Read Online Folly Cove by Holly Robinson - Free Book Online Page A

wine anyway, finishing it in a rapid series of swallows that made her throat burn. “Wow. That’s a rough merlot,” she’d said, not wanting him to continue.
    He did anyway, clasping his hands and rubbing his thumb over his plain gold wedding ring. Jake’s bangs were too long. She wanted to yell at him to stop hiding behind his hair, the way she often scolded Kennedy.
    But Laura had remained silent despite instinctively knowing that the conversation was headed straight off the cliff of domesticity and into the frigid black waters of troubled marriages. She had also known that she would forgive Jake for whatever he’d done. Laura couldn’t imagine life without him. She had loved him since college. They’d helped raise each other into adulthood.
    Jake told her that when he’d returned from the airport at twoo’clock in the morning, the lights were off downstairs, but there was a light on in the guest room. “I didn’t want to scare Anne, so I called her name as soon as I went upstairs.”
    Laura had to stop herself from bolting from the room. She didn’t want to hear any more. “I’m sure she was expecting you. Anne knew when you were coming home. I even sent her an e-mail with your flight information.”
    â€œI know. You’re always so thoughtful.” Jake’s voice broke. “That’s why this is so hard.”
    â€œJesus, Jake,” Laura said. “Just tell me! Did you sleep with my sister? Is that it?” She had to tuck her hands beneath her thighs; they were trembling. She was trembling all over, as if she had the flu.
    â€œNo,” Jake said, “but almost.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Laura cried out. “
Almost?
What is this,
high school
? Are you talking first base here? Second?
Third?
With my own
sister
?”
    He began to reach out to touch her knee, but her expression must have stopped him. Jake folded his hands in his lap instead. “The door to the guest room was open a little,” he said, “so I poked my head in to say good night. Anne told me to come in and tell her about the trip.”
    â€œAll right,” Laura said, staring at Jake’s hands now. “Then what?”
    â€œAnne said she was glad I was home, because she’d been thinking about me. Fantasizing, she said.”
    â€œShe
said
that?” Laura’s gaze flew up to his face.
    Jake nodded. “I thought I’d misheard her. But that’s what she said. So I asked why, and she got out of bed and came over to me.” His voice trailed off. “Oh, God, Laura. This is rough. I’m so
ashamed
. And I don’t want you to hate your sister.”
    â€œTell me,” she said, but she could guess. She’d seen Anne in action. Whatever her little sister wanted, she usually got.
    Especially if what she wanted was a man. Even in high school, Anne had managed to sleep with Sebastian Martinson, who was already at Yale when Anne was only a junior. Laura had caught Anne with Sebastian at a party one night, a tangle of limbs in a car, hersister’s burnished hair on fire beneath a streetlamp, her legs milky white around Sebastian’s waist.
    â€œTell me,” Laura repeated, though she wanted to cover her ears.
    â€œThere’s no easy way to say this, honey,” Jake said. “Anne was naked, but she got out of bed anyway. I was too shocked to move. She put her arms around my neck and started kissing me, pressing herself against me. I think she must have been drinking.” He winced. “I swear that’s all that happened. I got out of there as fast as I could. Your own sister! I am so, so sorry.”
    Laura had stroked her husband’s bowed head, shushing him, relieved that his confession had ended here and not where her own mind had gone. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “It’s okay.
We’re
okay. Anne has always been wild. Any other man would