Sisters and Secrets

by Jennifer Ryan

  The blaring sound made Danny’s and Oliver’s eyes go wide with terror.

  Oliver freaked and ran out the front door screaming, “The house is on fire!”

  Danny followed him at a dead run.

  Amy tossed the burnt pizza on top of the stove and ran after them. She found Oliver in the yard sitting in the middle of the lawn with his knees bent, arms tightened around them, crying. Danny stood next to him patting his shoulder, cooing, “It’s okay.”

  She knelt next to Oliver and brushed her hand over his hair. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. There’s no fire, only a very burnt pizza.”

  Oliver looked up at her, bottom lip trembling. “Is anyone dead?”

  Her heart broke. “No, honey. Everyone is fine.” She glanced up at P.J. and Emma standing at her side. “See, your cousins are fine and there’s nothing but smoke in the house.” She wiped at Oliver’s tears with her thumbs. “Come on. Let’s see if I have another pizza in the freezer and get that smoke detector to stop that incessant buzzing.”

  The last tear spilled down Oliver’s soft cheek. “It’s scary.”

  Her heart was still pounding. “I know, but it’s all over now.”

  She picked up Oliver, hugged him close to reassure him, and stood. She walked back into the house, scrunching her nose at the burnt smell and smoke still lingering in the air.

  “P.J., Emma, and Danny, grab a magazine off the table and wave it in the air and try to get the smoke to blow out the door.” She set Oliver on a stool at the counter and picked up the burnt-to-a-crisp disk from off the stove. “I’ll be right back, sweetheart. Let me get rid of this.” She walked out the back door and went to the trash bins on the side of the house. She dumped the ruined pie into the trash and slammed the lid.

  Where the hell is Rex? He should have been home an hour ago.

  Of course he picks tonight to leave me alone with four kids.

  She walked back into the house and sighed. All four kids were running around, flapping magazines pretending to be helicopters and windmills. Oliver seemed back to his old self. Thank God. The house smelled slightly better, but the smell of smoke would linger for a while.

  She kicked the oven door shut, found another pizza in the freezer, tossed it on the counter, and snagged the phone from the charger. She hit the speed dial and waited three rings before Rex finally picked up.

  “Where are you?”

  A long silent pause on the other end made her stop and think she should have at least said hello first.

  “I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you back in an hour.” The clipped tone set her off.

  “I’m here with four kids and no backup. I need your help.”

  “Hold on.”

  Her patience nearly snapped when she heard his muffled “Please excuse me for a moment. I need to take this,” and a woman said, “Sure. No problem.”

  She got even angrier when it took him another minute to come back on the line.

  “What is going on?” he demanded in a hushed whisper.

  “Who was that woman?”

  “A client.”

  “You didn’t say anything about a business dinner tonight.”

  “I called you three times today and left you two messages, but apparently you were too busy to listen to them.”

  She couldn’t refute that. After she picked up all four kids at school, took them to the park to play, out for frozen yogurt, got them back to the house to wash up and do homework, then started dinner, she hadn’t even looked at her phone . . . until now.

  “Can you get out of the dinner and come home and help me?”

  “No.” He didn’t say anything more.

  “But I have Sierra’s boys here. They’re sleeping over. It’s crazy. I burned dinner, the smoke alarm went off, and Oliver freaked out.”

  “I’m sure you’ve got it covered. I need to get back to my client.”

  “That’s all you have to say.”

  “We’ve been over this too many times to count at this point. According to your master plan, the kids were supposed to be at the park carnival thing tonight. I figured you weren’t expecting me, since you didn’t tell me about it, or even ask if I wanted to go with you.”

  “Of course we wanted you to go, but there was no way I was taking four kids on my own.”

  “And you prove my point for me. You thought you’d be doing that alone and changed your plans without telling me a thing.”

  The anger and frustration in his voice only made her angrier. “So I’m expected to plan your schedule, too.”

  “I thought we were a family. One that does things together. But lately, you’re so busy keeping busy you forget I exist. It took you over an hour to realize I wasn’t home at the usual time. Instead of listening to my messages, you interrupt my business meeting and insinuate I’m out with a woman behind your back.”

  True. Still . . . “It’s not like you’re hot for me when you get home.”

  “Most of the time you don’t notice I’m even there unless you need me to do something with the kids. It’s all I can do to get you to stop whatever you’re doing to kiss me hello. It used to be that I couldn’t leave or come home without kissing you. Now, it feels like it’s just one more chore for you to do. Most of the time, it doesn’t make even one of your lists.”

  True. Damnit. This wasn’t all her fault. “That’s not fair.”

  “I’m the first one who’ll say no, it’s not. I used to have a wife. Now I’ve got the mother of my kids. You’re so wrapped up in that, you don’t have time for anything else, including me, and while I get it, I’m tired of it.”

  That scared her all the way to her soul. “What are you saying?”

  “Something needs to change. We’ve talked about it to death, but you refuse to cut back and spend more time at home. Your priorities don’t include me. My needs and wants rank dead last to the kids and their activities and you wanting to make it seem like we’ve got the perfect life. The photos are great, Amy, but have you ever noticed I’m not in most of them? Where are the ones of us doing things as a family?”

