As Kate and I trudged up the hill toward the house, she said, “How did Megan explain your presence at the rehearsal dinner last night? Has she changed her mind about telling her parents who you really are?”

“No. She introduced me as a new friend she’d met at the health club.”

Kate laughed. “It’s a good thing they don’t know you like I do.”

“Hey. Since Jeff and I have been together, we run a couple miles two or three times a week, so I’m more fit than you think.” Jeff Kline, whose cologne still clung to my pillow this morning, works Houston Homicide. He’d investigated the death of my yardman, the one who’d been unlucky enough to get in my ex-husband’s way, and we’d been spending plenty of time together since last summer.

“You’re more of everything since you hooked up with our cop friend. Don’t let go of that guy if you can help it.”

“Believe me, I won’t.” My nose started to run and I sniffed. The wind off the bay was cold enough to make a lawyer put his hands in his own pockets.

Kate offered me a tissue. “So am I allowed to be your sister once we get inside this place? I’m sure you and Megan will want to have a consistent story. We wouldn’t want to alert the relatives that she hired you.”

“By your sarcasm I’m guessing you’re still convinced Megan should have told her parents.”

“Keeping secrets from your family is never a good idea.” Her coffee-colored shoulder-length hair was practically horizontal as she bowed her head against the wind.

“Maybe not, but Megan shouldn’t have to learn the same way we did about our past. No one should.”

“It’s not like her parents lied to her, Abby.”

“Okay, so they didn’t lie like Daddy did, but they waited way too long to tell her the truth and then made her feel like she’d be betraying them if she tried to learn about her past.”