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“She probably was. But then she stymied me.”
“Can you blame her?” Carter asked gently.
She didn’t want to look at him. He probably thought she was a terrible person. “I can see her doing it for a while. But for the rest of my life? Whenever Dad and Matthew were going somewhere fun, the zoo or the Exploratorium or a camping trip—or even when Matthew got to go to summer camp, Dad would always say—” She deepened her voice. “You need to stay with your mother. She doesn’t want you going on this trip.”
“And you always felt left out,” Carter interpreted.
“Yeah. And she always made my dad into the bad guy because he was the one who had to say I couldn’t go.”
“But you blame your mom anyway.”
She nodded. Her feet felt heavy on the steps, but maybe that was just her heart. “I did. There were so few outings with Dad because he was always busy, going on business trips and working late. So it really hurt that I didn’t get to go.” She laughed then, suddenly feeling self-conscious, as if she was revealing all her silly childish feelings, and she changed the subject abruptly. “What about you? How can you take three weeks off every year when you’re trying to build a high-powered law career?”
Carter’s laugh was loud enough to turn both Irene and her mother. He waved them on. “I’m not the high-powered type. But I work damn hard during the year, and my father practically forces all of us to take a long summer vacation.”
She remembered he had two brothers and a sister, all working at their dad’s law firm.
“We all take a three-week vacation at different times. Dad says people need to blow off steam, that we can’t be all work and no play.”
Yet this was her first vacation in three years. She’d been working her vocal cords down to their nubs, but was she where she should be in her career? That’s why she needed to move to a company who valued their employees, a company where she could grow and be respected.
“My mom’s a homemaker,” Carter told her. “And she insisted my dad be home for dinner every night. He had a drink and a bowl of nuts before dinner, then we ate together. It instilled in all of us the belief that working harder, climbing the ladder, and making more money couldn’t be at the expense of family.”
Besides not really trusting men’s motives, here was another reason Sienna didn’t have a boyfriend. She didn’t have time. And maybe it wouldn’t have been fair either. She was kind of a workaholic.
“And yet, even with that philosophy, Dad’s firm has flourished. We have over seventy-five attorneys,” he told her proudly.
“Wow.” After Carter mentioned the name, she recognized his firm, but the number of lawyers surprised her. It was small compared to firms in cities like Chicago or New York, but in San Jose, that was more than midsize.
“My brothers and my sister and I all came up through the ranks. Dad didn’t countenance slackers. I’ve never wanted to do anything else.” He smiled at her endearingly and her heart leaped. “But I love my three-week vacations, and I don’t think about work while I’m gone.”
“But if you’re so into family, how come you’re not married with a passel of children?”
He laughed again, not so loud, and she looked up, realizing Irene and her mother were at the next switchback. They hadn’t even stopped to rest.
Carter’s smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Maybe I haven’t found the right woman.”
She waved her hand up the stairs. “What about Irene or Tamryn or—” She couldn’t remember the other girl’s name.
“Alyssa,” Carter supplied for her.
“Alyssa,” she repeated. “Why not one of them?”
He shook his head. “We’re all just good friends.”
She wondered how he could be friends with Tamryn. She was a complainer. But then again, Sienna was judging her without knowing her. Just like she’d judged Irene before hearing the story about her grandmother.
She revealed a little more about her family. “My dad worked and traveled a lot. My mom was a homemaker too.” She smiled then, remembering the story she and Matthew had shared a couple of months ago. “She always made our favorite things when he was gone because he didn’t like them. We had lasagna and homemade pizza and tacos, chicken fingers and pasta with meatballs. She was a good cook.”
“So you have some good memories.”
She’d given him the impression that she and her mother didn’t get along at all, which wasn’t what she’d intended. “I have a lot of good memories,” she uttered the lie, wishing she had more. She wished she had stories about her mother like Irene had about her grandmother.
His mouth close to her ear, Carter murmured, “Maybe you can make this trip a fabulous memory too.”
He might be right. This trip could be a new beginning for her and her mom.
As they turned another switchback, Sienna’s breath felt labored, and she tried to hide it from Carter, who didn’t seem to breathe hard at all. Donkeys lined up for those who couldn’t make it another step. At the top of the next switchback, her mother was laughing and talking without a single wheeze while the guys, Tamryn, and Alyssa balanced their hands on their knees as they gulped air. They’d been walking so fast, they had to have been at least two switchbacks ahead of her mother. Yet she’d caught up while they were still recovering.