  She didn’t know what to say.

  “We planned tonight as our first date night in God knows how long. Do you remember that?” He didn’t give her a chance to respond. “But instead of putting that on your precious calendar, you scheduled yet another thing for the kids to do.”

  “The park carnival only happens once a year. I thought the kids would love it, but then Sierra asked if I could watch her boys, too.”

  “That just sounds like excuses to me about how unimportant our date was to you. I was looking forward to it. I had a reservation and a plan to seduce my wife. But she wasn’t interested. She made other plans. So I made other plans, and I need to get back to them. At least my boss will appreciate my extra effort.”

  Desperation seized her heart. “Rex, please. Come home, we’ll talk about this.”

  “I’ve said everything I have to say. You know how I feel. I know you’re not going to change. Maybe it’s time I did something about it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re always complaining you have no time to yourself. You obviously don’t want to spend it with me, so maybe we fix that and I take my fair share of time with the kids.”

  She turned her back on the kids who were tearing pages out of the magazines and making them into paper airplanes and tossing them all over the living room. “Are you saying you want a divorce?” She kept her voice low, so the kids didn’t hear her say that last word she’d never thought would come out of her mouth when talking about her and Rex. They loved each other. They swore they’d be together forever. They promised that nothing would ever come between them.

  “I’m telling you that if something doesn’t change now, it’s not looking good for us.”

  She stood stunned, listening to the dead line.

  He’d hung up on her.

  What the . . .

  How did this all become her fault?

  S
he glanced at the color-coded calendar.

  Green for sports.

  Blue for art class.

  Orange for music class.

  Red for birthday parties. The bold color to help her remember to pick up a gift.

  Purple items for the things she volunteered to do: working in the kids’ classrooms, school and community events.

  She had a rainbow collage of events listed that should have made her life feel full and satisfying. So why did she feel like a bedraggled athlete coming in last at the end of a triathlon every day? She made it through, but she didn’t feel like a winner. She didn’t feel like she’d enjoyed it.

  “Aunt Amy, I’m hungry.” Danny stared up at her, his finger in his mouth.

  “Don’t put your fingers in your mouth. They’re dirty.”

  Danny pulled his finger free and showed her the long paper cut that welled with blood and dripped down to his palm. “It hurts.”

  Yeah, every accusation Rex lashed her with tonight felt like a stinging paper cut, throbbing in her mind. But when he insinuated they were headed for a divorce and it was all her fault, she felt the dagger to the heart.

  Amy fought back tears, her anger and frustration, along with the fear and uncertainty about the future.

  She wanted to fix this, but also felt paralyzed, because it all overwhelmed her.

  She’d been dealing with those feelings for months. Because she liked everything perfect and organized, trying to untangle her life only made it seem that much harder to do, so she didn’t do anything but get through the next marathon day.

  Right now, she needed to feed four kids and get them settled for the night.

  As always, the kids came first and she came last.

  She got that’s what happened when you had kids. Most days, she didn’t mind. But right now, she’d like a few hours to herself to think about everything going on in her life instead of what fruit or vegetable she’d serve with the pizza and how many bedtime stories it would take to get the kids to go to sleep.

  “Can I call my mom?” Danny asked.

  Sierra was probably having the night of her life out with Mason at a fancy restaurant that probably didn’t even serve chicken nuggets and had linen napkins and fancy cocktails.

  Amy desperately needed an adult beverage right now.

  “Let’s fix that cut. You can call her after dinner.” She held her hand out to her nephew and walked with him to the bathroom, leaving the other three loud children tossing paper airplanes trying to outdo one another with the distance they got on their throws.

  She didn’t feel like she was getting anywhere but older in her life.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mason kicked the front door closed, tugged Sierra’s hand to get her to turn to him, then took her mouth in a searing kiss that made his heart slam into his ribs, then beat double time. She tasted like wine and honey. Sweet on his tongue. A fire in his arms. She gave back everything he poured into showing her how much he wanted her.

  He’d waited so long to have her all to himself and in his arms like this.

  He didn’t want to waste a second of it. And yet, he had all night to take his time.

  She hooked her leg around his thigh, her arms locked around his neck. He grabbed her ass and pulled her in close. About to pick her up and carry her to his bedroom, she jolted and pushed away when her phone rang.

  She sucked in a much needed breath and smiled up at him. “Sorry. It’s probably the kids calling to say good night.”

  Reluctantly and with a lot of effort, he let her loose.

  She swiped the screen to accept the video call and held up the phone so the boys could see her. “Hey, you guys. Are you having fun?”

  “Aunt Amy set the house on fire,” Oliver announced.

  “What?” Sierra gasped. “Are you all okay?”

  “Everyone is fine,” Amy yelled. “I burned a pizza, not the house.”

  Sierra’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Sounds like you had some excitement. What else did you do today?”

  “All kinds of stuff. I won the airplane-flying contest and ate the most pizza.” Danny beamed his mother a smile. “P.J. beat me on the race car game. Emma wanted us to play tea party, but there wasn’t anything in the cups, so we went out back and played on the swings. P.J. can go really high.”

