Free Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk Page B

hundred. I’ll see you at the office. And, Cotton Tail, make room for my desk.”

FIVE
     
     
     
     
    Night settled on Hidden Lake. In the darkness, Jenny sat on her front porch, staring out across the moonlit water. Most nights she found an inner peace sitting out here, a peace she couldn’t find anywhere else. In the quiet darkness, the lake possessed a serenity that was lost in the bright light of day. But tonight, no matter how hard she tried, the tranquillity she craved was nowhere to be found.
    The wind rustled through the trees, and she drew her legs up, wrapping the afghan her grandmother had made around her. The rocking chair swayed at her movement. She rested her chin on her bent knees, wondering not for the first time how her whole life could be turned upside down in one short day.
    Tomorrow, oh seven hundred. I’ll see you at the office. And, Cotton Tail, make room for my desk.
    She looked down at her left hand, to the diamond ring she still wore. Steven . . . But instead of the memories that usually filled her when she thought of him, tonight, she was full of questions. Why hadn’t he told her about that loan? But before she finished the thought, she knew the real question wasn’t why hadn’t he told her, it was why she hadn’t asked. She had access to all the books, to the business records and documents. There had been nothing preventing her from gaining full knowledge of Blue Sky’s financial obligations. So why hadn’t she?
    Because it had been easier to leave it all in Steven’s hands, to let him make the tough decisions. She had been an equal partner on paper but not in truth. And that reality was a hard pill to swallow. But Steven had seemed to prefer it that way. And so had she. While he’d been building Blue Sky, she’d been building their life. She had ideas for the business, but there were more important things, like dreaming of soon . Soon they’d be married. Soon they’d start a family. But soon had turned out to be as far away as the moon and just as unattainable.
    A car pulled off the main road and made its way down her driveway. Headlights arced across the yard, momentarily illuminating the still lake before the car parked and the lights were doused.
    On any other night, Jenny would have been surprised by a late-night visitor. She knew that by avoiding her mother’s calls ever since the scene in the restaurant, it was only a matter of time before someone from her family showed up. Her only question was which one of her family members it would be. Her bet was on Dad. The peacemaker.
    But it wasn’t her dad, Jenny noted a few moments later as her sister made her way up the stairs. The porch was dimly lit, but even in the faint light, Jenny could see that Anna was as impeccably dressed as always. Only her sister could work a fifteen-hour day at the hospital and still look like she’d just stepped out of the pages of a high fashion magazine. Only Anna and their mother.
    Anna’s high heels clicked against the wooden porch as she made her way toward Jenny.
    “Hey,” Jenny said, trying hard not to tense.
    Just for a day, she wondered what it would be like to be her sister, to be someone for whom everything came easily. Marriage. Career. Raising her son. All Anna had to do was want something, and it was hers.
    Her sister sat down in the rocking chair nearest Jenny. With only a small table and a couple of feet separating them, it was easy to see the perpetual look of disapproval and disappointment on Anna’s face. “Hello, Jenny.”
    “Are you hungry?” she asked quickly, before Anna could start firing questions at her. Jenny wanted to turn the conversation far away from the topic her sister had undoubtedly been sent here to discuss. “There’s some leftover dinner on the stove.”
    “You cooked?” Her sister didn’t bother to hide her surprise or her alarm.
    “Soup. From a can.”
    “Thank God,” Anna said with a solemnity that bordered on hysterical. “The last time I