“You’d never have thought of switching to a different guy if it weren’t for me, so you still owe me,” said Olivia. “And stop rolling your eyes at me.”
“I’m serious. You’ve already taken the Vow of Secrecy, so you can’t tell Brad what Leanne did.
”
“I invoke the Sisterly Right of Protection.”
“You know the rules for that—you made it up yourself. You can only break a promise by invoking the Sisterly Right of Protection in an emergency situation where I’m not able to talk to you. So I’d have to be unconscious or kidnapped or something.”
“I’m invoking it based on the fact the person I’m talking to right now is not the normal Grace Marshall. You are beyond Grace’s normal level of crazy. So since I can’t talk to Grace—”
“However, you made the Vow of Secrecy with this Grace Marshall, and I’m the one you’re talking to.”
Olivia let out a scream and stomped her feet. “Grace! Why are you being so stubborn about this?”
“Don’t you see? It’s humiliating. I gave him flowers and a card and groveled, asking for another chance. And then I called him. When I mentioned the card and flowers, I could tell he didn’t believe me. He thinks I lied to him when we broke up, and he’s right. So I can’t defend myself. He thinks I’m a liar because I am a liar. He doesn’t believe anything I say anymore.”
“So quit lying. Tell him the truth about everything. Don’t bring a guy to Sunday night dinner.”
“No, that’ll just prove I kept lying about Horatio.”
“So you’re lying more to cover a lie you told to protect another lie you told because you’re too humiliated to tell the truth now because it will prove you lied before?”
“Exactly,” said Grace. “Now do you understand?”
“No. That didn’t even make sense when I was saying it. I invoke the Sisterly Right of Coercion. When you’re doing something really stupid, I have the right to jump in and stop you.”
“You just made that up,” said Grace. “That’s not even a real Marshall Sisters law.”
“You and I made up all the laws,” Olivia reasoned. “This is just a new one that’s long overdue. I should have invoked it to keep you from coloring your hair.”
“So what are you going to do? You have to tell me.”
“No, I invoke the Sisterly Right to Privacy.”
“You can’t invoke the Right of Coercion and the Right to Privacy at the same time.”
“I just made it up, and I declare the Right of Coercion can be invoked at any time with any other law, and no other law can make it null and void.”
“What does that mean?”
Olivia moved to slide out the bedroom door. “I don’t know—I was just covering my bases. See ya later, Sister.” She shut the door behind her with a soft click.
“Olivia! Olivia! Come back here!” Grace heard her laughter floating behind her like tinkling bells.
Chapter Five
“So you could see us on TV?” Brad winced as he awaited the answer he already knew would be forthcoming.
“Oh yes, little brother. You and your blond date were quite visible. And I’ll save you the trouble of asking... Yes, Grace saw you with her; and yes, she saw the girl throwing herself at you. And I must say you didn’t seem to object very much,” Ben chuckled.
“I was leaning away as far as I could. And I swear, when she kissed me... Couldn’t you tell I was trying to get away from her? I practically peeled her off me. Especially the second time.”
“Grace left after the first kiss.”
“She left?”
“Yes.”