“Celeste wants us all home for dinner,” Roni said. “I’ll cover for you if you need to finish this.”
Celeste was definitely the maternal one among the sisters with an off-the-charts commitment to responsible behavior. She’d taken the lead in caring for their mom during her final days. And after, she’d convinced them to turn their family beach home into a business opportunity. One that quickly became profitable enough to support all three of them.
Veronica and Natalie continued their professional pursuits, and Celeste continued to find ways to diversify the asset of the Hideaway and its growing reputation.
“Is she cooking?” Nat asked, trying to get a sense of how dinner might go.
“No. Take out from Parker’s.”
“Oh.” That changed things. Parker’s fish camp was Celeste’s go-to for both big celebrations or when delivering difficult news. “Can I change my answer about finishing this?”
“No,” Roni laughed. “I don’t think it’s terrible news. It could even be good news that she’s not ready to discuss publicly.”
“Right.” Anything was possible. She rolled her shoulders. “Whatever the topic, I’m down for our favorite food at home tonight.” Going out wasn’t a good idea anyway. Folks would naturally ask about the situation on the beach. She pressed a hand to her stomach, unwilling to run that gauntlet anytime soon.
“Great.” Roni tipped her head to the start of the sculpture. “Any idea what it’ll be when it grows up?”
Nat chuckled. “It will tell me soon.” She was long-over being offended by her practical sister’s curiosity about her typically whimsical artwork. “All I know for sure is it won’t be light or comfortable.”
“Good for you.” Roni frowned at the area. “Want some help cleaning up?”
“No thanks. It won’t take me long.” To reassure her sister, Nat made a show of setting a timer on her phone. Natalie had learned the hard way that her well-meaning sisters rarely understood what was trash and what was inspiration in her workspace.
To be fair, not much in Natalie’s world qualified as a final discard. Not even a sculpture that expressed her current dark and grim emotional state.
As if she didn’t trust Nat to hear the timer, Roni trailed along. At the storeroom, she broke into a fit of giggles. “What’s this going to be?”
Nat smiled. “This was previously at the top of this week’s agenda. I didn’t dare touch it today.” She sighed and shoved at her hair. “Eventually this will honor the mascot for a school I’m speaking at next month.”
Roni tipped her head, assessing. Then she grinned. “Please tell me their mascot is a raccoon.”
Natalie glared. “If you call me a trash panda, I will tackle you.”
They both knew it was a baseless threat. At least until they got home. The gallery would surely revoke her rent-free workspace perks if she got into a fight with her sister. Then again, watching Roni’s face, it might be worth it. “There isn’t a single person on this island who wouldn’t understand or take my side,” she declared.
“Keep dreaming little sister.” Veronica was always poking her, usually from a place of love. Natalie was just too edgy today.
“Whatever.”
“Did you bike over?” Roni was looking around again.
“I did.”
“Great. I’ll wait and bike home with you.”
Natalie studied her sister more closely. “Fine.” Now that she was paying attention, she noticed the tension in Roni’s face. “Tell me how your day went.”
Roni biked to visit her clients as often as possible, whether it was meeting someone for a training session at a gym or a home visit for physical therapy. The time she spent biking home was her way of clearing her mind of business issues. Natalie would bet her next commission that something had happened today that the biking commute didn’t erase. Gathering her supplies, she moved in and out of the storage room while she waited for Veronica to fill her in.
“It was pretty normal,” she began, rolling her shoulders. “My next to last client was a home visit physical therapy.”
“Post-op?” Nat queried when Veronica’s voice faded to silence.
“Yeah.” On a heavy sigh, she tapped her bike helmet against her thigh. “Older man. Recovering from an amputation due to diabetic neuropathy.”
Natalie dumped the stuff in her hands onto the nearest shelf and pulled Roni into a hug. “And it brought up Mom stuff.”
“How did you guess?”
