Page 50 of Hero for the Holidays

“We’re your aunts,” said Quinn. “I’m Quinn. That’s Rory. That’s Alaina.”

“That’s going to take me a minute,” Lila said.

“It’s okay. Just sayhey you. We all respond okay to that.”

“Hey Gingeralso works,” Rory said.

“Not on me,” said Quinn.

Quinn always had been the one who wanted to pick a fight.

“How much of the business has Fia shown you?”

“A lot. It’s really amazing.”

“Agreed,” said Quinn. “My husband, Levi, has the ranch that goes just beyond this road.”

“She hooked up with him because of the road,” said Fia.

“Hey,” said Quinn. “Don’t make me sound like a road ho.”

Lila seemed delighted by the exchange, which was the only thing that stopped Fia from scolding her sister for sayingroad hoin front of the teenager.

Lila seemed to notice Fia’s distress. She put her hand on her forearm. “Relax, Fia. I’m on the internet.”

“You say that like it explains something,” said Fia.

Lila just laughed.

They got her set up on the register and let her ring up a couple of customers, and then they took her to the back where they had extra preserves, baked goods and other delicious things.

At closing time, they went to the root cellar at the house and got out some supplies from there, then brought her inside and started to prepare dinner.

Lila sat at the table watching them all. Her focus was added.

“Why don’t you help?” said Quinn, tossing Lila a dish towel.

“I don’t know how to cook,” she said.

“This is easy. We’re making a chicken galette. We already have the dough made. It just needs to be rolled out. We’re going to cut up some vegetables, brown some chicken and add some seasonings. Then we’re going to bake it in a skillet.”

Lila looked skeptical, but eventually joined them, and the pride that Fia felt watching her daughter cook just like they did was...

Maybe this was it. The moment it felt real. Did she feel real now? She felt like crying. Her chest was tight and her eyes hurt, and she felt afraid and hopeful and like it was all too big.

She wasn’t bad at this.

Her only experience with a mother-daughter relationship had been bad. As the oldest, Fia had taken the brunt of her mother’s frustrations. She’d been the biggest help, and the biggest target. And once her parents had started having real issues in their marriage, Fia had been the one her mother had exploded all over. To the point where she’d sometimes been cruel.

She’d told Fia she couldn’t do anything right.

In hindsight, and with age, Fia knew her mom had been putting way too much on her, but at the time Fia had taken it really seriously. She’d let it hit her too deeply.

She’d felt so protective of her sisters, afraid their mother would be mean to them too. She never was. It was just Fia who drew fire. But Quinn, Rory and Alaina had suffered from their mom being distracted by what was happening with their father and Fia had picked up the slack.

She’d gotten to a better place with her mother in the years after her dad had actually left. It was the in between place that had been so awful for all of them. Like watching someone die slowly. When he’d finally gone, it had been a relief.

She had never managed to have a companionable time in the kitchen with her mom when she’d been a teenager.

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