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Keely saw the way her sister’s face changed when she mentioned the player’s name. Sure, there was interest in her sister’s eyes, but it was more than that. She couldn’t put her finger on what was up, but something was definitely odd about this visit.
“Ty Lambert.” Keely repeated the name and saw the same carefully neutral expression come over her sister’s face like a mask.
Alexis fidgeted with the edge of the newspaper, folding the corner. “Mm hmm. I’ll be around for two weeks.”
“You don’t have a physical therapy office here,” Keely pointed out. “Don’t you need equipment for your job? Bands and machines? A trampoline or exam table?”
“I have portable equipment from my office.” Her sister twirled her ponytail with her finger, sending the strands spinning like a child’s pinwheel. “I thought you’d be glad to have me home for a while.”
“I am glad. I’m just surprised. You didn’t even call.” Since she couldn’t quite pinpoint what was worrying her, she knew she needed to back off for now. But that didn’t stop the churn of anxious concerns.
Like what if Alexis quit without telling her? Or what if she was following this baseball player around because she was in love with him?
“Since when do I need to call first?” Alexis’s voice rose. “This is my home, too.”
“I know. And it will be fun having you here. I just worried—”
“Wellstop, okay? You always worry.” Alexis sprang up from her seat, her body language tense as she paced around the kitchen. “I’ve stressed myself out working nonstop for years to make younotworry, and it hasn’t helped. So this week, I’m going to enjoy myself.”
Keely pulled in a sharp breath, a moment away from pointing out that Alexis hadn’t been concerned about not worrying her when she went hang-gliding, but caught herself just in time. She snapped her jaw shut again.
“What?” Alexis quit pacing to turn on her, blue gaze narrowing.
“Nothing.” Keely took a fast gulp of her water, not sure what to say. “I’m glad for you.”
Alexis tipped her head to one side and folded her arms, waiting.
“All right, call me crazy, but it can’t bethatstressful to live and work in a beautiful city full of opportunities where you can…focus on building your dream. I’ve worked so hard to make that happen for you.”
“Unlike me? Haven’t I been working hard too? I can’t do this.” Alexis spun on her heel and stalked out of the kitchen.
Contrite, Keely hurried after her, realizing too late how that had sounded. How selfish she’d been to draw attention to a situation that Alexis couldn’t possibly change. “I’m sorry. Alexis—I know you deserve the downtime.”
“Forget it, okay?” Alexis grabbed her key ring off the hall table and shoved out the front door of the house, not even bothering to close it. “You’ve sacrificed a lot, Keely, and no one is arguing with that. But that’s on you, not me. You could have walked away anytime.”
Keely knew that. She’d thought she’d fixed that piece of herself, but being around Alexis brought out the old patterns of behavior. Something she needed to work on if they were going to be under the same roof again.
“You don’t even have shoes on,” Keely called after her, grabbing Alexis’s flip-flops from the front mat as she followed her out the door. “Please ignore me. I’ve had a bad week—”
But her younger sister—the woman she loved most in the world—fired up her engine and drove away without a single look back.
Deflated, Keely held her temples between her thumb and forefinger, knowing her sister was right. She needed to keep moving forward instead of circling around her past. Her dad was on a positive path. Windy Meadows was going to turn a good profit this year.
The time had come for Keely to look to the future. And wasn’t it interesting to realize how fast Nate Ramsey came to mind hard on the heels of that thought? Maybe she needed to take a chance after all.
*
Thankfully, Alexis hada pair of gym shoes in the back seat of her car.
She slid them onto her feet in the parking lot of Creekbend High School, close to the athletic field. Nate’s camp didn’t start today, but the sign-ups were happening now, and the school grounds were as busy as if it was parent-teacher night.
Some kids were playing pickup basketball on the court closest to the entrance, while others threw footballs or kicked around hacky sacks. Mostly teens, but some younger boys and girls too. She wondered if there were going to be camps during the summer for the girls who played softball as well. It hardly seemed fair for the boys to get all the fun.
She would mention it to Keely once she started talking to her again since her sister had been one of the biggest softball stars out of their area. She’d been approached by multiple colleges about playing for programs as far away as Oklahoma, but Keely had never considered it since Alexis had still been in school. Keely had obtained a degree through an online program so she could grow the wildflower business and care for their father. Remembering that made Alexis soften a tiny bit toward her.
Still, Keely didn’t need to mother her for the rest of her life. And she sure didn’t need to chain herself to the farmhouse forever just because their dad’s health had deteriorated. Although Alexis had been surprised how gray he’d looked when she’d sat with him in his den for an hour before Keely returned home. He’d aged far beyond his years.
Shutting her car door, Alexis waved to a few people she knew as she wound around the vehicles to see the registration table. There, under the shade of a high roof over some of the outdoor tables, she spotted Ty Lambert.
