Sisters in Bloom

by Melissa Foster

  “Seriously? They keep calling them him and her.”

  “Actually, Kaylie calls her Sassy and him Buddy.” He shrugged.

  “Yeah, but those aren’t real names.”

  Blake pulled into the driveway of their home.

  “Why are we stopping here? We haven’t settled yet.”

  He smiled at her as he parked in front of the house. Danica recognized Kaylie’s and her mother’s cars. Sally’s car pulled in behind them.

  “Blake?” Her eyes grew wide.

  He smiled and got out of the car before she could ask more questions. Danica was surprised to see Gage stepping out of Sally’s car. Rusty, Michelle, and Chase piled out of the backseat.

  “Oh, my,” Danica said as she stood beside Blake. “This should be fun.”

  “I hear it’s all very friendly.”

  “Sally never mentioned a thing to me.” She met Blake in front of the car. “So, why are we here?”

  “It’s ours. I settled three days ago.”

  Danica punched him in the arm. “How could you not tell me?”

  “Because then I wouldn’t get a reaction like his.” He laughed. “There are so few surprises in life. I figured I’d take full advantage.”

  “Congratulations?” she said with an arched brow.

  He took her in his arms. “Congratulations!” He swung her around just as Gage and Sally walked by.

  “Get a room,” Gage teased.

  Danica kissed Blake, then fell in stride with Sally. “You kept this from me?”

  Sally blushed. “Nothing to keep.”

  “And Gage? You kept that from me?”

  “We’re friends. Very good friends.” A sly smile worked its way across her lips. “Maybe one day we’ll be more, but for now, at least, we’re spending more time together and getting to know each other better. You know what? It’s perfect for now.”

  “And them?” Danica pointed to Rusty, Michelle, and Chase.

  “Them, too. Seems friends is the way to go.”

  They headed inside, where Chaz and Kaylie stood beside their mother, who was swaying back and forth with a very sleepy baby in her arms.

  Kaylie shrieked and hugged Danica.

  “I just saw you last week!” Danica said, looking Kaylie up and down. “Good God, girl. How are you turning back into Barbie so quickly?”

  “Oh, stop,” Kaylie said with a swat. “I still have a lot to lose, and check these babies out.” She shimmied her maternal breasts with a laugh. “Come on. Say hi to Sassy and Buddy.”

  “Seriously, Kay, you’ve got to give them names. What do their birth certificates say? Female and Male Crew?”

  Kaylie, obviously ignoring Danica’s question, waved her arm, presenting the house to Danica. “Are you surprised?”

  “Yeah, I am. But I think Blake is going to be even more surprised,” she said with a wink.

  “You haven’t told him yet?” Kaylie whispered conspiratorially.

  Danica shook her head.

  “What about Mom?”

  Danica nodded.

  “What are we whispering about?” Sally asked, squeezing in between the two sisters.

  “Danica’s secret.”

  Sally crossed her arms and looked at her expectantly. “So, we’re keeping secrets now?”

  Danica pretended to zip her mouth closed and throw away the key. She oohed and aahed over the babies, and she watched her man from across the room. She waited for the old Danica to return, to chide her for not making a formal list of pros and cons, or for not talking things through with a professional, or at least someone she trusted, but that little voice never came. Danica trusted her own judgment, and the nudge from her mother had given her the clarity to act on her decision, even if it had taken her a little while to come to one.

  She watched Blake make kissy faces at her nephew. Her own McDreamy, she mused. As she ticked off all of the things about him that she’d fallen in love with, he moved toward her, with a warm, interested smile in his eyes.

  “Hey, there. Wanna go someplace quiet?” he teased, nuzzling her neck.

  “Actually, I want to be right here.” Danica held his hand. “You haven’t pressured me about marrying you.”

  “I know better than to badger. I’ve learned.” Blake moved in closer.

  Danica could practically taste the desire on his breath. “You’ve learned, have you?”

  “Yeah, and I’ve learned that life is way too short to let things bring us down.” He glanced at Sally, then back at Danica. “I’d live in sin with you until we’re old and gray. I don’t need a marriage certificate.”

