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I laughed away the pain and answered, “She left me a lovely message.”
“You don’t deserve her,” Mara stated.
For the first time in almost a decade I felt a wavering doubt. Bex reached for my hand.
Mara reached for my other hand and said again, “You don’t deserve her. She certainly doesn’t deserve you. Don’t give her any room in your head.”
The tears clogged my throat and I swallowed hard.
“I know that,” I whispered, “sometimes it’s hard to remember.”
“We have a fucked-up family, chickie.”
I laughed and nodded. “That we do.”
“So! Tell me about this fundraiser. I think I’d like to help,” Mara demanded, changing the subject.
Before I could answer, her cell rang. It was Zale and he was picking us up Greek food. Yum!
We laughed and chatted around Mara’s table until Zale came home and planted a huge congratulatory kiss on my sister. Things had gotten better between them. They were stronger than ever. It was a huge relief to me. If they couldn’t make it, nobody could.
Mara flushed a deep red and I mock complained, “Please, people, we’re trying to eat!”
Olivia picked that moment to come in and nonchalantly replied, “They do that, Auntie Willa, it’s best to just ignore them. Are we having Greek food?”
It was a happy group that gathered around the table, and for a moment I was thrown back to the time before Rhys, before Barrett, when this was our dynamic. Bex was so much happier now than she was back then. I’d never wish anything different for her, and I would never wish Barrett away, but I found change difficult. This familiarity was a comfort, but all the changes had made us a happier group. And, when my family was happy, I was happy, too.
Chapter 24
I’ll Guide Everything
Willa
Thursday had given me irrefutable evidence that my sister was back to normal, in fact, she was better than she’d ever been. She’d lost the sharp edge of anxiety that she often carried. It wasn’t entirely gone, but it didn’t cut you anymore if you got too close.
She was doing so well, even Bea’s phone calls and her abuse no longer had the same effect on her. She had a much stronger hold on her situation. She’d even finished writing the book she’d been planning on forever and had just self-published. I was proud, so proud, of what she’d accomplished. If ever there was a suitable time to make our relationship public, I guessed this was it.
As soon as I got home, I called Barrett to tell him about Mara’s progress with my mother. Hearing his gruff voice over the phone did things to my insides and before I knew it I was asking him to come over.
“Do you want to come over?” I grimaced and scrunched my eyes shut. I was becoming one of those needy women, the kind who want to be with their man all the time. There was silence on the line.
“Barrett? It’s okay, never mind…” silence still, “Viking?”
He’d ended the call. What the fuck? A notification popped up at the top of my phone with ‘Viking’ above it:
On my way.
An unexpected laugh burst out of me, startling me with its happy sound. I pushed the feeling away but the effervescent bubbles in my chest would not let up. I decided to ignore the frisson of fear threatening to cut through my happiness for the moment and enjoy the novel feeling. I’d never felt, well, anything like what I felt with Barrett.
We cuddled on the couch and talked until late into the evening. Well, mostly I talked but he was an excellent listener and budgeter of words. The words he spent were sweet and confirming and so was our lovemaking later that night.
We went our separate ways Friday morning, him to his clinic, me to my office in downtown Milltown. Junie and Minty both looked up at me when I walked in.
“Hey,” I greeted them with a smile.
Junie sat back in her seat with a smirk on her face. “Somebody got laid.”
I looked up with my mouth hanging open like a guppy to find them both grinning at me. I felt the heat rush into my face and tried to beat it back. It was a lost cause.
