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Everyone drank, ate, laughed, played with the two littlest Wildes and talked about what they’d been doing since they’d last seen each other.
When it came to that topic, Emily was conspicuously silent. Well, her sisters agreed, she’d been kind of quiet altogether.
Maybe something was wrong.
Her sisters waylaid her in the kitchen.
“Em?” Lissa said. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she said brightly. “Why would anything be the matter? What kind of question is that?”
A very good question, Lissa and Jaimie thought, exchanging glances. Jaimie cleared her throat.
“Well, you haven’t had much to say.”
“Neither have you,” Emily said.
Jaimie colored a little. Lissa looked at her. It was true. Jaimie had been pretty quiet, too.
“Work,” Jaimie said briskly, waving her hand. “I’m all tied up with stuff. Things are stabilizing a little, people are putting their houses on the market…” She frowned. “And we weren’t talking about me, we were talking about Emily.”
“Emily is standing right here,” Emily said, trying to sound amused. “Let’s not talk about her as if she weren’t.”
“Well, no. Let’s be more direct than that,” Lissa said, opening one of the four big wall ovens and peering inside. “We’re all talking about what’s new in our lives. You haven’t opened your mouth.”
“If you’re checking on those pies, I think the crust on the one in the top oven might be—”
“Don’t you want to tell us about your new job?”
“What new job?” Emily said. “Lissa, really, that pie—”
“The one you called and told me about,” Jaimie said. “The personal assistant thing.”
Emily swallowed hard.
“Oh. That.”
“Yes. Oh. That. How’s it going?”
Emily turned on the water in the sink, reached for the coffee pot.
“I quit.”
“How come?”
“I just did. Hand me the canister, will you?”
“Yeah, but why? It sounded like a great job.”
“Well, it wasn’t. And I don’t want to talk about it, OK? Just hand me the coffee.”
Voices, laughter, the sounds of people greeting people flooded the house. Footsteps made their way down the hall. The Wilde sisters turned around…
And Emily went pale.
“Laurel?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
The women stared at each other. “Khan and I flew in for the holiday. Didn’t Jake tell you? He invited us.”
