Chapter 34

Harley

River wasbeyond thrilled I was home. He hadn’t left my side since I’d walked in the door, demanding my undivided attention until he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. When I finally tucked him in, after five stories and one song, it was after nine, which was late for him. He’d been excited, though, so I’d been more lenient about bedtime.

Now that he was asleep, I went in search of my sister.

Wynter had been acting odd since I got home, mostly avoiding me, and I went in search of her as soon as River was asleep.

I found her in the kitchen, rearranging the pantry.

“Whatcha doin’?” I asked casually, leaning against the island.

“What does it look like?” she muttered, pulling out a box of brownie mix. “The expiration date on this is three years ago! How do you have something so old in your pantry?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I guess I don’t bake much.”

She tossed it in the trash and then went back in.

Since the pantry was a large room that had floor-to-ceiling shelves and was big enough to get lost in, I followed her.

“What’s going on with you?” I demanded. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.”

“Then why won’t you tell me what’s up? Like, why you quit your job.”

“Because it was soul-sucking,” she replied, plucking a bottle of maple syrup from the top shelf and examining it. “This expires next month. You need to use it!” She thrust it in my direction.

“I’ll get right on that,” I murmured, putting it back on the shelf and then planting myself in front of her. “Hey. Stop. Talk to me. I know I’ve been a needy mess the last few years, but that doesn’t negate anything you’re going through.”

“I’m fine.” She sighed and leaned against the wall. “I took a job as an office manager at a big medical practice in Century City.”

“Okay. Is it more money?”

“Yes. A lot more.”

“And you’re okay with leaving nursing to do admin work?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know yet.”

“That’s understandable. But why are you being weird?”

“What’s going to happen to me now that you’re back with Tommy?” she whispered. “I gave up my apartment to move in here and?—”

“Oh my god.” I reached out and immediately pulled her into a hug. “Wynter. You saved my life in the last year. Hell, since the day I found out I was pregnant. You’re not going anywhere. I have no idea what Tommy and I are doing going forward, but whatever it is, you’ll be with us. Or we’ll set you up in another apartment. Or even help you buy a house. We have more money than we’ll ever spend and?—”

“I don’t want money,” she interjected quickly. “I’ve saved a lot in the last year. I just need to know I’m not going to have to scramble to find a place to live.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I said, scowling at her. “You really think I’d do that to you? Come on. And Tommy’s always loved you. There’s plenty of room here for all of us.”

“I’d be a third wheel,” she said. “You guys are starting over. You don’t need your spinster older sister in the way.”

I nearly burst out laughing, but she was being serious.

“You’re eighteen months older than me!” I protested. “And technically I’m single too. We’re not spinsters. You’re waiting for the right guy. You absolutely should not settle. God knows, I didn’t.”

“Are you sure, Harley? Have you talked to Tommy about this?”

“We haven’t talked about moving in together yet,” I said. “We’re still working on our issues, and he has to get to know River better before we can decide anything like that. I promise, you will be part of any conversation that has to do with moving or living together.”

She chewed the inside of her cheek. “Okay.”

“Come on, let’s go have a glass of wine and you can tell me about your new job.”

“All right.” She followed me out of the pantry and got out wine glasses while I opened a bottle of wine. “They’re going to send me out of town to learn their payroll software. Even though I won’t be doing payroll, I guess the office manager has to be familiar with everything.”

“Yeah?” I cocked my head. “Where are you going?”

“Dallas, I think.” She took a sip of wine. “Am I crazy? Leaving nursing to work behind the scenes?”

“I think we all need a change sometimes. And working in the ER has been hard.”

“I know, but it’s rewarding too. Helping people.”

“You’ll still be helping people, just in a different way. And you have to prioritize yourself, you know? Making more money is important too.”

“I won’t be around as much to help with River.”

“I’m planning to hire someone to help out full-time. We might be going on tour with the band, so we won’t even be here.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “I didn’t realize that was a possibility.”