  Danica lowered her eyes. “Thinking of Dave?”

  Blake nodded. “Things happen, babe. The last thing I want is to not spend every second with you that I can, and if that means living together, well” —he put his hands around her waist and pulled her in close— “I hear living in sin can be pretty great.”

  Danica reeled in her racing heart. “What if we didn’t have to?”

  “Hmm?” he said into her neck, planting gentle kisses along her collarbone.

  “What if we didn’t have to live in sin?”

  He stopped kissing her and raised his eyes.

  “I’ve been thinking. Maybe sin isn’t so great. Maybe we should live in legal splendor instead.”

  “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Blake couldn’t hide his enthusiasm; it came out with every hopeful word.

  She beamed. “Yes.”

  “Yes, what? I want to be one hundred percent certain that I understand what you’re saying.”

  The room grew quiet, and Danica felt the others’ hopeful eyes on them. She looked into Blake’s beautiful green eyes, tiny flecks of yellow dancing against the light, and she said, “Yes, I will marry you, Blake Carter. If the offer is still—”

  Blake picked Danica up and spun her around. “Yes! Yes! She said yes!” He laughed.

  “Woo-hoo!” Kaylie cheered.

  “Double wedding!” Chaz added.

  When Blake finally set Danica down on the hardwood floor, she was dizzy with happiness. She was passed from Sally to her mother, to Kaylie, to Chaz, and even Michelle, Chase, and Rusty got in on the congratulatory hugs.

  She’d done it.

  She’d said yes!

  She watched Blake receive the same enthusiastic welcome to the family, and she leaned against the wall, taking it all in. She wanted to remember every second of this day.

  Kaylie came and stood beside her and took Danica’s hand in her own.

  “Wanna know my secret?” Kaylie asked, watching Chaz give Blake a heavy pat on the back.

  “Yeah,” Danica answered, still reeling from her own life-changing decision.

  Kaylie guided her to the babies in their double stroller, each swaddled in blankets, their tiny eyes closed. Kaylie looked down at them and smiled, then drew her eyes up to Danica.

  “Auntie Danica, meet Alexandra Ellison Crew. Lexi for short.” She touched her son’s cheek. “And Trevor Michael Crew. Trev for short, Michael for Chaz’s dad.” Kaylie looked at Lexi the way their own mother looked at her—even now, so many years since she’d been a tiny baby.

  “Alexandra and Trevor. You used Mom’s maiden name, Ellison.” Danica rolled the names over in her mind. They were such big names for such tiny babies, but if Danica believed one thing, it was that any child of Kaylie’s would not have a tiny personality. Alexandra Crew. Trevor Crew. She liked the feel of them. Lexi and Trev. Even better. “They’re perfect.”

  The End

  Please enjoy the first chapter of the next Love in Bloom novel

  Sisters in White

  Snow Sisters, Book Three

  Love in Bloom Series

  Melissa Foster

  Chapter One

  “I thought they were going to do a cavity search,” Danica joked as she and her fiancé, Blake Carter, finally passed through security at the Nassau Airport. After six hours on an airplane, she felt like she’d been folded, p
acked tight, boxed, and shipped. The sooner she stepped out those glass doors and into the sunshine, the better. “Maybe we should go walk around a bit.”

  “Don’t you want to wait for your sister?” Blake asked, holding the doors open for Danica to pass through. Her sister, Kaylie, and Kaylie’s fiancé, Chaz, were not far behind. His consideration of Kaylie and his gentlemanlike manners were just two of the many reasons Danica had fallen in love with—and finally agreed to marry—Blake.

  “I guess. Then maybe we can take a walk after we get to the hotel.”

  Blake set their bags down and pulled Danica in close. He lowered his voice to a sexy, sleepy drawl. “If you think I’m gonna let you out of our room any longer than to attend our wedding, you’re wrong.”

  She playfully pushed him away as he made a show of nibbling on her neck.

  A few minutes later, Kaylie breezed through the doors with Chaz, who was weighed down by two enormous suitcases. Her hair blew in the warm breeze like thick, shimmering strands of gold. “That took for-e-ver!” She took a deep breath and drew her arms open wide. “So this is what freedom feels like.”

