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“So, Mom says you hired a really cute guy to fix the banister.” Layla gave her older sister a little nudge.
Alanna nudged back. “Aren’t you engaged?”
“Not for me!” Layla giggled. “Mom said he had a major crush on you.” Out came the dewy eyes. Her voice lowered to an excited whisper. “Do you like him?”
Alanna resisted the urge to roll her eyes.Somebodyneeded to seriously lay off the romance books.
“He was…” she faltered, thinking of Sully’s warm smile, the gentle waves of his hair, the hard edges of his body.Mmmmm, those hard edges.“…nice,” she finally managed. “But I scared him off.”
“What????” Layla exclaimed. She grabbed her sister’s arm in a surprisingly strong grip. “What did you do?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Alanna sighed. “He saw my inner raging bitch. Probably swore off women forever. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s joined a monastery.” She hated the thought of Sully shaving off his gorgeous brown hair.
Layla giggled. “Don’t be silly! All you have to do is apologize. If he’s the one for you, he’ll understand.”
“One for me?” Alanna choked on a laugh. “We barely know each other.”
“Mom says he’s a great guy.”
“He is, but…”
“But what?”
Alanna looked into her sister’s soft, innocent eyes. Did she really not understand?
“That’s just not how the world works,” Alanna stated. How does one explain cold stark reality to an eternal optimist? It had always been like this between them; Alanna facing the world’s shadows straight on and Layla always searching for the tiniest glow of sunlight. Even when they were kids, Layla somehow always found the best in every situation. She never seemed to notice that the “Cave of Wonders” blanket fort only appeared when their power was cut, and she gleefully pawed through the Goodwill clothing racks to assemble quirky, mismatched outfits that somehow always flattered her anyway.
Hell, Layla was so beautiful, so nice, so absolutelyradiantthat the kids at school began copying her “retro” style. No one at school ever mocked Layla. They all adored her.
“What if he is the one for you?” Layla’s question snapped Alanna back into the present. Her wedges were beginning to pinch her toes. “You’ll never know unless you try,” her sister pressed. “Apologize, Alanna. Give him a chance to see the real you.”
Alanna scoffed. “Look, even if I apologized, even if he forgave me, and even if there isn’t something wildly wrong with him, like he’s into dolphin porn or something, I still need to go back to L.A. eventually, and he’s stuck down here.”
“Dolphin porn, that’s not a thing,” Layla giggled.
Alanna gave her sister a sympathetic look. “Sure, Layla. Sure.”
“But Alanna, if he’s your soulmate, then you could find a way to be together,” Layla insisted. “You just have to believe.”
Alanna was just about to explain to her poor, naïve sister exactly how little she believed in long-distance relationships when she heard a strange sound.
“Petuuuuunia,” a voice called in the distance. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”
“Petunia!” a second voice called.
“Here, kitty,” a soft whispery voice added.
Alanna glanced at her sister in confusion. Layla just smiled and called, “Everly, we’re over here.”
A minute later, the gregarious woman herself turned the corner and broke out into a grin. Tess followed her and gave Alanna a little wave. Finally, Willow turned the corner, ducking behind her long black hair. The young woman clasped a thick wad of flyers in her hands.
“Anything yet?” Everly asked as she strolled over to them.
“No,” Layla admitted. “Val hasn’t heard anything at the shelter, and no one’s responded to our Nextdoor post.”
“We’ve practically papered the entire neighborhood with flyers,” Tess said, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear. “Hopefully someone will call.”
“How… What?... Why?” Alanna finally managed.
