Sugar And Spice (Holidays: Valentine)

by Charlotte French

  Andrea sighed and picked up her phone, fiddling with it.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “For what?” Crissy replied.

  “For seeing me. Kenneth insisted that I give you space. I wanted to talk to you right away after I heard about Mother going off the way she did.”

  “I…wasn’t up to talking to anyone for a while.”

  “I think that’s…understandable, all things considered. But when you weren’t answering your phone a week later…I knew I had to come down and at least try to sort things out. And I’m very grateful that you didn’t turn me away. Because I know I didn’t deserve it.”

  Crissy nodded slowly. “You’re right. You didn’t.”

  Shock flickered across Andrea’s eyes for a moment followed by the usual flash of indignation before she tamped it down.

  “That’s why I need space for a while too,” she said.

  Crissy raised her eyebrows. “What?”

  “Like I said before, I’m getting professional help. I’ve been so…tangled up with what Mother wants, I don’t know what I want anymore. I don’t even have my own clothes. I always borrowed from Mother or we bought the same exact outfits. I don’t know who I am. I’ve never known. You’ve always been stronger than me, Crissy.”

  Crissy blinked, startled. Was this really her sister speaking these words? Was she actually hearing them now? Or was this all some dream and she would wake up in Quinn’s bed again after sleeping for over a week straight through?

  Andrea raised her head to look at Crissy again.

  “I’m going to California to start over with a clean slate,” she said. “But I…don’t want to repeat the way I’ve treated you in the past. I’ll keep to myself, for a few months at least, and I think it’s best if we didn’t communicate.”

  Crissy frowned. “Wait…you’re saying…”

  “Only for a few months,” Andrea rushed in. “Just until I’ve had a few sessions with a therapist or a counsellor. Someone who can…straighten me out I guess,” she said with a small, nervous laugh.

  Then she went serious again and examined her fingers.

  “I’d like us to stay in contact though,” she continued quietly. “After I’ve cleaned up a little. If that’s okay with you.”

  When Crissy didn’t answer right away, Andrea looked up and noticed her surprised expression.

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you said no. The hell Mother and I have put you through…I don’t know how you took it for as long as you did. So if you say no, I’ll walk out of here and I will never bother you again. I promise.”

  Crissy studied her for a moment. “I’m not saying no,” she said. “But I’m not saying yes either.”

  Andrea’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Then what…?”

  “I’m saying let’s revisit the question in a few months. After you’ve talked to someone. When I left the wedding…I can’t go through that again. And I won’t. I’d like to give us another chance, especially after what you’ve told me today. But it has to go both ways, not just me doing the leg work anymore.”

  Andrea nodded and her hand slid away from the counter. “You’re a good person, Crissy. Thank you.”

  Before Crissy could respond, Andrea’s gaze fell on Crissy’s hand.

  “What is that?” she said. “On your finger.”

  Crissy held up her hand and Andrea’s eyes softened when she saw the ring.

  “Quinn?” she said.

  Crissy nodded. “He asked me a few days ago.”

  “I hope you said yes because it would be the biggest mistake of the century to turn down a man like that.”

  “You really think so?” she said.

  “He reminds me of Kenneth, a little bit. That quiet, solid strength. Always there when you need him the most.”

  She tore off a bite of her éclair – the third one, Crissy noted – and popped it in her mouth with a sly sideways look.

  “And if he’s anything like Kenneth, he’s good with his hands.”

  “Andrea!”

  Andrea managed a small giggle around her mouthful of éclair. Crissy giggled too which only made Andrea laugh harder until she had to clamp a hand over her mouth. After a few minutes, she finally composed herself, but her face was flushed and her eyes were bright.

  “Mother would kill me if she heard me say that,” she said.

  “Why? You’re a grown woman. A married woman now.”

  “Yes but it’s not ladylike or proper.”

  Crissy rolled her eyes. “And it’s probably not ladylike or proper to eat three eclairs in a row…”

  “…but I really don’t care,” Andrea finished for her.

