Chapter 1
Chapter One
E stelle tilted her head to the side, ignoring the chunk of dark hair that fell across her forehead. Pursing her lips, she sketched a little more detail on the side of her drawing. Brielle and Ryan deserved something unique…something that represented the two of them perfectly.
Huffing, Estelle couldn’t help but laugh a little at her thoughts. The couple’s story had been a crazy one. Ryan was a vet and Brielle was his high school crush, but a misunderstanding had sent them in different directions until recently.
One crazy family and near death experience later, the two had eloped and quit wasting time away from the one person they wanted to be with above everyone else.
“So…” Estelle muttered to the empty room. “Do I give them a dog cake? Or a high school sweetheart cake?” She ticked her head from side to side. “Or ignore both those things and create a normal wedding cake with Brielle’s favorite colors?”
A knock on her office had Estelle blinking and looking up just as her sister poked her head in. Aspen grinned. “How’s it going in here? Got something fun to show the happy couple? ”
Estelle scrunched her nose. “Not yet. I’m trying to decide the theme.”
“Dogs,” Maeve said bluntly, pushing the door open farther and stepping around Aspen’s blockade.
Aspen rested her hand on her swelling stomach. “Dogs aren’t wedding cake material! You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Maeve asked with a shrug, stepping up to her own desk and plopping into the seat. “It represents Brielle and Ryan better than anything.”
Estelle tapped her pencil against her lips. “It does, but a dog cake just sounds so…juvenile.”
Maeve sighed and leaned back, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I suppose you’re right. We’re not making a kid’s birthday party cake, after all.”
“Is there any way to give them a nod to Sparky, but still keep it looking like a wedding?” Aspen asked. She finally walked fully into the room and sat in a chair. “Geez.” She groaned. “I had no idea that making a baby would be so tiring.”
Estelle shoved her unwanted jealousy back into the lockbox she kept for such occasions. “You’re building a human being,” she remarked. “That sounds tiring to me.”
Aspen grinned. “Maybe I should play it up, huh?” Putting a hand to her forehead, she made her voice higher. “I simply can’t work today, Stelle. I’m building kidneys from scratch.”
Maeve snickered, and Estelle rolled her eyes. “Too late,” Estelle said wryly. “I know the truth.”
“Shoot.” Aspen snapped her fingers.
Estelle stiffened as a thought occurred to her. She looked over at Maeve. “I thought you were watching Dad today.”
Maeve shrugged. “I was, but he was sleeping and Mom said she could cover it.”
“That gives her Dad and Antony,” Estelle scolded, her voice growing in volume. “She can’t handle both of them on her own. ”
Maeve put her hands in the air. “Geez, Stelle. Calm down. Mom’s an adult. She’ll be just fine.”
Grumbling under her breath, Estelle began to gather all her supplies. “I’ll go take care of them.”
“Estelle,” Aspen said, her voice abnormally gentle. “It’s going to be fine. Mom raised four children. I think she can handle her husband and son for a while.”
“Yeah, well…none of her kids were on death’s door,” Estelle snapped, then immediately hung her head. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice low and remorseful. Her vision was watery as she looked up at her younger sister. Aspen was always so full of optimism and high energy, especially now with the baby on the way.
Estelle was happy for her sister, she truly was…but it didn’t change the fact that she also felt a heavier burden for their family because of Aspen and Maeve’s families. Each had only been married a couple of years and their attention was on everything except lifting the heavy responsibilities of their mother.
Yes, Emery Harrison was an adult, but Estelle knew better than her sisters that their mom wasn’t quite up to the task being asked of her. Neither Maeve nor Aspen were home to hear their mom cry in the kitchen at night, or walk quickly out of a room to compose herself.
With a husband declining and a son refusing to rehabilitate, the Harrison household was far from a happy place.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Estelle continued, then groaned when she saw answering tears in her sister’s eyes. She began to walk toward Aspen, but Aspen jumped to her feet and waved Estelle off.
“I’m fine,” Aspen said quickly, wiping at her cheeks. “Ugh! I hate these pregnancy hormones. They’re the worst.” With an obviously fake smile plastered on her face, Aspen grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open. “That cake should be cooled by now. I need to frost it before the angry mobs start bursting through the door.”
Aspen watched with hunched shoulders as Aspen left. Feeling like an utter jerk, she turned back to gather her stuff.