  “You’ve been busy. I hope you helped Aunt Amy clean up.”

  “We did. First one to finish their area got to pick the books for bedtime. I won.”

  “Awesome.” Sierra’s adoration for her boys and their accomplishments showed in her bright eyes. “Did you brush your teeth and wash up for bed?”

  “All done.” Danny leaned in close to the screen. “Where are you?”

  With nothing but a blank wall behind her, she had no trouble lying. “At home. I’ll be there first thing in the morning. We’ll have breakfast with Aunt Amy, then come home.”

  “Can we go riding with Mason? He said he’d teach me to go backwards.”

  “Why do you want your horse to go backwards?”

  “Cuz.”

  Sierra glanced at Mason. He nodded that he’d take the boys horseback riding. “I’m sure Mason will take you and Oliver riding again. Now I want you to be good boys, be quiet while Aunt Amy reads books, and go right to sleep so you’ll be rested and ready to ride with Mason tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” Danny yawned. “You’ll be here in the morning. Right?”

  “Yes, honey. I’ll be there.”

  “Night, Mommy.” Oliver blew a kiss.

  Sierra pretended it smacked her on the cheek and smiled. “Night, baby. I love you both. Make sure you thank Aunt Amy for a great day.”

  The boys waved good-bye and Amy took the phone and turned away from the screen, making sure the boys left. “I hope you had a good night because four kids all going in different directions is chaos.”

  Sierra chuckled. “You said you wanted to keep them for the night.”

  “Because I don’t know how to say no. Except to Rex. Who’s pissed at me, by the way.”

  “Because you offered to babysit the kids?”

  “No. Yes. We were supposed to have date night and I forgot.”

  “Oh, Amy, I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, well, it is what it is. So while my relationship is falling apart and yours is heating up, I expect details over breakfast about your fab night because I’m living vicariously through you until Rex decides if he’s going to keep me or not.”

  Sierra stared at her sister stunned, then found her words. “Um, I’m sure Rex just got caught up and said some things he didn’t mean.”

  “Oh, he meant them.” Amy waved it all away. “Sorry. I’m bumming you out on your hot date. You’re still with him, aren’t you?”

  Sierra turned the phone so Amy could see him standing next to Sierra.

  Amy covered her face with her hand and shook her head. “Oh god. I’m an idiot. Go back to . . . whatever you two were doing. I’ve got the kids. Don’t worry about anything. See you in the morning.” And just like that Amy hung up, and Sierra and Mason stared at each other.

  Sierra’s eyes filled with worry. “I had no idea she and Rex were having trouble.”

  “Me, either. She always seems so . . . on it.” He shrugged. “I’m sure they’ll work it out.”

  “I hope so.”

  Mason wanted to erase everything from her mind and bring her back to him. To their special night together. A night years in the making. He wanted her only thinking of them.

  “The kids are fine. Amy and Rex will work out their own problems. Tonight, let’s focus on us, because I finally have you all to myself. And I don’t want to waste a second of it.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sierra stared into Mason’s eyes, awed by the depth of sincerity and desire filling them.

  Had any other man ever looked at her like that?

  In that moment, she let any reservations that they were moving too fast fall away. This was Mason. Her friend. The guy she’
d nearly called off her engagement for on a flicker of hope they might have something worth holding on to forever.

  And now here was the chance to find out.

  He held her face in his hands and stared deep into her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you and to feel this way again for a long time.” His lips touched hers in a soft kiss that packed a punch of longing and need so raw it echoed through her.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, went up on tiptoe, pulled him close, and took the kiss deeper, letting the walls around her heart drop and allowing him and the rush of feelings in.

  Excitement.

  Need.

  And yes, love.

  New and blossoming.

  Fragile but hardy, with the possibility to thrive if they nurtured it.

  So Sierra let go of everything and focused on them and the way he made her feel. Safe. Wanted. Needed. Important and vital.

  A thrill of excitement swept through her as his hands slipped beneath the hem of her dress and brushed up her thighs.

  Thoughts about cellulite, unshed baby weight, and pudge flew out of her head the second his hands clamped on her ass and he groaned with pure male appreciation. He effortlessly lifted her snug against him, her legs wrapping around his waist bringing her aching center into exquisite contact with his hard length. She tightened her legs and rubbed against him.

  Mason broke the kiss and squeezed her ass. “You’re killing me.”

  “Wait ’til I get your clothes off.”

  Without a word, he gave her a searing kiss and walked out of the entry, hopefully to his room. Though she didn’t much care where they landed so long as he didn’t stop kissing and touching her.

  It had been way too long since she felt like a desirable woman. It had been too long since her body felt this alive.

  And she reveled in it.

  Mason clamped his hands at her waist and nudged her off him. Her feet hit the floor and the backs of her legs brushed against the bed. He dipped his hands under her dress again and pulled it up and over her head. The slinky material sailed across the room and landed in a puddle, looking like a pale purple flower on the dark hardwood.

  His gaze swept down, taking in her pink lace bra and the matching cheeky panties that she had to admit were well worth the splurge because they made her ass look great. The blaze of heat in his eyes said he thought so, too.