Read Online When We Fall by Emily Liebert - Free Book Online Page A

their slander were those not present. Belong or beware.
    â€œAs if we won’t drink it.” Missy chortled, surveying Charlotte from head to toe. “Cute jeans.”
    â€œThanks.” Charlotte smiled and noted the compliment, which very well may have been veiled disapproval. “Let’s move into the great room. Janna set up a gorgeous spread. Wine?”
    â€œObv.” Sabrina rolled her eyes again and they both followed Charlotte. Missy had once commented that no one’s eyeballs got a better workout than Sabrina’s—up and down, round and round—they revolved more often than the door at a Bergdorf Goodman shoe blowout.
    â€œSo where’s the new girl?” Missy settled into a white linen club chair by the granite-rimmed gas fireplace, crossing her toned, albeit stubby legs before reaching for a carrot stick. No matter how hard Missy worked at it, she’d never be stick skinny like Sabrina or most of the other women in Wincourt. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. Every morning afterdropping her daughter, Miley, at school, she headed directly to the sports club for an hour-long spin class, followed by another hour of free weights with her personal trainer. She shunned gluten, sugar, wheat, and dairy—basically anything with more calories than a stalk of celery. Her only vice, which she insisted she couldn’t sacrifice, was alcohol. “It helps me forget how hungry I am,” she maintained. Charlotte could understand. She too had tried countless diets to no avail, always returning to the weight her body seemed most comfortable at, which—as it happened—was thirteen pounds of comfort she could do without.
    She could also appreciate Missy’s unwillingness to forego her nightly glass of wine, or two. Or three. There’d been a time when Charlotte barely drank anything, save for when she and Charlie were celebrating a milestone. And she’d often wondered why so many of her parents’ friends, including her own father, “needed” their nightly scotch, whisky, gin, vodka, whatever their pleasure, to take the edge off. What edge? That was until she and Charlie had started bickering, then fighting, and finally parenting—while bickering and fighting. Nothing tasted better, then or now, than a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc at six p.m.—no earlier and certainly no later.
    â€œShe should be here any minute,” Charlotte replied, just as the doorbell rang again. “Speak of the devil.” She started to walk toward the foyer, until she heard Janna’s muffled voice and then Allison’s.
    â€œI’m so sorry I’m late.” Allison appeared, smiling reticently, her dewy complexion and light gray eyes glisteningunder one of Charlotte’s thoughtfully aimed recessed spotlights.
    â€œNot at all. Come join us.” Charlotte ushered Allison toward them, kissing her on the cheek and half hugging her awkwardly. “Allison, this is Sabrina. And this is Missy. Sabrina is Gabriella’s mom and Missy is Miley’s mom.”
    â€œHi.” Allison waved. “I guess that would make me Logan’s mom.” Sabrina and Missy nodded knowingly.
    Charlotte had told them Allison’s story. Part of her had wanted to keep it private out of respect for Allison and Logan, but she’d been unable to hold it in for more than a day. She’d tried to impart the information in the empathetic manner she’d rehearsed. Unfortunately, Sabrina had rushed it out of her, citing an imminent waxing appointment, which she’d subsequently canceled in order to feast on the fodder. Within seconds, Sabrina had conferenced in Missy and the two of them were haranguing Charlotte for not telling them the moment she’d found out. Then the line of questioning had commenced.
How did he die? Did he drown? Did they find his body? Did she know she was pregnant? Did he know she was pregnant? Did he leave her any