened. “Is that where you disappeared to that night? I always thought you’d snuck off with Kyle, and were too embarrassed to tell me you’d caved.”

  Leah snorted. “No. I would have had to drink a lot more champagne that night to do that.”

  “How much champagne did you have to drink?” Faith asked curiously.

  “Two glasses,” Leah said. “Zach isn’t a saint but he isn’t the kind of guy who sleeps with women who are drunk.”

  “I didn’t think he was the kind of guy who’d hit on my best friend either.”

  “He’s not. I hit on him.”

  “You sure it was only two glasses of champagne?” Faith said.

  “Yes. I can plead temporary insanity, but not drunkenness.” Leah shrugged at her. “You were right about the crush. And I figured he was leaving and it was worth a shot. Otherwise I was just going to spend my life wondering. Haven’t you ever had a crush like that? Wild and mad and entirely a bad idea? One that destroys your common sense?”

  “Not until I met Caleb,” Faith said, with a smile.

  “That was love, not a crush,” Leah objected. “You just didn’t realize it at first. Anyway, I took a chance. Zach obliged. Then he left. And yes, it hurt at the time but I was eighteen. I got over it.”

  “And then you married Joey.”

  “Joey was years later,” Leah said. “I’m not blaming Joey on Zach. Come to think of it though, there was a lot of champagne the night I first got together with Joey too.”

  “Okay, in the future we’re finding you a different drink,” Faith said.

  Leah laughed. “Sure.”

  “So eighteen-year-old Leah had a crush on my brother. One she acted on. That still doesn’t explain what twenty-eight-year-old Leah is doing compounding her mistake.”

  “I’m not sure I can explain it—though if you weren’t his sister you would appreciate that your brother is pretty hot…”

  Faith made a face that suggested this was not an appealing concept.

  “Hey, you said you were going to pretend you weren’t his sister,” Leah said. “And you started this whole conversation.”

  “Ugh. Okay,” Faith flapped a hand at Leah, looking pained. “Go on. Zach is hot.”

  “And, well, we get along. We always did. So I figured, he’s here and he’s hot and he’s leaving, so why not enjoy myself?” She shrugged. “It’s not like this island has been brimming with single men beating down my door since the divorce.”

  That was the problem with growing up in a small community. You had pretty much worked out which of the local guys you had any chemistry with by the end of high school and then you weeded out the rest by your early twenties if you had any sense. Probably explained why people tended to marry young if they stuck around. After that, well, maybe you had to be like Mina and hope some hot strangers arrived in town.

  Faith’s solution to this problem had been to sleep with guys off-island. But she got to travel a lot more than Leah did for Harper Inc. There were always tourists, but again, that was kind of tricky. All that dancing around trying to figure out if a guy was single—really single, not just island-holiday single, because she drew a hard line at sleeping with married men—and if he liked you, and then getting awkward first-night sex over with to get to the good stuff all within a week or two at most was a level of sexual wizardry that she just didn’t think she was up to any more.

  Zach might be a tourist for all intents and purposes, but the rest of it was already established. She knew him. Knew they were good together. And knew he was leaving.

  Faith was chewing a nail. So, she was worried.

  Leah patted Faith’s knee. “Trust me, I’m doing this with eyes wide open. Zach and I have chemistry, but it’s not the lasting kind.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I know so,” Leah said. “So don’t worry. I won’t tell Zach you snooped around his tapes. And I’ll erase the offending portion. We’ll keep things discreet.”

  Faith lifted an eyebrow. “Last time I checked, having sex in the recording booth probably didn’t fall under the category of discreet.”

  “You’re ruining all my rock’n’roll fantasies,” Leah said. “And I’m sure these walls have plenty of stories to tell.”

  “Yeah but most of them involve my dad or his best friends. So I don’t want to think about them. Just like I don’t want to think about Zach.”

  “All right. I’ll save all the good gossip for Ivy.” Leah grinned.

  “Thanks,” Faith said drily. “And now, I think we can declare this subject closed. Preferably forever.”

  “Do you want me to tell Zach that you know?” Leah asked. Part of her wanted Faith to say no. Telling Zach she’d accidentally made a sex tape of them wasn’t going to be fun. But by the time he found out, the tape would be dead and buried.

  “Do you think he’d want me to know?” Faith asked.

  She could lie and say that Zach had been the one who’d wanted to keep it quiet. That would be easier. Faith wouldn’t be surprised. But Faith was her best friend. And Zach wasn’t the bad g
uy in this situation. “He wanted to tell you from the start. Didn’t want to sneak around you.”

