Page 77 of Kiss the Girl
My gut twisted at the hurt and frustration in her voice. “I’m sorry.” I hadn’t been fair to her at all through all of this. “I really had no idea, but I should have known you were doing everything you could.”
She didn’t answer for a beat. “It’s not your fault you didn’t know. I didn’t want to tell you, because if Dad ever does find out, the more people who know, the worse he’s going to feel.” She sighed. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you to hold everything together. I feel guilty that I can’t do it, and having you there is the only thing that makes me feel less guilty. If you’re leaving, I have to feel guilty again. So I guess I’m being selfish when it comes right down to it. Trying to buy myself out of responsibility.”
There had never been a more untrue statement about Tabitha. “Sounds to me like the opposite. Like you’re taking more than your share of the responsibility.”
She was quiet, but I could almost feel her thinking.
“Are you beating yourself up for not being able to pay enormous billsandtake care of Dad yourself?”
There was a soft huff on her end. “I’m notnotdoing that.”
“We probably need to stop playing the martyr Olympics here.” I let out a long, slow breath, trying to rein us both back in. “I get why it’s hard for you to take my word for it, but I promise Dad is fine. Mom is being neurotic, but he’s in a good place. And I’m working on getting him more help for the store so he’ll have backup.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice subdued. “You’re right. You’ve always had a good head on your shoulders. I don’t know why I’ve been so uptight about all this.”
“Because you love Dad?”
She gave a small laugh. “Right. I guess it comes down to that.”
“And because Mom makes everything sound like a worst-case scenario.”
She gave an even bigger laugh. “Definitely that.”
“So we’re good?”
“Yeah. Except I need to make this up to you. I’m going to text you every single day to thank you for being there. I’ll stop questioning you about whether Dad is getting better. And I’ll talk Mom down when she’s freaking out. But what else can I do to make it up to you? Name it.”
I was about to say, “Nothing.” Sisters fought sometimes. And we were fighting because we loved our parents. But then I thought of something. “You’re coming home for Christmas, right?”
“Right. I didn’t book any appearances until the 27th.”
“When do you get in?”
“The twenty-third. Around noon, I think.”
“So you’ll be here for Christmas Town?”
“Yes…” She drew it out like she could hear the trap I was about to spring.
“Help us with the football booth. If we can advertise that we have everyone’s hometown favorite celebrity chef, they’ll line up for a mile whether they want hand pies or not.”
“Graaaace…” It was a whine.
“Sixteen months, Tab. Vomit basins.”
She made a retching noise of her own. “Fine. I’ll do it. But that was stone cold manipulative.”
“Got to make my fake boyfriend look good. That way, the principal will be so impressed with him that she won’t care when we fake break up. Now tell me how to make a great stir-fry.” It felt so good to have a conversation with her stripped of the subtext and resentment that had been thrumming between us for months.
When Noah texted that he was on the way twenty minutes later, I had dinner ready to serve by the time he knocked on my door.
“Hey,” he said, walking inside and grabbing me around the waist. I had no objections as he hauled me against him to deliver a knee-melting hello kiss.
“Mmm,” I said, sliding away from him. “Save that for when I tell you what I pulled off today.”
His eyebrows went up. “Sounds intriguing, but I literally need no bribes to want to kiss you.”
I grinned at him. “Just wait. But eat first.” I served up the stir-fry and accepted his compliments as we ate it at my tiny table and caught up on our days.
