Chapter Eight
Mira
Breakfast had been one part relief and two parts terrifying.
Brian and Caleb had remained silent for the bulk of it, but Sadey had kept up a running commentary that included me answering questions about myself.
There were only so many ways to avoid speaking on the subject, which had made me most uncomfortable.
She didn’t seem to be doing it out of spite, though.
On the contrary, she seemed as if she was actually interested.
Brian had stalled on taking the first bite for so long that Caleb had glared at him until he was halfway through and had complimented my cooking.
It made me feel uncomfortable for him, so I ate at warp speed to have an excuse to leave the table.
When I had stood to rinse my dishes, the atmosphere in the room seemed to relax and Caleb bantered easily with Sadey.
I smiled over my dishes at their ease with each other and wished I’d had a sibling growing up.
If, for nothing else, just to pacify the ache of loneliness that seemed to hover around this place like a storm cloud.
The legs of the dining chair scuttled across the wooden floor as Caleb pulled out from his place at the table.
I turned my head slightly to watch him approach.
He hadn’t shaved this morning, and his chin sported dark blond stubble, which only made me want to touch it just to see what his casual face felt like.
I wouldn’t dare, but the urge was still present.
My stomach clenched as he approached with an easy smile over something Sadey had said to him.
His eyes looked off to the left as if he were thinking on the conversation, but I could still see their brilliant cerulean color.
Whatever animal instincts I’d dredged up yesterday, his family didn’t have the same effect on his inner bear.
He placed his dishes in the sink, and in a gesture so comfortable and casual and unexpected, he placed his hand on my hip to let me know he needed me to scoot over so he could get to the trashcan beneath the sink.
My breath caught at his touch, and I lifted my startled gaze to him. His wide eyes met mine and held me.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed.
He was so close to me that I could feel the tickle of his breath and the power that rolled off his skin, as if it was a natural part of him.
I pulled away first because I would explode if I stayed captured in his gaze another moment.
The absence of his hand over the thin material of my worn tank top was a dull ache.
The skin there felt cold, as if it was missing something vital it didn’t know it had needed.
He threw his used napkin into the small trashcan and headed back to the table.
When I could draw a steady breath again, I began rinsing his dishes.
“What?” he asked ruefully, and I turned to see Brian and Sadey staring at him like their brother had just grown antlers. “Come on, Brian, let’s get this done,” Caleb clipped as his brother rose from the table. “Sadey, I’m going to help him out today. You okay to stay here for a while?”
I saw nervousness in Sadey’s wide eyes, but above that there was a brave determination. I liked her more for it.
“I’ll stay here with Mira. We have girlie stuff to take care of.”
That sounded downright terrifying, but no eight words had ever scared off two men faster, and I soon found myself completely alone with Sadey McCreedy, youngest heir to the McCreedy fortune.
I was intimidated into silence. Hell, I was surprised I wasn’t in a stress coma yet, but she took charge and led me into my room.
“I have something I want to show you, but I don’t want you to get upset. Caleb told me a little bit about you,” Sadey explained. She looked at the hurt on my face and specified. “All good stuff, I swear. But he said you wouldn’t accept clothes. I’m going to beg you to reconsider. Woman to woman.”
I had already started shaking my head. I was nobody’s charity case, and it didn’t sit well with me that he’d been telling people I needed clothing.
She turned away from my negative answer and rifled through one of the bags against the wall nearest the empty dresser.
“Don’t say no until you see this,” she said through a smile as she pulled out a white summer dress with a light pink satin ribbon around the waist. The straps were thick, made to fan the tips of feminine collar bones.
I bit my lip. It really was the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen in person. It seemed Sadey could feel my resolve falter because she pounced.
“I swear,” she whispered earnestly. “I’ll never, ever tell anyone I gave you these.”
“Where’d you get them?” I asked, standing on tiptoes and stretching my neck to peer into the opened bag.
“They were mine. I already had them bagged up to take into the city. I wanted to donate them, but then Caleb said he thought you were about the same size as me.” Sadey pulled shirts, pants, jeans, shorts, dresses, and shoes out one by one.
