4. Scarlett
scarlett
. . .
I typed away at my computer like I had been the entire day. Medical billing wasn’t brain surgery, but it could be tedious work. The only plus side was that I was able to work from home to do it.
I stretched and sighed.
“I need a massage,” I muttered under my breath before rolling my neck side to side. I stood up after I finished what I needed to get done before clocking out and walked from my home office to my living room.
I headed towards the windows and looked at the street I had lived on for the last year. It wasn’t the best, but it was hardly the worst. Too cold for the kids who I usually heard to play outside; the streets were empty. Only a couple of parked cars on the sidewalks. I’d grown up in Moonlit Pines, California, but since moving out of my childhood home, I hadn’t really paid attention to where I actually lived. I was kind of a boring person.
“No kind of about it,” I mumbled under my breath. “I am officially the most boring twenty-five-year-old known to man,” I kept talking to myself, reaching for the huge canvas bag I had sitting next to the couch before getting comfortable on my loveseat. “Now I get to be boring and crazy because I talk to myself.” I could have laughed at myself.
I was a little… pathetic.
No, you’re not; you’re just having a moment , a voice in my head encouraged. I breathed in and out slowly, then took my yarn out, along with the hook, and got to work. I was working on crocheting a temperature blanket this year and was determined to try and not get more than two days behind at a time. My phone rang just as I got going, and I was tempted to ignore it. But if I did, I had a feeling one, if not all three of my sisters, would show up out of nowhere. I set my crocheting down and picked up my phone. My eyes rolled as I pressed the answer button.
“Yes, Cora.”
“Why aren’t you coming to dinner?” she asked, not bothering with saying hi or asking how I was.
“Because we have been to the brewery on the daily since it opened,” I pointed out.
“And?” my older, slightly bossy sister asked. I had to bite away a groan. I loved my siblings, but I also liked my time alone. Not to mention, I didn’t mind taking the break from listening to how all of them had something incredible going on, while I most certainly didn’t. Crocheting a temperature blanket wasn’t hot news to them!
“And I don’t know about you, but I like my place. I don’t mind sitting in my living room and?—“
“What? Read? Crochet?” she interrupted haughtily, and my lips twitched. “You literally have the hobbies of an eighty-year-old!”
“And?” I challenged, not at all offended by her comment. I liked my hobbies.
“And how are you going to meet someone when you’re home all the time?” It wasn’t the first time she asked, and I didn’t take any offense.
“I don’t need to meet anyone,” I shared, my voice softer than I would have liked.
“Babe.” Finally, Cora’s voice softened. “Babe, not all guys are like the dumbasses you’ve dated.”
“I’m just not… the dating kind of girl, Cora, you know that. I’m awkward and quiet and…” My voice drifted off to noting, but that didn’t stop my older sister from trying to cheer me up.
“You’re exactly who you are supposed to be.” She believed in me in the way only an older sibling could believe in their younger ones. “You know who was at the brewery yesterday?” she asked, obviously trying to change the subject. I chewed on my lower lip.
There was a reason I had skipped out on meeting up at the brewery again.
After seeing my tall, handsome, and bearded man a week ago, I kept seeing him. For the last five days, he had been there for each and every meal we ate there. Always sitting on the same barstool.
Never moving from it.
Or talking to anyone.
Not that my sisters or I approached him. Nope. But they did point him out to me each time for some reason, as if they had cottoned on to my crush. Always childishly elbow-bumping me and wagging their perfectly plucked brows in my direction while subtly pointing in his direction.
I could have sworn he watched me.
Or maybe that was wishful thinking on my part? Letting my poor deluded self believe he found me at least interesting. Not that I thought it was possible. There was no way a man like him would be interested in me. He probably dated elegant, sophisticated women who were perfectly primped and pampered.
I couldn’t remember the last time I got a pedicure. Or a manicure for that matter.
“Scar? Did I lose you? You still there?” Coral asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Shit, sorry, what were you saying?” I tried to focus on my sister.
“Guess who was there yesterday?”
“Coral,” I groaned, “I don’t know why you would think––“
“Austin’s hot older brother,” she cut in, and my brows bunched. I hated how jealous I felt. “The one who is always checking you out.” That made my brows relax.
“What?”
“He can’t stop looking at you. That’s why you should have gone to lunch yesterday and why you should come to dinner tonight.”
“No thank you. I have dinner in the slow cooker. Plus, I genuinely couldn’t yesterday. I told you guys that. I had a video conference for work. That’s why I couldn’t meet you at lunch.” It was the truth, too.
And it sucked, after seeing my hot guy for five days and then missing out on a day.