“She’s right,” Maeve said softly, tapping a pencil on her desk. “You’re going to make yourself sick by taking on too much. If you’re going home, you should take a nap. Dad and Mom will be fine.”
No, they won’t, Estelle argued mentally. Nothing is going to be fine ever again, and none of them understand because they aren’t there. None of them see it because they’re too busy living their lives.
There was no way Estelle could admit those things out loud. She’d already made the commitment to herself that she would step up where others couldn’t. Her mother was older and needed help. Her father was dying, and her brother was in a bad mental and physical place from his injury in the military.
There was no one left to help except her. Estelle was the only one without a family of her own, not to mention she was the oldest. It was her responsibility to make sure everyone else was safe and well and taken care of.
If Aspen took on too much, it would hurt the baby. If Estelle’s mother was left to her own devices, her age would bring her down. Maeve was still a newlywed and was working to build her own business, which meant there was literally no one left.
No one except Estelle.
Ignoring the sharp pain in her chest and the desire to curl into the fetal position and cry the afternoon away, Estelle chose to smile at her sister instead. “I can sleep later,” she said in a practiced, calm tone. “I’m sure Mom could use a nap more than I could. Plus, you know that Mom’s not strong enough to wheel Antony outside. He could use a little sunshine.”
Maeve’s dark eyes glanced toward the window which showcased a very typical gray sky. “Sure,” she said sarcastically.
Estelle ignored her sister’s tone and finished packing up her stuff. Designing the reception cake was supposed to help her find some down time today, but apparently that wasn’t to be.
It’ll never be that way again.
Estelle swallowed, trying to ignore how cynical her thoughts had become in the last few months. She could barely remember the last time she’d genuinely smiled. It was possible her face muscles wouldn’t even remember how.
You don’t need to smile to get the job done, she reminded herself.
“Have a good afternoon,” Estelle said, waving at Maeve.
Maeve frowned, but gave a small wave back. “Bye.”
Shaking off her irritation, Estelle marched out, giving Aspen a small hug before she left and slipped out to her car in the back of the building. Taking a fortifying breath, Estelle headed for home, the weight on her shoulders increasing with each second of passing road.
“There’s no one else,” she chanted over and over again. “You can do this…you have to do this. It’s your job to protect them. If you don’t…who will?”
Crew groaned as he plopped into his chair. Pushing a hand through his hair, he paused when he realized how long it was getting. “It would almost fit in a ponytail,” he chuckled, shaking his head a bit and watching the wavy strands fly through the air.
His description was exaggerated, but he definitely needed a haircut if he wanted to avoid looking like a mangy sheep dog. The longer his hair got the more he realized how much curl he had. When it was short, he’d never noticed, but the length now left him with frizz he hadn’t known was possible.
Making a note on his phone to schedule a cut soon, he forced himself to face his computer. Charts needed to be updated, schedules needed to be finished, insurance needed to be billed…the life of a business owner never seemed to end.
A knock on his office door had him looking up. “Come in.”
“Hey, Doc,” one of his dental assistants, Lucia, said.
“Hey, Luce. Whatcha need?” Her smile indicated she wanted more than Crew had intended to give, but he held still, refusing to encourage her flirting. Not only was she too young, but he wasn’t one to dabble in an office romance.
“We’re out of bouncy balls in the prize machine. Would you like me to order some?”
“We’re completely out?” Crew clarified, his brows pulling together. “Did you check the storage closet?”
She nodded, her blond hair shifting with the movement. “Completely out.”
Keeping a few choice words to himself, Crew pushed his hand through his hair again. “I’ll grab some on the way home tonight,” he said. “But would you please remind the other assistants that I’d like to know about this before we reach zero? I’d prefer to be able to order in bulk for a better price than I can get in store, but ordering means it’ll take a few days to get here and I can’t wait like that if I don’t know about the inventory level.”
Lucia’s smile grew a little tighter, but she nodded. “Understood. I’ll remind them.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Crew held in a sigh. “Anything else?”
His assistant shook his head. “Nope. I think that’s it.”
“Alright. Thanks for letting me know.” Crew waited until she was gone before he slumped back in his chair and rubbed his hands over his face. Why was he so tired? He had a good job as a pediatric dentist. It had good hours and good pay. He rarely had to do crazy emergencies, he didn’t have a family of his own who took his time or energy, he kept in shape and had more leisure time than most…so why was he feeling so sluggish all the time?