“If you don’t like any of them, we’ll re-bag them and donate the cast offs. ”
My eyes kept traveling back to the white sundress.
Sadey grinned brightly. “Try it on.”
And try it on I did. Except I didn’t stop with the sundress.
I tried on every single piece of clothing Sadey had brought.
A lot of the colors were made for Sadey’s skin tone.
She had blond hair like Caleb and fair skin, and some of the pastel colors that looked so amazing against her complexion made me look like I had jaundice, but who was I to be choosey?
In the end, I only tossed two shirts that were much too short back into the bag.
My emotions were everywhere. As if I had just gone on the longest shopping trip in creation, I was exhausted. On the other hand, I had actually had fun trying on the beautiful clothes, knowing that tomorrow morning I would wake up and have a choice.
I laughed, the noise sounding foreign. I plopped on top of the pile of clothes on my bed and pretended I was swimming. Sadey had taken up the chair beside my bed and laughed as she folded up three pair of jeans that were way too loose on me but would be helpful during the cold winter.
“Mira, do you want me to cut your hair?” she asked suddenly, as if she were saying it before she lost the nerve to do so.
I hadn’t had my hair cut in a really long time. Not from lack of wanting, but from lack of resources.
“Do you know how?” I asked hopefully.
“I’m going to beauty school after I graduate. I cut a lot of my friends’ hair already. I can do yours, too, but only if you want me to.”
I sat up and looked at my unruly tresses in the rusted mirror above my dresser. True, my dark locks were overwhelming, but what would I hide my face with? Then another thought occurred, one that was frightening for what it could mean to me and my stupidly hopeful heart. Would Caleb like it?
“How would you cut it?” I asked.
“Well, you can choose, but if it were me, I’d keep it long.”
A wave of relief washed over me that she got it.
She continued. “You have a really pretty natural wave, and if we cut some of the weight off and layer it up, your curls would be looser and more manageable. It would look really cute in a ponytail, too, if you ever felt like putting it up.”
That actually sounded kind of perfect. “Okay,” I said. “When do we start?”
The cool day told of autumn approaching, but we decided to cut my hair outside on the front porch.
Sadey had washed my hair in the bathroom sink, and now I leaned comfortably into an old chair with my feet crossed at the ankle over the creaking front porch railing.
The pull and play of my hair was relaxing, and I couldn’t help but be lulled into a state of half-consciousness.
Beautiful moments were rare in this life, and I was determined to enjoy this one thoroughly.
“Is Becca really Caleb’s girlfriend?” I asked drowsily.
Sadey remained silent, and I regretted having ruined the moment. I don’t know why I’d felt comfortable enough to say anything at all, much less an embarrassingly transparent question like that one.
“There,” she said, snipping the scissors neatly one last time.
She placed the scissors and comb precariously on the splintered railing and took a seat on the front steps.
She didn’t answer my question until her back was settled against a large wooden pillar.
With a faraway look into the woods, she said, “I don’t know that Caleb’s ever had a girlfriend. ”
I rested my head against the back of the chair and waited.
“Becca has liked him for a long time. I mean really liked him. But Caleb hasn’t ever formed an attachment to a girl.
He took her out a few times last year but moved on and seemed unaffected.
” She turned her soft green gaze to me. “I haven’t ever quite figured him out.
I’ll tell you two things, and maybe I’m in the wrong for doing so, but I’ll give my two cents anyway.
First, I hope that someday I have a man look at me the way Caleb looked at you in the kitchen this morning.
But,” she warned, “Caleb’s different. You have to be careful with that one, Mira.
I love my brother, but he isn’t like other people.
He doesn’t need companionship like the rest of us.
He is a good man and a hard worker, but I haven’t actually seen him really let anyone in. Ever.”
He didn’t sound so different to me. He sounded like me. I understood the loneliness that came along with pushing others away.
“Also, Becca is a bunion. I’m glad she isn’t my sister-in-law,” Sadey said through a mischievous grin.
The idea of Caleb and marriage startled me. “How old is he?” I asked, suddenly feeling very young.
“Twenty-three goin’ on thirty-five. If any of us has a chance of taking over Dad’s business, it’s him. He has the head and the work ethic for it.”