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Sierra smiled at Keely, her eyes gently shimmering in the overhead lighting. She hadn’t smiled at me like that before, and a sliver of jealousy wrapped its claws around my heart as my sister gathered her purse.
“I’ll walk you out,” I said under my breath. “Sierra, eat something.”
“Do you always boss her around like that?” Keely asked as I shut the front door behind me and stepped out onto the metal walkway.
“Yeah, but she never listens.”
“For someone madly in love,” she argued, “you’re being awfully hard on her right now.”
“I’m not being hard on her—”
“Do you really not think this baby is yours?”
“I don’t know what to think, Keels. This is all very… overwhelming.”
Keely gave me a sympathetic look and patted my shoulder. “I never thought you’d be the first of us to have kids, you know. George and I are looking forward to being aunt and uncle—”
“It’ll be a few weeks before we know for sure—”
“I think you know that the test doesn’t really matter, does it?” she asked pointedly, giving me a look that reminded me so much of our father.
I stared at her, trying to form the words I wanted to say—which was no, it mattered. It mattered a lot.
But that wouldn’t have been the truth.
I’d never admit to my little sister that sharing my space with someone I genuinely cared for had been incredible. Like my day suddenly had meaning. Before, I used to crawl upstairs after working the closing shift at the bar just to pass the time and then slept until late afternoon.
Now, I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible to spend that once wasted time with a woman who was essentially using me to get back at her family for years of abuse.
I probably looked like a chump. I was sure Keely could see right through my steely expression as she shrugged and smirked.
“Well, I love her. I think Moira will, too—”
“There will be no teaming up with the three of you ladies,” I cut her off.
Keely only grinned devilishly and batted those long eyelashes at me. She had a habit of doing whatever she wanted, regardless of if she’d been told no.
“Does she know how you feel about her?”
“Probably, since you told her my life story—”
“I left out a few parts,” she said in a low whisper that sent a shiver of understanding up my spine. Our childhood. Keely’s unorthodox childhood. The reason why I’d balked at ever settling down before.
As much as I loved the Hallstons, and my sister and George, I saw their happy, stable relationships as fleeting.
Anything could go wrong even when you’re madly in love.
It had happened to our parents, after all.
I’d rather be alone than go through what my mother had weathered when Keely showed up on our doorstep.
“I’m not in love with her, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
“Sure.” Keely smiled, patting me on the shoulder before starting down the stairs. “Bring her up to the ranch for dinner sometime, okay?”
I said nothing as I watched her get into her truck and drive away.
Back inside, I found Sierra sitting on the couch staring absently out the window.