  “And you did?”

  “I didn’t want you to get mad at him when he left,” Leah said.

  “You really thought you could keep it a secret for a few months? Here on Lansing?” Faith shook her head.

  “I hoped. Call it temporary madness. I hoped you’d be distracted by CloudFest and wedding planning. Guess I shot myself in the foot.” She hesitated. “I’d still prefer it didn’t become everyone’s business.”

  “Don’t want your folks to know?”

  Leah spread her hands. “Not sure they’d understand.”

  “Okay. I’m not going to tell anyone.” Faith said. “Do your worst.” She paused. “What about Mina?”

  Leah shrugged. “I’ll leave that one to Zach. So don’t you tell her until he can.”

  Faith nodded. “Trust me, I intend to think about this as little as possible.”

  “Good,” Leah said. “So how about we change the subject and I find you Nessa’s recordings?”

  “Deal,” Faith said. “And while we’re on the subject of wedding planning—or somewhere near the vicinity of the subject—I had a call from Elise Ng’s salon last night.”

  “About your dress?” Leah asked. She and Ivy were Faith’s bridesmaids. Mina was going to be maid of honor. The four of them had had a few crazy days in New York in March visiting so many bridal salons and designers that Leah had lost count.

  “Yes. Apparently Elise can come to Lansing next weekend for a fitting. Which is good because my schedule is getting too jammed for me to get back to New York before CloudFest.”

  “You’re the one who wanted to have a summer wedding,” Leah said. “So your pain is self-inflicted.”

  Faith shrugged. “Maybe. But one of the functions bridesmaids fulfill is to support me in my hours of need. So, one girls’ afternoon at my place next Saturday for dress fittings.” Faith smiled goofily. “You three need fittings too, after all.”

  “I’ll be there,” Leah said and tried to think about weddings rather than the conversation she was going to have with Zach.

  chapter twelve

  “So, busted, huh?” Zach said, looking at Leah across the kitchen table at the guesthouse. She’d arrived on his doorstep mid-afternoon bearing pizza for what she claimed could be a late lunch. Then she’d told him about Faith and the tape at the studio.

  She pushed her piece of pizza around on her plate. She’d hardly eaten anything yet. Was she upset that Faith knew? Or about the way she’d found out? Ignoring the fact that it was his sister who’d heard them—that part was bad—he thought the way the recording had happened was funny. But he couldn’t tell yet how Leah felt, so he kept that to himself.

  “Yes. Sorry,” she said.

  “It was bound to happen sooner or later.” After all, he’d told her that from the beginning. No point her feeling guilty about the inevitable. “How did Faith take it?” Zach asked.

  “Surprisingly well,” Leah said.

  He wondered if the answer would be different if he’d been the one talking to Faith. After all, Faith wasn’t going to yell at Leah. But he hadn’t wanted to keep it from his sisters in the first place, so he wasn’t sorry the news was out, even if Faith did read him the riot act. Maybe. He refilled Leah’s water glass and studied her a moment, still trying to figure out what she was thinking. “So what happens now?”

  She stabbed at the pizza some more but still didn’t eat any of it. “What do you mean?”

  “Is Faith the only one we’re going to tell?” Faith would keep a secret if Leah asked her to. Well, she might tell Caleb, perhaps, but he wasn’t going to tell the whole island.

  “Faith said if you want Mina to know, you have to tell her,” Leah said.

  What did that mean? “Do you want Mina to know?”

  A shrug.

  “Can I get something more definite? We need to be on the same page here.”

  “I don’t know.” She didn’t look at him. Okay, definitely not happy.

  “Well, for what it’s worth, I think Faith has proved my point. You can’t keep secrets in a place this size. Maybe we should just accept the inevitable.” He’d understood why she’d wanted to try to keep it a secret. He just hadn’t thought it would work. But maybe Leah had? Question was, how upset was she now that it turned out he’d been right about that? Upset enough to call the whole thing off? His gut clenched as his whole body tensed at that thought. Having Leah in his bed was something he wasn’t anywhere near ready to give up.

  “Easy for you to say,” she said, frowning. “You’re not the one who has to live here afterward.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Just that you’re not the one getting all the pitying looks. Can’t keep a husband. Can’t keep a boyfriend.” Leah pushed back from the table.

