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I give her a pointed look. She knows better than to be impolite at someone else’s dinner table.
“It’s okay. I actually have two dessert options.” Scarlett walks out of the room and returns a minute later with a dish in each hand. “We have apple pie and cherry cheesecake.”
She sets both desserts down in the middle of the table, and I groan. “Cherry cheesecake is my favorite.”
“I know.” She smiles. “That’s why I made it. And apple pie is Dad’s favorite, although I didn’t make it. Sorry, Daddy, yours is from Scooter’s.”
“I don’t care where it came from, Scarlett girl, so long as I know where it’s goin’.”
“Where’s it goin’?” Chloe asks.
Rick pats his stomach. “Right in here.”
Scarlett rolls her eyes. “He’s totally not joking. What’s your favorite dessert, Chloe?”
“Double fudge brownies.”
“Ooh. Good choice. Next time, I’ll make some.”
“Really?”
“Heck, yeah. Who doesn’t love double fudge brownies? But since I don’t have them tonight, which would you like to have?”
Chloe contemplates for all of two seconds and blurts, “Cheesecake.”
“More pie for me,” Rick says, sliding the apple pie across the table. He grabs his fork and goes to dig in.
“Dad!”
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to share?”
“Would you like a slice, sweetheart?”
“No, but we have guests.”
“Chloe already asked for cheesecake, and you know what Tucker is havin’, which means…I get the pie.”
Scarlett just shakes her head when her dad scoops out a bite and shovels it into his mouth.
We’re all laughing and talking when the front door opens. Alexis walks in with two Tupperware containers and stops when she sees us sitting around the table. Her smile falters as her eyes sweep past Scarlett, and while I understand where the animosity comes from, it pisses me off. Scarlett deserves some credit for trying, and Alexis seems unwilling to give it to her.
“What did you guys have for dinner?”
“Grilled chicken, loaded baked potatoes, and asparagus,” Chloe says, looking proud since she helped Scarlett cook.
“Tucker, you didn’t have to cook for them,” she chides.
“I didn’t. Scarlett did.”
Alexis laughs and then sobers when she realizes she’s the only one. “Wait. You’re serious?”
“As a stroke.” We all look at Rick, and he shrugs. “Too soon?”
“Way too soon. And you are talking about my sister, Scarlett, right?”
“Why do you find that so hard to believe?” Scarlett asks.
“Because you don’t cook.”
Scarlett pushes away from the table and stands up. “How do you know? You don’t even know me.”
“I know you well enough. You don’t cook. You don’t clean. You don’t come home. In fact, I don’t know what you can do other than prance around and look pretty.”
The defeated look Scarlett wore earlier is right back on her beautiful face, and I could kill Alexis for putting it there. We all sit stunned, watching the sisters stare each other down. Twelve years ago, it would’ve ended in a screaming match, but Scarlett seems to have lost that fire inside of her.
Or maybe she’s just matured more than any of us have given her credit for.
The thought rolls through my head at the same time Scarlett grabs her plate and disappears into the kitchen. I hear her put it in the sink. A few seconds later, the back door opens and closes.
6
~Scarlett~
I can’t stand it for another second.
I set my plate in the sink and hurry outside where the heat is still oppressive. It’s so humid, it’s like breathing in mist.
But it’s always been quiet out here, and at least I don’t have Lexi’s hateful eyes staring back at me.
“Go apologize,” I hear Dad say. His voice is hard, and it pisses me off that Lexi’s getting him riled up. The man just had a stroke, for God’s sake!
“Absolutely not,” she replies.
“I’m disappointed in you, Lexi. She’s your sister. She cooked a delicious meal, and you just made her feel like shit.”
“I can’t believe this. She’s back for a few days, and you’re already on her side.”
I roll my eyes and sit on the picnic table. I may be the celebrity, but Lexi’s always been the dramatic one in the family.
“There aren’t sides,” Dad yells. “We’re a family.”
“Family doesn’t leave and never come back,” Lexi counters. “Your little girl went twelve years without so much as setting foot in her hometown. She didn’t even come when I graduated high school.”
“She was on tour,” Dad says.
In Japan, as a matter of fact. I hated that I missed her graduation, and I tried to reschedule the tour, but it was set in stone before the school chose a graduation date that year.
“Or my college graduation,” Lexi continues. I really should have put A/C in Dad’s house last year so we could keep the house closed up and I wouldn’t have to hear this.
“She had an award show,” Dad replies.
I won a Grammy for Small Town Girl that night. I called Lexi to congratulate her on her graduation. She refused to speak to me and didn’t even thank me for the car I gave her as a gift.