“There are a lot of possibilities. That’s why we need to finish this bottle of wine and catch up.”

“Then tell me everything.” She leaned forward on the counter. “And I want juicy details too.”

“Well, you’ll be spectacularly disappointed to find out that we had totally vanilla sex last night.”

“What?” She blinked. “You’re joking, right?”

“Nope. He wanted to prove I could get off without kink.”

“And… you did?”

I gave her a lopsided smile. “Apparently, all it takes is for my man to tell me he loves me when he’s inside me.”

“Oh.” She patted her chest dramatically, though she was smiling. “That might be one of the most romantic things I’ve ever heard.”

“It kind of was,” I admitted. “I’ve always loved everything about Tommy, and while he was generous and attentive, I never really considered him romantic. Until now. He was pulling out all the stops.” I paused. “He wrote me a song, Wynter.”

She cocked her head. “He’s done that before, hasn’t he?”

“Kinda? But not like this. It was so poignant and beautiful. And he wants me to be in one of the band’s new music videos…a throwback to the first one I was in.”

“He’s pulling out all the stops, huh?”

“And get this. He said when we get to the point where we’re ready to get married again, maybe we should do it in Paris.”

“Holy shit. This is pretty epic, don’t you think?”

“It is.” I dipped my head. “I’m so in love with him, Wynter. It’s scary.”

“But you’ve felt that way since day one. It’s not like this is new. And he’s obviously always loved you too, or he wouldn’t be trying so hard.”

“I know. I just never imagined we’d find our way back to each other.” I took a breath. “And truly, this was Carter’s doing. It took us a while to get there, but by forcing us to get everything out in the open, Tommy and I were able to finally talk.”

“Well then.” She lifted her glass. “To Carter.”

I clinked my glass against hers. “To Carter.”

My phone buzzed and I looked down to see a text from Tommy.

TOMMY: Hey, beautiful. Whatcha doin?”

HARLEY: Having a glass of wine with Wynter. Can I call you in a little while?

TOMMY: Take your time. I just got home from Z’s and I’m going to unpack, maybe do a load of laundry.

HARLEY: You know how to do laundry?

That had been a running joke with us because he’d ruined so many of my clothes early in our relationship when he just threw everything in one load without paying attention to delicates or colors.

TOMMY: I’ll have you know, Rhonda taught me!

Rhonda had been our housekeeper, and she was still with him.

HARLEY: I’ll believe it when I see it.

TOMMY: LOL Talk to you later. Love you.

HARLEY: Love you too.

“I should probably get to bed,” Wynter said after a few minutes. “I’m not used to getting up this early or sitting in rush hour traffic, so tomorrow might be a long day for me.”

“Well, I’m excited for you,” I told her. “Change can be a good thing.”

“Change would be me meeting a nice guy and getting married,” she quipped. “Or at least, a guy who knows how to find the clitoris.”

“Not a lot of guys who know what they’re doing in bed,” I said. “But he’s out there. He has to be. There has to be a version of Tommy out there for you, Wynter.”

“I’m starting to doubt it, but at least one of us is going to be happy.”

“You just set your standards too high,” I teased. “I mean, Ross Rocket isn’t going to come prancing up to the front door to find you.”

She giggled. “Technically, he could, right? I mean, we know how to find him.”

“You’re not holding your breath for that, are you?” I teased.

She laughed. “Not hardly.”

Ross Rocket was the lead singer of a band we’d loved as teens. They weren’t together anymore, but we still listened to their music and joked about which one of us was going to ‘marry’ Ross. Ironically, Ross was now Onyx Knight’s tour manager, though none of us ever acknowledged that we knew who he was because he’d asked the band to keep it under wraps when they’d hired him.

Wynter knew, but of course, she was discreet as well.

We still joked about it, though.

“Good night,” I called as she headed for her bedroom. “Sweet dreams!”

“Me and Ross Rocket,” she called over her shoulder. “Between the sheets!”

I laughed.