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If the wedding happens, I add silently.
I have all my fingers crossed it won’t, but it’s a good excuse to get Casey out from under Manny’s thumb.
“I really can’t,” she says. “I want to, but Halloween is a big night on the strip. I always make a killing in tips, and I can’t afford to miss out on that. Not with Amy growing so fast. Did I tell you she’s already wearing a size two?”
I smile. “She’s a beast. Going to be even taller than you are, I bet.”
Casey also has no idea who her father is—for the most part, my mother excelled at keeping her losers out of our lives—but he’s clearly a different person than the man who sired Annie and me. Casey is nearly six feet tall, towering over even Annie. When I stand next to her in pictures, I look like a different species, one likely descended from dwarves. She’s also half Native American, with glossy black hair that hangs nearly to her waist.
She could have easily made it as a model or taken her equally gorgeous brain to college and become a vet or an animal trainer, the way she dreamed of when she was a girl.
Instead, when she was seventeen, she hit the road with her friend’s band. She got her GED first, but that was her final nod to traditional education. Since then, she’s knocked around the country, working various odd jobs, until she eventually ended up in Vegas—and pregnant by Manny.
She’s been living in his trailer in the desert ever since.
“Oh, I hope not,” Casey laughs. “Five ten as a woman is already hard. Any taller than that and she’ll never be able to find jeans that fit right. But she’s doing so well. She’s so happy and healthy and growing up strong and really…what more could a mom ask for?” She sighs. “I hate that Annie won’t know what it’s like to have kids of her own.”
“Maybe,” I say. “But maybe not.”
“Oh no,” Casey says. “What are you up to, Blaire? I know you think Annie’s making a mistake, but it’s her life. If it is a mistake, it’s hers to make.”
“She shouldn’t have to sacrifice her happiness for our inheritance. There has to be another way.”
“But you said she seems happy,” Casey counters. “And maybe she doesn’t love this guy in a swoony, romantic way, but if they’re good friends and share the same values…that could be enough. Not everyone wants hearts and flowers and love that turns your world upside down.”
“But Annie does,” I say, no doubt in my mind that it’s the truth. I know my twin. And I know I’m doing the right thing going behind her back with Darcy the Dickhead.
Which reminds me…
“Shit,” I say, flipping open my suitcase to grab underwear and a long-sleeved tee. “I have to go. I’m meeting a potential client in forty minutes, and I have to get all the way across town.”
“A client already? That’s exciting, but I’m not surprised. You’re so good, Blaire. Nightfall is going to be counting its lucky stars that you moved to town,” Casey says, cheering me on the way she always does, making me miss her even more.
“I love you so much,” I say, my throat tight. “Please promise me you’ll think about coming for the wedding. I can find the money for the plane flight and some extra to send home with you to make up for the lost tips.”
“I love you, too,” she says softly. “And I will think about it, I promise. But remember, we’re always together in spirit. All you have to do is close your eyes and think of me, mama, and I’ll be sending love your way.”
“Same,” I say. “Talk soon.”
I end the call and quickly strip out of my pajamas and wiggle into my work clothes. I wasn’t lying to Casey—I do have a client meeting later this afternoon. Sally, one of the owners of the local hair salon, wants new shelves installed by her shampoo station, and offered to pay cash, something that’s fairly rare in this town. The citizens of Nightfall seem to traffic mostly in barters, favors, and the occasional antique coin. But I can’t pay for plane flights—or fuel for the pellet stove—with those. I need human money, and I need it fast. The sooner I can prove to my new neighbors that I have the skills to meet all their home renovation and repair needs, the better.
But first, to survive my meeting with Darcy the Douchebag.
I’m ninety percent sure he was serious last night and doesn’t intend to drain me dry and toss my lifeless corpse off the cliffs outside his swanky mansion, but just in case, I leave a note for my still-sleeping sister by the coffee pot downstairs—Headed to Darcy’s to talk about something for one of the engagement events. If I wind up dead, he was totally the one who did it. Love, Blaire—and hustle out the door with my handywoman backpack full of tools and a granola bar.
Not wanting to get sidelined by chit chat, I avoid the adorable downtown area with its shops and cafes, cutting through the peaceful graveyard to reach the trail leading to the beach.
Once by the water, a part of me wants to linger by the waves. Before moving to Nightfall, I’d only been to the ocean a handful of times, despite the fact that our cabin was only fifty miles from the coast. But growing up, we only rarely had reliable transportation and there was always so much to do just to keep everyone fed and in clean clothes and mostly out of trouble.
Before Mom’s lawyer told us about the “catch” on our inheritance, I’d hoped this would be a chance for a fantastic fresh start for the Wonderfully sisters. A chance for us to finally stop scrabbling so hard to survive and just…enjoy the ride a little.
But I can’t enjoy the ride knowing the price paid for my new life is the death of my sister’s most precious dreams. I have to find another way, and a part of me is stupid enough to believe a two-hundred-year-old vampire with a permanent sneer and shoes that cost more than every item of clothing in my closet combined is going to help with that.
I should have known better.
I really should have.
But by the time I reach the top of the nearly vertical ascent up the trail to his home, I’m covered in sweat, out of breath, and desperate for a drink of water.