  “If you call six hours on a plane freedom,” Chaz joked. His blond hair was slightly disheveled, and still, in his ever-present khaki shorts and smart linen shirt, he and Kaylie looked like Ken and Barbie.

  Kaylie shot him a flirty smile.

  “Oh, you mean as in no-children freedom,” he said.

  Kaylie and Chaz had met three years earlier, and Kaylie’s unexpected pregnancy, and the surprise birth of their twins, had kept them running at a frenetic pace ever since. Chaz Crew had proven himself as not only a loving and involved father, but he was the calm to Kaylie’s dramatic storms.

  “I love my babies, but after two years of chasing the twins nonstop, I need this little break. Three whole days before they come with Mom. Three. Whole. Days. And two whole nights. It feels so decadent to be here in the middle of the week.”

  It had taken Kaylie two years after Lexi and Trevor were born to feel like herself again, and as Danica watched her sister’s face light up at the prospect of time alone with her soon-to-be husband, she was glad they’d waited to have the wedding. At first, a double wedding had seemed like a bad idea. Danica had been sure Kaylie would want to be the star of the show, and wasn’t it just as much Danica’s day as Kaylie’s? But Kaylie had proven her wrong time and time again; from choosing flowers to bridesmaid dresses, Kaylie was agreeable, and even deferred to Danica on several occasions. At times, Danica still had trouble processing just how much Kaylie had changed since she’d met Chaz. She was no longer a party girl, but a mature mother of two…who just so happened to have a flair for drama at times.

  “Two whole nights,” Chaz repeated.

  “Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Blake picked up their bags and hailed a cab.

  Although the others thought he was teasing, Danica saw the gleam in his eye and recognized the hunger that had yet to abate between them. She felt a flush rush up her neck and ducked into the cab so no one would notice. Each time they made love, it left her wanting more, like a hormone-infused teenager. Or a sex addict, she mused. Lately, in the darkest hours of the night, when Blake lay sleeping beside her ravished and sated body, she found herself wanting more, thinking about new and different things she and Blake might try. Things that, in her pre-Blake years, she’d never have even entertained. But she’d never—ever—say such things out loud. Not even to him. She’d learned that from her parents’ divorce a few years earlier. Danica knew that no matter how much she loved, and how much she trusted, sometimes life kicked you to the curb, and all that love—and all those promises in the dark—could be forgotten just as quickly as they’d slipped from her lips. A partner could walk away at any moment, taking the dirty scenes of their intimate moments with them and sharing them with God knew whom. She wasn’t having cold feet, and she trusted Blake explicitly, but some lessons were engrained too deeply to simply forget.

  “Oh no. I’m talking about sleep, my friend.” Kaylie linked her arm through Chaz’s as they climbed into the cab. “My man needs to rest.”

  After Chaz had taken over full ownership of the Indie Film Festival his father had started, he’d planned on taking the business to a whole new level. He’d been working night and day to ensure that he would never be desperate for sponsors again, and he’d succeeded. The bags under his eyes, and his slow pace, revealed the stress of working twelve-hour days and then coming home to late nights with the toddlers.

  Danica and Kaylie both gasped as they entered the elaborately decorated hotel. The incredibly high ceilings, and the widely sculpted, artistically weathered pillars, were highlighted by salmon-colored granite floors speckled with flecks of black, white, and gold, dramatically reflecting the crystal of the chandeliers.

  Kaylie took Danica’s hand. “Oh my God. This belongs to Blake’s cousin?”

  “Yeah. Treat Braden,” Danica said in a breathy voice. “This is too much.”

  Blake put his hand on the small of her back. “He was happy to comp us the venue. It’s his wedding gift to us.”

  “He must be loaded,” Kaylie said.

  “Kaylie!” Maybe Kaylie hasn’t changed that much after all.

  Kaylie smiled, and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oops. Sorry.”

  Blake took it in stride. “He is loaded. His entire family is well off, but you’d never know it. All five brothers, and his sister, too. But they’re good people. Very humble, generous to a fault.”

  “And from what Blake told me, each one is more handsome than the next, and yet they’re all single. Even Savannah, their sister.”

