I’d left the ring, Adam’s mom’s ring, my ring, in the guest room. It didn’t feel right bringing it home with me. I wondered if he’d give it to her. If she’d wear it when she became Mrs. Knight.
I didn’t even realize I’d spaced out until the familiar sound of the front door chime startled me. I expected a delivery, or maybe a walk-in bride seizing her chance in the last few hours of business, but instead I heard the unmistakable cadence of a rolling suitcase careening over tile.
Bailey, tan lines and wedding band glistening on her left hand, swept into the office with an air of someone who’d just spent two weeks drinking breakfast mimosas and swimming in the Mediterranean. Her hair looked like it had decided to take a vacation of its own—naturally beachy now, not a hint of salon-gloss. She looked happy, blissfully so, living up to our last name.
She greeted Birdie first with a bear hug then flung her arms around me with the same force she used to shut down bridezilla meltdowns.
“I missed you guys!” She squeezed her arms around my neck, and I could feel the smile pressed into my shoulder.
I hugged her back with as much enthusiasm as I could muster with the current mental state I was in.
“You look so—so—” She leaned back, searching my face. “Like someone who’s not happy to see me?”
“I’m always happy to see you, it’s the rest of the world that’s a letdown.” I pasted a smile on my face and hoped it read as the fine line I liked to walk between happy and sarcastic.
Birdie, sat opposite me sipping her coffee, shot a withering glance over the rim of her mug. “She’s been like this for a week,” she stage-whispered to Bailey. “Refusing to go out for lunch,eating nothing but protein bars and the sad veggie sushi from the corner store.”
Bailey’s face filled with concern. “Did something happen? Another note? Another break-in? I knew I shouldn’t have left.”
“No. Nothing. No note. No break-in,” I assured her.
“She moved back to her apartment,” Birdie commented.
Bailey’s eyes ping-ponged between Birdie and me, finally landing on me. “Youdid?!”
I nodded.
“Why?”
“Adam’s back is better and like I said, no note, no break-in, the threat is clearly over.”
“You don’t know that!” Bailey exclaimed.
“I can’t live there forever. I can’t put my life on hold because of this. Whatever it was, whoever it was has moved on and I need to too.”
“Adam’s girlfriend is also in town,” Birdie felt the need to share.
Bailey’s head spun back to our baby sister. “Genesis Milan?”
“Yep,” Birdie confirmed.
“She’s in San Francisco?” Bailey whispered, as if it was a secret.
Birdie nodded.
“Is that why she moved out?” Bailey jumped to the same conclusion Birdie had.
“Sheis in the room, so you can ask her directly,” I said, loudly. Of course, it was a practice in futility since both of my sisters ignored me.
Birdie shook her head slowly. “No, she didn’t even know she was in town until I told her just now.”
Bailey turned her attention back to me. “Are you okay with Adam’s girlfriend, or ex, or whatever she is being back in the picture?”
I wanted to give some snarky reply but she asked it softly, her eyes already brimming with the sisterly concern that always seemed to make my chest tighten.
I opened my mouth, but only a tiny, involuntary noise came out, like the sound you’d make stepping onto a cold bathroom tile at two a.m.
In truth, I was in a state of psychological vertigo, uncertain which direction hurt more, the ache of missing them, or the acid glow of knowing Adam was living so easily without me. I couldn’t tell if I was relieved that my worst-case-scenario had come true, the other shoe had dropped, the Band-Aid had been ripped off or if I was devastated that I’d been so easily replaced.