  Crissy and Andrea grinned at each other. Andrea wiped her fingers on a paper towel and sighed.

  “So how was the chocolate?” Crissy asked. “As good as you had dreamed of?”

  Andrea tipped her head to the side, considering. “Even better.”

  Crissy bundled the last of the eclairs into a container and slid them over to Andrea.

  “You take these,” she said. “Moving is hard work. You’ll need the energy.”

  Andrea wrapped her hands around the container and pulled it close. She listed forward on her toes before she rocked back on her heels, wavering. Then she reached out and made it halfway to Crissy before she let her hand drop. She hesitated for a moment before she tried again. This time she took a step in Crissy’s direction and her gaze finally tracked up to meet Crissy’s eyes. She almost looked…small, Crissy thought. Like a little girl, unsure and timid.

  That’s when Crissy realized what Andrea was trying to do. She was trying to hug Crissy. But it was such a foreign concept that she didn’t know how. She knew how to put on a brave face for the rest of the world but this…this was new territory. Opening up. Letting someone in. Granting another person a glimpse of the tender spots and the delicate, easily-punctured skin over her heart.

  Crissy knew all too well what that was like, being terrified to allow another human being to see these soft parts that could bleed so quickly. But Amy had taught her that not everyone would rip into her the second she showed any kind of vulnerability. And Quinn had shown her love in a way she hadn’t thought could possibly exist outside of fairy tales and movies.

  Crissy closed the space between them and wrapped her arms around Andrea.

  “Thank you for being so honest,” she said.

  For a moment, Andrea hesitated and she simply stood there, stiff and awkward. But Crissy didn’t back up or move away. She hugged her sister tight, lingering for almost a full minute. As much as growing up had been hard for Crissy, it had been hard for Andrea too in a different way. Both of them needed this, support and encouragement and the ability to open up without fear of rejection, but their mother hadn’t provided that. Now, years later, as fully grown adults, it was time to rely on each other and build the foundation they should have had as little girls.

  Slowly, Andrea’s hands came up to rest against Crissy’s back with a shy little pat. Crissy didn’t flinch, didn’t move, showing her sister the solidarity they both needed. Andrea’s hands crept around Crissy and she tucked her face into Crissy’s shoulder with a sigh, closing her eyes.

  Then Andrea cleared her throat and pulled away. She brushed her hands over her face, tipping her chin up, squaring her shoulders, and Crissy saw what Kenneth had been talking about. She saw the mask slip into place. Andrea was prepping herself to face the rest of the world again.

  “All right, that’s enough of that,” she said. “It’s time I get going anyway. Kenneth wants to take me out to dinner tonight and I made him promise to go someplace that doesn’t require reservations or heels.”

  “When was the last time you ate at a place like that?”

  Andrea opened her mouth then closed it with a little laugh. “I have no idea.”

  “Do you know where he’ll be taking you?”

  “Not a clue. I just want milkshakes and French fries.”

  “Oh my god,” Amy
said. “You really are Crissy’s sister.”

  ***

  After Andrea had left, Crissy cleaned up the bakery’s kitchen while Amy leaned back against the counter, her hands folded across the top of her stomach.

  “So it’s getting late and I know we just had loads of sugar but this little monster is hungry again,” she said, tapping her belly.

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  “Manny will be late coming home tonight. He’s putting in extra work at the studio so he can stay home more when the baby is born. We’ve got a couple more hours before he should get back if you want to crash on my floor.”

  Now that Andrea was gone, Crissy’s mind was drifting back to the wild fire in the mountains again. She stuck her hand in her pocket and her thumb brushed over her phone. She should call him again to leave a message or something. He was busy, she knew that. But it wouldn’t hurt to check up on him, just in case.

  “You know, I think I’ll go home,” she said. “It’s been a long day.”

  A shadow of concern darkened Amy’s eyes but she quickly covered for it and slung an arm around Crissy’s shoulders.

  “Then let’s go,” she said.

