Saving Home. Marie Ferrarella
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Название: Saving Home
Автор: Marie Ferrarella
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Контркультура
Серия: Ladera by the Sea
isbn: 9781474027595
isbn:
“Don’t worry, honey, we all feel a little sorry for ourselves once in a while. It comes with the territory.” Cris smiled broadly, glancing over in Alex’s direction. “After all, we’re related to Alex, which is enough of a reason for anyone to feel sorry for themselves.” She winked at Andy.
The wink was not lost on Alex.
“Great, two against one,” she complained to the world at large. Her eyes swept over the other two. “I can still take you on, you know.”
“No one’s taking anyone on,” Cris told her calmly. “Especially not around Christmas.”
Alex did her best to hide the knowing grin that was threatening to come out. “You’re just saying that because I’d win.”
Cris merely smiled the knowing smile that had always driven Alex crazy.
“If you say so,” Cris replied accommodatingly. Then she turned toward Andy. “You want to come help me in the kitchen?”
Alex suddenly came to life. It was one thing to banter, but business was business and she wasn’t in the mood to allow that to just slide. “Hey, Andy’s supposed to be taking over for me at the front desk, remember?” The last of her question was directed toward Andy.
“Wyatt got you that extra-wide stool. Use it,” Cris told her, nodding toward where it was parked beneath the reception desk.
Threading her arm around Andy’s shoulders again, Cris gently guided her in the direction of the kitchen.
“It is not extra-wide,” Alex cried defensively, raising her voice slightly. “It’s just extra-comfortable, that’s all.”
“Either way,” Cris answered without turning around this time, “use it. I need Andy. C’mon, I’ve got a chicken potpie in the refrigerator with your name on it.” She knew it was Andy’s favorite comfort food. “I’ll heat it up and you can tell me what’s bothering you.”
Andy sighed as she walked into the kitchen beside her sister. “I don’t really know what’s bothering me.”
That was, more or less, a lie. But she was not about to tell Cris that she was envious of her and the others, that she felt left out because she was a single to their doubles.
“Then we’ll figure it out together,” Cris proposed cheerfully. “Can’t have my baby’s godmother moping around like this, you know.”
Andy frowned, confused. “I’m not Ricky’s godmother.”
There was a mischievous glimmer in Cris’s eyes as she smiled and said, “No, you’re not.”
ANDY HESITATED JUST inside the kitchen door and suddenly reached for the counter to steady herself. Her breath caught in her throat as her brain kicked in, making the question she was about to ask Cris entirely unnecessary.
“Are you saying—?” Andy blew out a breath and tried again, this time hoping to be able to form a coherent, complete sentence. “You want me to be the new baby’s godmother?”
“Only if you promise to learn how to speak English and not garbled gibberish,” Cris qualified, doing her best to maintain a straight face.
“Absolutely!” Andy grabbed Cris’s hands, as if that would somehow help her discern if her sister was just having fun with her or on the level. “Is Shane okay with this? I mean, did you ask him? Maybe he’d rather have someone else, or—”
Cris pulled her hands free from Andy’s and placed her fingers against Andy’s lips in an effort to, at least for the moment, stop the torrent of words.
“Shane is fine with this,” Cris assured her. “In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s really crazy about this family.” Resting her hand on the baby, who must have been once more attempting to kick its way out of her belly—a rather regular occurrence recently—the smile on Cris’s lips widened. “I am an exceedingly lucky woman. To have two good men love me in one lifetime, well, it just doesn’t get any better than that.”
Andy saw that there were tears shimmering in Cris’s eyes. Happy tears.
“No, it doesn’t,” Andy agreed quietly.
The next moment, Andy felt a wave of guilt wash over her. Guilt because she caught herself being envious of Cris.
Her tall, willowy, gentle older sister had had two men pledge to love her forever. Two men who vowed to be there for her so she would have someone to lean on. Not that she didn’t think Cris deserved the love of both her late husband and Shane, the man she’d married last Christmas. She did.
But was it too much to ask to have someone like that come her way?
Apparently, Andy decided, it was. She struggled to suppress a deep sigh.
Cris pressed her lips together, knitting her eyebrows into one very thoughtful line. “For a second there, you seemed like the old Andy,” she told her sister. “But then this new Andy 2.0 version popped out again.” Cris gave her a penetrating stare—and a warning. “You might as well resign yourself to the fact that you’re not coming out of this kitchen until you get it all off your chest.”
Andy just looked at her.
Cris shook her head. “And sorry, I’m not a sucker for that sad, little girl lost face you just put on. Now talk to me, kid. Let it all out. You’ll feel better.”
Andy shrugged, watching Jorge, Cris’s sous-chef, move about the kitchen on what seemed like automatic pilot. Cris was the creative one in the kitchen. These days, as she was getting closer to her due date, Jorge had gone so far as to insist that he wouldn’t listen to a thing she said unless she was sitting down when she said it.
As independent as her sisters, but less vocal about it, Cris had no choice but to comply.
Apparently Jorge’s stubbornness was on the same level as Alex’s. Cris had lamented that she was outnumbered, but Andy believed her sister was secretly grateful for all the help she was getting. It was to the point where everyone was anticipating—correctly—her next order.
Andy blew out a breath, surrendering. “All right, if you really want to know...”
“I do,” Cris replied firmly.
It took Andy a second to gather her courage. She wasn’t one given to whining or complaining. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m the odd girl out.”
“Well, there’s no arguing that you’re a little odd,” Cris allowed, then she laughed, her eyes crinkling with unabashed humor. “In comparison to the rest of us, you’ve always been the one on an even keel, the one who was always happy. You’re the one who always makes the world seem a little brighter, a little happier because of your attitude.”
Cris grew more serious as she made her way to the industrial-sized refrigerator that her father had had installed two renovations СКАЧАТЬ