“Okay, that’s a fair reason, but tomorrow is Friday. You should meet us for drinks! There is a karaoke night at the brewery and––“
“How hasn’t Onyx kicked you guys out yet?” I cut her off for a change, still slightly irritated she thought my guy was hot. He’s not yours, a little voice perked up to remind me, and I didn’t like it.
“Because we’re his sisters.” I could almost imagine her nose up in the air like she had some kind of point. We were family, but even I knew we were a lot, especially when it was the four of us together.
“Pftt,” I snorted because we both knew there was no way that was the reason. He loved us.
“And paying customers. Plus, we don’t bug him. Not really.” My lips twitched because we both knew she was full of shit. “So? You sure you don’t want to come out to dinner with us? If you don’t want to drive, I’ll pick you up,” she offered, even though we were the ones who lived the furthest away from one another.
“I’m good.” My tone softened because as bossy as Coral could get sometimes, she was sincere in not only her offer but wanting me there. “I’m a little burnt out on eating out, and I kinda missed being home,” I admitted.
“Even if it means you don’t get to see you know who?” she teased again, and this time, I just smiled.
“There is no you know who .” I giggled. “We don’t even know his name.”
“What if I did?” she asked, piquing my interest. “Would you go to brunch with me Sunday?”
“Brunch at the brewery?” I asked, wondering why the hell out of everyone, it was my oldest sister who wanted to be out and about on a daily basis. “Are you okay?” I asked, and when silence filled the line, something in my stomach tightened.
“I’m––“ she started to say, and I was almost positive she was going to say she was fine. Which if she did, I was more than ready to argue with her.
But she didn’t.
“I’m… I will be,” she said softly. My body went taut.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing’s wrong , wrong. No one is dying,” she tried to lighten the mood, but I wasn’t having it.
“Cora, talk to me.”
“It’s just, well… umm... Jack and I broke up,” she blurted, almost like she was ripping off a BandAid. I waited for her to laugh and tell me she was kidding because my older sister had a weird sense of humor.
But she didn’t.
“You two…” I couldn’t even say it out loud. Jack and Coral have broken up? They lived together. They always seemed so happy. So put together. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, “I just… I haven’t told anyone yet.”
“Babe––“
“He moved out on New Year’s.”
“What?” I gasped, shocked as hell. I tried to think about what Coral had been like after New Year’s, but my head had been so seriously muddled by my stranger, I didn’t even notice something was wrong.
“Yeah, okay, so, maybe that’s why I’ve been so pushy about going to the brewery? I didn’t want to be home alone and… I’m sorry.”
“There is nothing to be sorry about, Cora. What happened?”
“It was time,” she whispered, and I knew her emotions were getting the better of her.
“I’ll pick you up,” I offered. “We can go to the brewery or have the girls pick up the food and bring it over to your place, or we can come back here. Or if you don’t want to talk about it yet, that’s okay, too. Whatever you need, you know I’m here.”
“I know… I think I should tell everyone.”
“Okay. Your place or mine?”
“Do you mind it being at my place? You can stay the night if you don’t wanna drive after.”
“I’ll take a bag just in case and call the other two to let them know. Oh! I’ll bring the pot roast in the crock pot and chocolate chip cookies I made earlier, too.”
“Thank you.”
“Wine?” I asked and heard her sniffle. My heart hurt for her. I still couldn’t believe it! Almost two weeks, and she hadn’t told anyone. They had been together an entire decade! They never got married, but I figured it was one of those things neither of them wanted or that it eventually would happen.
Coral cleared her throat. “Tequila?” she suggested, and I smiled.
“Okay, the good stuff it is. I have a brand-new bottle of Don Julio!”
“Thank you, Scar. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. It’s just…” When her voice drifted off, I knew she was trying to fight the tears or they were already flowing. Either way, I walked around the house as I spoke and grabbed the things I would need.
“Nothing to apologize for. You can handle this however you need to. Just remember we have your back. Always.” I wanted to offer to kick Jack’s ass because there was no way I could believe it was just time after ten years together, but I didn’t.
“Thanks,” she whispered, and we ended the call.
Within the hour, the four of us were at Coral’s house drinking and binging on tequila, pot roast, pizzas Raven brought, and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints Olive brought after she told us everything.
They had been growing apart for a while and they’d been stuck. It had been time for them to move on. It felt like there was something else, something Coral didn’t tell us, but I knew when she was ready, she would.
Needless to say, we ended up having a slumber party. Raven, Olive, and I kept a close eye on Coral. We might have been the younger ones, but it didn’t make us any less overprotective. Especially when one of us was hurting.
I’d left in such a hurry to get over to Coral’s place, I never noticed the package at my door. Or the fact I’d left my door unlocked from being in such a hurry.
Or at least that’s what I’d thought.