  “But what about Manu?”

  “He’s a big boy. He can handle one night without his whale of a wife bemoaning that she needs help to get up from the bed to pee in the middle of the night.”

  “Too much information.”

  “You’ve known me your whole life. Thought for sure you’d be used to it by now.”

  Amy steered Crissy out the door and onto the street.

  “So how weird was that whole thing with your sister?” she said. “I never would have guessed that would happen. Never ever.”

  “I wonder if I might have suspected something was wrong underneath everything. Maybe that’s why I tried so hard to make it work with my family, especially Andrea.”

  Amy shrugged. “Do you think she’ll stick it out though? Or do you think she’ll go running back to your mom?”

  “Oh no. No I doubt she’ll go back to Mom. It sounds like everything just…exploded.”

  “I have to say…I might have felt a tiny bit jealous.”

  Crissy pulled back, shocked. “What? Why?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve always thought of you as a sister more than a friend.”

  “You’re not getting replaced here, Amy. That’s not happening.”

  Amy squinted at her. “Better not. I’m one of a kind, you know. You’d totally be missing out if you got rid of me.”

  “Would you feel better if I made chocolate covered strawberries for you?”

  Amy grinned. “Yeah, I definitely would.”

  After the strawberries were finished off, Amy stretched out on the couch and barely lasted five minutes before she was asleep. Crissy tucked a blanket around her, propped her feet up with a pillow and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  “I will never, ever replace you,” she whispered.

  Crissy wrapped up in a blanket and crawled into bed, burying her face in the pillows on Quinn’s side of the bed. The faint smell of cinnamon still clung to the fabric but it was fading. He hadn’t been home in days and she missed him with a hollow, echoing ache deep in her bones.

  She pulled out her phone and traced the screen with her thumb. She dialed his number and heard the ring, small and tinny in the darkness. One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

  Then it kicked over to his voicemail and she bit back a sigh. She left a quick message telling him she was just checking in and wanted to make sure he was okay. Then she hung up and tucked her phone in against the pillow beside her.

  An hour later, pounding on her door woke her. She sat bolt upright in bed and for a split second, she thought the hammering thunder was just the sound of her own heartbeat.

  “Crissy, it’s Pete!”

  Crissy’s stomach surged up her throat as she flung the covers aside and stumbled to the door. Pete was braced against the doorjamb, his face pale as death.

  “What?” she said, her voice tight and strained. “What’s wrong?”

  “Quinn.”

  She inhaled a wheeze. “Tell me. Please.”

  Amy came up behind her and slipped an arm around her waist. Pete’s jaw tightened.

  “He was trapped in the fire.”

  The air punched out of Crissy and she couldn’t pull in another breath against the vise grip around her rib cage. Amy tightened her hold on Crissy.

  “Is he alive?” Crissy said on a sob.

  Pete reached out and clasped her hand. “Yes.”

  She finally sucked in a strangled breath of relief.

  “That’s why I came to get you,” he continued. “The emergency rescue team brought him to the hospital in Boulder. But he’s pretty bad…and he kept asking for you.”

  “Take me there. Right now.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Amy kept a crushingly tight grip on Crissy’s hand as Pete drove them to the hospital in two agonizing hours of grim silence. It felt strange seeing Pete be so eerily quiet, his jaw clenched tight. Crissy had only ever seen him laughing or joking around.

  When they finally arrived at the hospital, Pete headed straight for the front desk. But Stephen was already there waiting for him.

  “Has there been any word?” Pete asked.

  Stephen curled his fingers around Pete’s wrist with a nod. “He’s in the emergency room now.”

  Pete let out a shaky breath of relief and tipped forward on his toes to rest his head against Stephen’s chest. Stephen pressed a kiss to Pete’s hair and placed his hand at the back of Pete’s neck.

  “How bad is he?” Crissy whispered.

  Stephen glanced up and a rush of cold shivered through Crissy’s veins at the exhaustion she saw tightening his face.

