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Or I could ignore the shrink and answer Rudy.
Is it a good idea to continue this less-than-innocent flirtation with Agnes’s grandson that will probably end with me heartbroken and embarrassed? No.
Is it a good idea to get involved with anyone considering what I’m about to go through? Definitely no.
Am I someone who usually makes good decisions?
I stuff the card in my purse and answer Rudy’s text.
Me: Be over this afternoon!
Before I can indulge in a little Rudy-shaped distraction, I have a date with my sister. A few minutes after my OB appointment, Trina meets me outside the local nail salon and gives me a big hug.
“I’m so glad you could make it.” She beams at me, opening the door to let me in. “Things have been hectic, but the kids are with Mac, and Mom is busy at Candice’s new house, so I figured we could use some alone time.”
Tension still grips my chest, but I hide it behind a smile. “You always say a pedicure solves ninety-nine percent of problems.”
“And it’s true, too!” Trina laughs and waves at the nail tech who appears from behind a door at the back of the salon.
We’re led to big, black massage chairs and told to sit down. I kick off my shoes and rest them on the foot pad, sinking into the seat. The chair starts vibrating and rolling along my back and instead of soothing me, it makes me feel like vomiting. I’ve been doing that a lot lately.
I turn the chair off and catch my sister’s watchful eye. She arches a brow.
“So, tell me how you and Mac met.” I give my sister my best casual grin. “You promised me the story when I first arrived in town, but all you’ve done is deflect.”
Trina laughs. Since I last saw her, her whole demeanor has changed. Then again, last time I saw her was a couple of years ago, when she was still married to her jerk of an ex-husband. She looks younger and more vibrant than ever, and she tells me all about the whirlwind romance that happened between her and Mac. How he let her ride on his motorcycle and she just about died from how raw and sexual it was. Then they got—ahem—messy doing pottery together, and she thought she had died and gone to heaven. She laughs as she tells me how she thought everything went wrong, but now that all’s said and done, she knows he’s so perfect for her his kisses make her teeth ache from the sweetness of it all.
“You deserve someone to treat you like a queen,” I tell her as I finally make my nail polish selection from the thousands of available shades. The nail tech smiles as if I’ve just made the most important decision of my life. She nods solemnly at the little plastic sample of nail polish and moves to the wall of bottles to grab my selection. It makes some of the tension in my shoulders seep out, and I wonder if Trina is right about the whole pedicures-solve-all-problems thing.
“Enough about me,” Trina says. “You still haven’t told anyone why you’re back. Mom is asking me about it every day.”
“Funny, she’s not asking me about it,” I deadpan.
“She’s too scared you’ll take off on an international trip and not come back for another three years.” Trina laughs, but I hear the truth in her words.
I’ve spent the last fifteen—nearly twenty—years of my life traveling the world. Six months in one place, two years in another. Wherever I could get a visa, I’d lay some shallow roots and explore. I built my business to be entirely remote, and as long as I had my laptop and an internet connection, I was all set. It was perfect for me…until it wasn’t. Until the freight train of life came down the tracks and flattened me.
The woman doing my feet squirts some lotion on my legs and starts massaging my calves, and a tiny bit more stress ekes out of me. Maybe I could tell Trina about the baby and about…everything else.
Stress seizes every muscle in my body at the thought of spilling my guts to my sister.
I grip the edge of the chair as my nail tech glances up, frowning. She can feel the tension in my legs as I do my best to let the thoughts pass through me and let my muscles relax.
How can I possibly say the words out loud when thinking them sends me into a panic?
I definitely need professional help.
“Okay, if you won’t tell me why you’re back, why don’t you tell me why Rudy was asking Candice for your number?” Trina’s eyes glitter, and I groan.
“No secrets in Heart’s Cove, huh.”
“Girl, get used to it.” My sister laughs. “I went through hell trying to keep this thing between me and Mac under wraps. It’s only fair that I get to have some fun too.”
I roll my eyes. “Nothing’s going on. He just got the new Lee Child book in stock and wanted to let me know.”
Trina purses her lips and inspects her fingernails before flicking her eyes to me. “Funny, he didn’t text me about any new books.”
I wave a hand. “It’s nothing.”