  “Hey,” he said. “Talk to me.” He didn’t like seeing her like this—tense and quiet. His Leah was laughter and movement and guts and brilliance. Seeing her shut down was almost … painful. He needed her to be okay.

  Leah shook her head. “It’s just that it’s easier for you. I’m the one who’ll have to deal with my parents and everyone else.”

  “Your folks are cool,” Zach said. He hoped he was right. Sal Santelli was like an uncle to him, along with the Blacklight guys. He’d always been around, ready to give advice or to crack bad jokes. But Zach had never really paid much attention to how he was with Leah and her boyfriends.

  “Less cool when you scratch the surface,” Leah said. “At least when it comes to their kids. Sal tries to hide it most of the time but he’s still got a big chunk of traditional Italian dad in there somewhere.”

  “You have been married,” Zach pointed out. “It’s not like he can think you’re a virgin.”

  Leah winced. “Maybe not, but I’m sure he’d rather not think about my love life at all. He took the Joey thing pretty hard. I don’t want to disappoint him again.”

  “You can’t live your life twisting yourself into shapes to please other people.”

  “Maybe you can’t,” she said, voice sharp. “You’ve proven that much. It’s not that simple for the rest of us.”

  O-kay. Wrong approach. He held up his hands. “I don’t want to fight with you. If you don’t want me to tell Mina, I won’t.”

  “Then I’m the reason you’re lying to your sister. No.” Leah sighed. “Maybe you’re right. Tell her.”

  “And everyone else?”

  “Let’s play that one by ear.” She managed a smile.

  At least that wasn’t “Hell, no.” An improvement. Maybe. “Okay.” He nodded toward the table. “How about you sit back down and actually eat something. Tell me about the rest of your day.” He sat, hoping she’d follow suit.

  She did. And he was happy to see her reach for the slice and actually take a bite. Then another. He watched as she ate the whole piece.

  “Your day?” he prompted when she’d finished.

  “Not much to tell. I set up the studio. Did some admin.” She pulled the pizza box over and put another slice on her plate. “I checked the schedule. I think we can probably squeeze in some time Wednesday night. The same on Thursday. Maybe Friday afternoon. There’s a slot on Saturday afternoon as well, but I’m busy. Maybe you can ask Eli, keep playing around with his songs.”

  She sounded more normal now. Good. “What’s on Saturday?”

  “Girl bonding time. Faith’s having a dress fitting. Bridesmaids too. So I kind of have to be there.” She smiled again, and this time it was an all-the-way smile. He smiled back.

  “Definitely girl time.” Faith was getting married. It still seemed kind of not real to him. She’d always said she wasn’t the marrying kind. Yet, here she was, throwing the dice. And this time, unlike when Mina had gotten married, he was going to be around for a lot of the hoopla that went into the lead-up to a wedding.

  “Caleb doing anything during your girlfest?” he asked. H
e thought Eli had said something about sailing with Billy on Saturday. Maybe he should try and hang out with his future brother-in-law.

  “Faith didn’t say,” Leah said. “But if I had to guess, I’d say he’ll likely be hanging out with Will and Stefan. Maybe you should tag along. Do some future-brother-in-law bonding.”

  “That’s what I was thinking,” he said. He had some ground to make up with Caleb, who was definitely on Faith’s side when it came to Faith versus Zach. And the same went for Will Fraser. Sure, Mina had never been as mad at Zach as Faith had been, but things were still cool. He’d known Adam for a few years by the time he and Mina had gotten hitched. And he still missed the guy—Adam had had a very dry sense of humor and a love of surf as well as the boats he’d built that had made him easy to get along with. Besides, it couldn’t hurt to restore the gender balance in the Harper world a little. Brothers-in-law could only be a good thing. “Manly activities coming right up,” he said. “Though hanging out with you would be more fun.”

  “We can do that after my girl stuff and your manly activities,” she pointed out. “Especially if you tell Mina between now and then. I won’t even have to sneak over here.”

  * * *

  When the doorbell rang, Faith was still hidden behind the temporary screen that the designer had erected in the family room on her arrival. Leah thought the whole screen thing was kind of overkill—after all, anyone in the room was there because Faith had asked them to be—but who was she to argue with a woman who commanded tens of thousands of dollars for her dresses? Maybe adding a bit of theater to the experience was part of how she justified her prices.

  “I’ll get it,” Leah said. She figured her job as bridesmaid was to do whatever Faith wanted her to do to make things run smoothly. Just like Faith had done for Leah’s wedding.