  “He’s stable,” he said. But his voice was too strained, too rough for the news to be good. There was something else lurking beneath the surface, something he wasn’t telling her yet.

  “And his injuries?”

  Stephen didn’t answer right away. Pete straightened, passed a hand over his face and took Crissy’s elbow.

  “Let’s go sit down first,” he said.

  She drew back. “No. Just tell me.”

  Pete cast a sideways look at Stephen, uncertain.

  “He’s got third degree burns on half of his body,” Stephen said. “Smoke inhalation did some pretty severe damage to his lungs too. But on the way over…”

  Pete stared at the floor. “On the way over he stopped breathing for a few minutes.”

  “What does that mean?” Crissy said. “Why are you looking like that? You said he was stable.”

  “He’s not awake,” Stephen said. “And since there was no oxygen getting to his brain for those few minutes…there could be…complications.”

  “What kind of complications?”

  Pete shook his head. “We won’t know until he wakes up. There could be memory loss. Motor skills might have taken a hit. There’s no way to tell right now.”

  Crissy nodded and she kept nodding until Amy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She screwed her eyes shut and turned her head into Amy’s shoulder, finally letting herself cry softly for the first time after hearing the news.

  Pete edged closer and squeezed her shoulder. “Q’s a stubborn old guy, Crissy,” he said. “He’ll get through this just like every other curveball life has thrown at him. Nothing slows him down.”

  She pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes for a moment then took in a shuddering breath before she pulled away from Amy.

  “When can I see him?” she said.

  “Even though he’s stable,” Stephen said, “his lungs are still a mess. They plan on keeping him in the ER for a while until he can breathe a little easier. And that’s probably going to be a few hours.”

  Crissy sagged against Amy. The tension in her body had been rising ever since Pete showed up on her doorstep and now it felt like her muscles were wound so imposs
ibly tight, she would just snap and shatter at any moment. Amy gave her hand a squeeze and guided her to the waiting room and into a chair. Amy took the seat on Crissy’s left while Pete took the seat to Crissy’s right, his hand locked right around hers.

  “Oh god,” she said, sitting up in her chair. “I need to call Megan.”

  “Already did,” Pete said. “When I was on my way to pick you up.”

  “How did she take it?”

  “About as well as can be expected I guess. She’s a tough cookie though. And she’s used to Quinn getting into trouble.”

  “Is she coming?”

  “Hell yeah, she is. As soon as Q is awake, he’s probably going to get an earful,” he said with a faint smile and a squeeze of her hand.

  Half an hour later, Manu showed up, frantically searching the hallways. Amy straightened up, raising her hand in the air to get his attention and signal where she was. But she didn’t leave Crissy’s side, didn’t even ease her bruising grip on Crissy’s hand for a second. Manu hurried over and pressed a kiss to Amy’s forehead before settling into the seat next to her.

  “How’s he doing?” he whispered, his voice pitched so low, Crissy could barely hear him.

  Amy interlaced their fingers together with a shake of her head.

  “Stable by now but he’s having trouble breathing. And he’s still in the emergency room. No one is allowed to see him yet.”

  Manu shifted forward slightly to glance at Crissy, tucked in against Amy’s shoulder. He reached around Amy to place a comforting hand to Crissy’s back. She closed her eyes and made a small sound of acknowledgement.

  “Is there anything I can do for you, Crissy?” he said softly.

  She shook her head. “I’ll be okay,” she replied in a small voice.

  His hand lingered for a minute or two before his gaze shifted to Amy.

  “What about you, babe?” he said.

  Amy rested her hand on his knee. “I’m better now that you’re here. Thank you for coming in the middle of the night.”

  He nodded and tipped his forehead to touch hers.

  The hours dragged by, minute by agonizing minute. Crissy alternated between gluing her attention to the clock and looking anywhere but the clock. The longer she stared at it, the more time seemed to slow down and her concern grew to a suffocating weight pressing down on her lungs. After an hour had passed, Amy tapped her shoulder.