It didn’t seem to matter what he did. He always felt like he was one step away from keeling over into a coma. Tapping his fingers against his desk, Crew let his mind wander for a bit. He still needed to finish his charts, but it wasn’t like he had to get home at a specific time. His empty house would still be there whether it was six or ten.
At the thought of going home, his shoulders felt heavy. Truth was…it didn’t really feel like a home. Crew had hired a decorator when he bought the place and it was in the height of fashion, but th ere was nothing about the house that would show anyone that he lived there.
“Unless you count the dirty towel on the bathroom floor.” He grunted.
Shaking his head, he went back to work. What did it matter if his house was empty? Or warm? Or filled with noise?
It didn’t. His life was good, if a little boring, and Crew really shouldn’t complain when so many other people had so much less than him.
An hour later, he stood and stretched, his charts finished and his stomach growling for dinner. Grabbing his briefcase, he pulled out his keys, stuffed his computer inside, locked the buckles and headed outside.
The heat of the evening hit his face, and he stopped, smiling into the waning sun. He loved living in California. Sunshine, surf, and the freshest fruit on the planet. Life didn’t get much better than that.
Stepping up to his car, he clicked the button to unlock it and slipped inside, turning the engine over. Just as he pulled out into the street, his phone rang, and Crew pressed the button to open the call. “Hello.”
“Crew!” a feminine voice crooned through the line. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be finished with work yet.”
A small smile crept across Crew’s face. “Just walked out of the office,” he confessed as he bumped his blinker to take a turn. Daphne was an old high school friend that Crew had kept in touch with over the years. She was as sweet as sugar and twice as fun. They’d surfed together more times than Crew could count.
“How many cavity monsters did you slay today?
Crew chuckled. “They’re sugar monsters, and there were at least a dozen.” He fake shuddered even though Daphne couldn’t see it. “I’m shocked they didn’t take over the clinic. Nasty little buggers.”
Daphne’s easy laugh came through the line. “Well, all of us teachers thank you for your service, sir knight. It’s so nice to know that someone is slaying the villains invading our student’s mouths each day.”
Crew’s smile grew. Daphne taught second grade, and her students loved her. She was also a great source of recommendations for his clinic. Any time a parent asked for references, Daphne sent them his way. He treated Daphne to dinner a couple times a month as a thank you.
“Your gratitude is duly noted,” he teased back. “And appreciated in return. It warms my heart to know that I’m noticed by such a lovely maiden as yourself.”
“You’re such a dork.” She laughed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were an English major.”
“Ha!” Crew almost snorted as he pulled into the parking lot for the closest warehouse store. Taking his phone off Bluetooth, he put it to his ear and stepped out. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve read anything that wasn’t some kind of medical journal.”
“Somehow I doubt those count,” Daphne mused. “But, hey, at least you read. I’ve heard there’s an insane amount of people who never read again after they graduate.”
“That can’t quite be true,” Crew offered. “How would they order off a menu without reading?”
“Most offer pictures,” Daphne quipped.
He laughed again. “Ah, Daph. You think you’re so funny.”
“That’s because I am,” she teased. “I’m not sure how you don’t realize it after all these years, but my students tell me I’m hilarious.”
“I’ll acquiesce to the superior knowledge of a seven-year-old.”
Daphne laughed again. “So…whatcha up to tonight?”
Crew sighed. “Heading into a store. I need more bouncy balls. Apparently, I’m out, and the kids won’t be happy tomorrow if the vending machine is empty.”
“Sounds like a disaster in the making.”
“Oh, it is,” Crew assured her seriously. “It’s happened before, and I’ve learned my lesson. ”
“Better hop to it! I’ll let you go. Let me know when you wanna hit the surf. I could use a good workout one of these weekends.”
“I’ll plan on it. Thanks, Daph.”
“See ya!”
Crew fumbled his phone a little as he pulled it from his shoulder and stuffed it in his pocket. His friendship with Daphne was so easy. Why wasn’t everything that way? Why couldn’t life be that way in general? He’d worked hard to get where he was, so what was keeping him from being content?
Blowing out a breath, Crew shoved the thoughts aside. He didn’t have any answers anyway, so it wasn’t really worth dwelling on. Right now, he needed to grab prizes and dinner, and then he’d go home and pretend that all his work had paid off exactly how he wanted it to. Maybe if he said it out loud enough times, it would actually come true.