  Kaylie furrowed her brow. “Are they all gay? I mean, women must flock to them, and guys to her.”

  Blake shook his head as he checked in at the registration desk.

  “They’re not gay; trust me, they all play the field. A lot,” he said as they headed to their separate rooms, agreeing to meet for a quick bite once they were settled in.

  Danica brought her wedding checklist to the café to go over it one last time.

  “Everyone arrives Friday. Sally and Max are bringing our dresses with them; the flowers and food are all set, and Treat has reserved an entire island for the ceremony. Oh, and of course a boat, too, to get to the island.” Danica let out a relieved sigh, wondering what she might have forgotten. She still couldn’t believe that they were really getting married. She grabbed Blake’s hand, and when he turned his green eyes toward her, the yellow specks that had always intrigued her were dancing in the light.

  He put his other hand on her cheek and said, “Yes, we’re really doing this.”

  He’d been reminding her every chance he got that she would soon be his wife. Danica found it funny. He’d been the player when they’d met, not her, and yet he was the one afraid she’d leave him at the altar. “Yes, we are,” she assured him.

  “Oh, please. Get a room.” Kaylie set the menu down as the waitress arrived and took their orders.

  The waitress’s pearl-white teeth contrasted against her deeply tanned skin, and colorful beads were weaved through tiny braids in her long dark hair. Danica expected some sort of island accent, but when the summer beauty spoke, she was as American as apple pie. “I’ll be y’all’s waitress today. What can I get ya?”

  They ordered tropical drinks, salads, and sandwiches, and Danica watched Kaylie survey the young waitress as she sauntered away, her hourglass figure expertly defined beneath the long, tight skirt and slinky tank top. She waited for Kaylie’s snarky remark.

  Kaylie moved her chair closer to Chaz and said, “Wow, she is gorgeous. If that’s what the tropical sun does to a girl, then I’m never leaving.”

  “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?” Danica was only half joking.

  Kaylie swatted the air. “I’m old now, sis. I’m almost thirty, with two kids to boot.”

  “If that’s old, then what does it say about me?” Danica asked.

 
; “You’re right. At almost thirty-two, you are old. I’m still a spring chicken.”

  The waitress brought their drinks and meals, and Blake raised his glass. “To two marriages. May they last forever.” They all clinked glasses.

  Chaz took a drink, then asked, “What time does your father get in?”

  Kaylie groaned.

  “Play nice, Kaylie,” Danica said. Kaylie hadn’t seen their father since right after she graduated from college, when she’d found out about his long-term affair and he’d moved away and married his mistress. “He, Madeline, and Lacy get in today around six.”

  “Madeline is coming, too?” Kaylie asked with a long sigh.

  Of course, Kaylie already knew their father’s wife was coming. Danica shook her head at her sister’s penchant for drama.

  “Please tell me why he’s coming on Wednesday when our wedding isn’t until Sunday,” Kaylie said. “I’ll need more of these, please.” Kaylie sucked down her drink and held up the glass, indicating to the waitress that she wanted a refill.

  “Slow down, girl. You should at least be coherent when he arrives,” Danica said. “He wants time with us, and he knows we’ll be busy the day of the wedding. I told you all of this, and you agreed.”

  “I didn’t agree,” Kaylie said with a vehement shake of her head. “You just didn’t listen to me when I said it would ruin my week. And that girl is coming, too. At least I don’t have to be nice to her,” Kaylie said.

  Blake and Danica exchanged a worried glance. They’d anticipated how Kaylie might react to meeting their half sister, Lacy—their father’s love child—who was born just a few years after Kaylie, while their parents were still married.

  When the twins were born, Kaylie had refused to call her father. Danica had taken it upon herself to give him the news about his grandchildren, and through her father, she’d made contact with Lacy. Although Danica had yet to meet her in person, they’d been exchanging emails, phone calls, and even a few handwritten letters over the past year and a half. Kaylie had been livid at her for weeks about contacting their father, so Danica decided to keep her relationship with Lacy a secret…just until Kaylie settled down. And by her reaction, it appeared that the subject of their father was still an open wound.