Secrets of the Tulip Sisters

She’d thought so, too, until he’d been offered a spot on a farm team. He’d left within the hour, barely bothering to tell her where he was going. He’d promised to stay in touch, but he hadn’t. He’d just been gone.

He reached out his hand to her. “I should have taken you with me when I left college.”

“You probably should have.”

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“No doubt.”

He smiled. “I respect that you’re making me work for it, babe. You’re worth it.” He nodded toward the passenger seat. “Want to spend the day together? We could drive to Seattle, walk on the waterfront. Check into a great hotel and get to know each other again.”

He was offering her everything she was supposed to want. There was only one slightly overweight catch. “Is Autumn coming with us?”

He grimaced. “That’s over.”

“You broke up with her?”

“Yes. I swear.”

I swear. Ryan’s favorite phrase.

“I swear I’ll love you forever.”

“I swear I’ll pull out before I come.”

“I swear I’ll never leave you.”

She had a long list of I swear broken promises.

“Does she know you broke up with her?” she asked.

His gaze flickered. She rolled her eyes.

“See you,” she called as she turned and ran in the other direction.

“Dammit, Olivia, why are you acting like this?” he yelled after her.

She didn’t bother turning around or answering. He was a jerk. She knew he was a jerk. She wasn’t sure she even wanted him in her life. It was just that stupid nagging sense that they weren’t done. That he’d always been the one, and that she should try at least one more time to see if they could work it out.

When she’d been alone and sad, Ryan was the guy she’d dreamed about. In college, he’d almost proposed. If he hadn’t been drafted or whatever it was called, he would have. They could be married now, with a kid. They could be happy. More important, she would belong. She’d never belonged—not since her mom had run off all those years ago. Ryan was the dream of finally having a place that was hers alone.

The only problem with that seemed to be the man himself. Or maybe it was her. Maybe she was hanging on to the wrong thing, or learning the wrong lesson. Or maybe she just needed to give Ryan a chance.

*

Jeff held open the door to JML. Helen walked out into the early evening and breathed in the cool air. The stillness surrounded her, easing the tightness in her body. Her ears throbbed from both the volume and the horror of the evening session but that would fade with time and distance.

“They were awful,” Jeff said with a sigh. “Possibly the worst band ever.”

“I agree. No one should butcher country music that way without being prosecuted.” She shuddered. “I’m going to call Isaak tomorrow and tell him we can’t help them. They are, in fact, beyond help and should take up another hobby.”

Not words she said lightly, but honest to God, there was no way she could survive another practice session.

The clients were a father, mother and ten-year-old twin girls. None of them could play an instrument to save their souls and that lack of ability wasn’t even close to how awful they all sang. With years of instruction they might make it all the way to tone deaf, but even that would be a stretch.

Jeff opened the trunk of her car and put her keyboard inside. It was something he always did, like holding open doors or paying the check if they went out. He was a polite man. Polite and kind and funny.

They walked around to the driver’s side and he held open the door. “You’ll probably want to take an aspirin when you get home,” he told her.

“There’s a thought.”

She looked up at him, liking how he was taller. There were a few laugh lines by his eyes, but other than that, he wore his age well. He was a physically active, attractive man and she desperately loved him. While she didn’t think she was ready to confess that, it was long past time to say something.

She sucked in a breath, felt herself flush and suddenly wanted to run away. Only she couldn’t. She’d been doing that for far too long.

“Jeff,” she began.

He stared at her expectantly.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. “I like how you play.”

“You couldn’t hear me tonight.”

“I know, but the rest of the time. I like how you play guitar.”

Ack! Talk about lame. She had to get it together.

“What I mean is you’re really nice and we’re friends and I’ve thought a lot about what you said about Seattle and finding a guy there, but it’s so not anything I could do. I want to be with someone I know and I like and who likes me back. I want to be friends with the guy I sleep with. I want that guy to be you.”

Nothing about him changed. He continued to study her and for the life of her, she had no idea what he was thinking.

“I wanted you to know that if you wanted to start something with me, I’m open to it. Anytime.”

He still held his guitar in his left hand. He shifted it to his right, looked at the ground, back at her, drew in a breath and exhaled.

She could hear the highway about a half mile away and the faint crash of a bowling ball smashing into pins. Her face burned and she knew she was beet red, but there was nothing to be done. She wasn’t going to call back the words. They had to be said.

He finally looked back at her. “Thanks for telling me, Helen. Have a good night.”

Then he turned and walked to his truck. He got in and drove away. Just like that.

When she was alone in the parking lot, she blinked back tears before getting into her car.

She wasn’t going to be sorry, she told herself firmly. Or apologize or feel bad. She had the right to feel how she felt and to want what she wanted. If he didn’t agree, then he was a fool. Which all made sense, only as she drove home she couldn’t helping thinking that the only fool right now was her.

*

“We just can’t wait,” Penny Kerr said with an excited smile. “This is going to be the perfect summer house for us. When my grandfather left us the lot on the lake, we had no idea how we were ever going to afford to build a house and after two years of camping all summer, let me tell you that gets old.”

Her husband, Ben, nodded in agreement. “Once the twins came along last year, it was impossible. My job allows me to work from a remote location but a tent doesn’t cut it.”

The Kerr family had chosen one of Griffith’s largest models. The house would be twelve by twenty-four feet, with a loft. The main level included a kitchen and small bathroom at the back, a combo eating area/play area in the middle and a living room up front. The loft contained two twin beds over the kitchen and a queen-size bed over the living room.

“There are just so many decisions.” Penny bit her lower lip. “The flooring, the fixtures. Is there someone who can help us figure this out? I want the house to look nice, but with our twins, everything is going to have to be durable.”

It was the question Griffith always dreaded. He could design the hell out of four hundred square feet, but he had no idea how to decorate it.

“I can show you pictures of what other people have chosen,” he said. “I also have a list of vendors.”

“But no in-house designer?”