Read Online Where Secrets Lie by Donna Marie Lanheady - Free Book Online

cupboard, which she emptied into a large bowl.
    “ Can you grab the drinks?” she asked.
    They went out to the patio and got comfortable on the lounge chairs. There was a small table in between them for their food and drinks.
    “ Where are the girls?” Jack asked. They usually played in the backyard while he was there.
    “ Sara went to the pool with the Wilson girls, and Katie’s over at Amber’s.”
    Most of their friends lived in the neighborhood, and Jack was familiar with their families.
    “ So are you ready to hear the latest?” Jack asked. He had a knack for finding out the inner workings of their neighbors’ lives, and he always filled Lee in.
    “ Of course.”
    “ There are rumblings about the nuns,” he said. Late last winter three nuns moved into the house next to Jack’s.
    “ Rumblings, about what?”
    “ It seems some people are intrigued by their lifestyle.”
    “ What’s so intriguing about being a nun?”
    Jack laughed. “I thought the same thing, but that just goes to show our total lack of imagination.”
    Lee took a sip of her margarita. “I have a feeling this is going to be interesting.”
    “ You and I look at nuns and think devotion to God, life of service to others, that kind of thing, right?”
    “ Right.”
    “ Other people look at them and wonder what skeletons are in their closet.”
    “ What? Why would anyone go there?”
    Jack dipped a chip into the guacamole. “Don’t ask me, I’m just the messenger.”
    “ How do you find this stuff out anyway? I talk to our neighbors too. No one ever says anything like this to me.”
    “ I just ask them what’s new.”
    “ That’s it?”
    “ Yep.”
    “ You don’t ask anything else?”
    “ No,” Jack laughed. “After that, I usually just stand there and nod.”
    “ Well I can’t imagine anything sinister about those nuns. Sister Mona isn’t even here this summer, is she?”
    Mona’s mother had a stroke the year before and had to move in with Mona’s older sister. She and her husband wanted to take their children to the northeast during their summer break to visit various members of her husband’s family, so Mona was spending several weeks at their house with her mother.
    “ I don’t think so, but it’s not her everyone is buzzing about.”
    “ It’s Sister Abby and Sister Clare?”
    “ Yep.”
    “ They’re two of the sweetest women I’ve ever met.” Lee ate some guacamole.
    “ Some people wonder if they aren’t sweet on each other.”
    “ You don’t mean…”
    “ Yep,” Jack said and took a drink.
    “ But they’re nuns.”
    “ Does that matter? And come to think of it, I don’t think they are nuns. I think they’re sisters.”
    “ What’s the difference?” Lee asked.
    “ Nuns are cloistered. Sisters aren’t.”
    “ But you call either one Sister so and so?”
    “ Yes, I think that’s how it works. I could be wrong though.”
    “ Well, either way they’re celibate.”
    “ True.”
    “ You know,” Lee said, “I’ve always wondered why that is. Other religions allow their clergy to marry. Why can’t they devote their life to God and still have sex?”
    “ You got me there.”
    “ I still don’t see why anyone would think there’s something going on.”
    “ They’ve been roommates for over ten years, and no one ever sees one without the other. This summer they’re traveling together in the Canadian mountains.”
    “ They’re probably just close friends.”
    “ Probably.”
    “ Well, I hope that’s all it is,” Lee said.
    “ Why? Would it bother you if they were lesbians?”
    “ Certainly not, but it would matter to their church. I’d hate to see them get into any trouble. They really are very sweet women.”
    Jack finished his drink. “You ready for a refill?”
    “ Sure, if you are.”
    Jack went into the kitchen, came out with the pitcher, and refilled their glasses.
    “ I saw some children’s books on the counter,” he said. “Did you make a trip to the library