Page 6 of The Last Resort
“Right. If it’s important to you, I can deal with that.”
Once things are settled Kellie and I can go rent a place together. We could be roomies, like we were when we were kids.
From where she stood, Dan should be the one groveling. He had no right to expect to receive any sort of kindness from her.
Perhaps it was a money thing. Kellie was playing it smart to make sure she walked away with enough to start again. That made sense.
“How long will we have to endure his company, I mean days, weeks, months?”
If she’d known Dan was going to be around, she might have reconsidered accepting her sister’s offer to come and live in Aspen. There was still time to take up that designer job in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Is that why Kellie didn’t say anything until I got here?She knew I mightn’t have come if I’d known about the Dan situation.
Then again, if it was only a temporary arrangement, she could find a way to make it work. She’d put her Southern private ladies finishing school manners to good use. They had cost her maternal grandparents enough money—it would be criminal for her to let them go to waste.
If Kellie was asking, then she could do it.
And it wasn’t as if she had anywhere else to go right now. The reality was, she’d pretty much ghosted the company in South Dakota. The money they’d offered her had been solid, but it would have spelt death for her resume. A gig with a cookie-cutter-housing design company wasn’t something she could easily explain away, whereas a short-term cash-in-hand waitressing job in Aspen was something she could possibly hide.
Kellie’s hand settled on her arm, and Rachel froze.
“Dan and I are giving our marriage another chance. I need your support. If Dan thinks you hate him, then he might change his mind. He might leave.”
I’m not seeing a downside here.
There were many things in a relationship her heart could forgive, but cheating was not one of them. It never would be. She just wasn’t made that way. But for Kellie she would have to make an exception.
“Please, Rach.”
Their family was already fractured, irretrievably broken. IfKellie had chosen to forgive Dan, then she had no right to question her sister’s decision.
“This is your marriage, not mine. I will be as polite as I can to Dan.” A bitter laugh escaped her lips. “At least you have a relationship to salvage. I couldn’t even do that much.”
Rachel reached for the car door and slowly pushed it open. If they sat here much longer, she was going to cry. Or bleed to death. Or both. The last place she wanted any of that to happen was in someone’s snow-lined driveway.
“Can we please go inside and get something on my head and maybe ice my knee? I’ll come out later and bring in my suitcases.”
“Dan should be home soon. I’ll ask him to grab your things.”
The snarky reply on the edge of Rachel’s tongue died a sharp death between her teeth. All the nasty things she had mentally stored up to say to Dan if their paths ever crossed again would also have to go. Her sister’s happiness had to come first.
The moment Rachel’s cheaply made hiking boots touched the thin ice which coated the walkway outside the house, she began to slip and slide once more. Following Kellie to the front door became a dangerous dance. As her feet went out from under her, she grabbed a hold of her sister’s arm. “I swear this town is out to kill me.”
Kellie nodded at Rachel’s feet. “I’ll take you shopping later this afternoon and we can get you some new boots, ones with decent grip, ‘cause if we don’t, there’s every chance you’re going to end up in the back of an ambulance before long.”
Rachel could have sworn she heard her bank account whimper. “These are brand new. I only bought them last week. I just need something for the soles. Preferably out of the discounted bin.”
The idea of buying another pair of boots filled her with silent dread. Money was too tight to mention. The cost of paying to check her third suitcase had seen her bank balance plumb to new unchartered depths of dark misery.
Kellie slid her keys into the lock of the front door but left them dangling. She turned to Rachel. “I know you have your Southern pride and won’t accept charity. I also know that I can argue until I’m blue in the face that family isn’t charity, but ...”
Hot tears pricked Rachel’s eyes. In good times past she would have laughed this encounter off, told her sister she had plenty of cash.
Those were the days.
Wiping at her face with the heel of her hand, Rachel gathered up what little remained of her tattered dignity. “You would have been right about me before all the stuff that went down in Atlanta, but as of this morning, I have eighty-four dollars in the bank. This beggar is open to charity, but what I really need is a job. Oh, and to patch my head.”
Kellie turned the key in the lock and pushed open the front door. “Come on, then. Let’s get you inside and bandaged up. Once you’re unpacked, we can talk about things. Welcome to your new home, Rach.”
