Sisters and Secrets

by Jennifer Ryan

  Danny scrunched his lips, then spoke softly. “Sean at school has two dads. They’re married to each other, but still . . . He’s got two. I don’t see why we can’t have two.”

  Oliver hugged Mason’s neck. “I like you.”

  Mason chuckled and squeezed Oliver to his chest. “I like you, too, bud.” Mason handed the balloons to her, then took Danny in his arms and looked him in the eyes. “I’m not the replacement. I’m extra.”

  Danny hugged Mason and his brother at the same time, then shyly backed away.

  Her mom dabbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her blouse. “Wow. Um, that was very well said, Mason.”

  “Thank you, Dede.” For the first time, Mason kissed Sierra right in front of the boys. “Hi.”

  She smiled up at him and Oliver, who stared down at her with a big smile on his face. “Hi.”

  Her mom waved them over to the porch table where she’d set out slips of paper and colored pencils. “Let’s write our messages for your dad.”

  Danny frowned. “Are we always going to do this for Dad’s death?”

  It seemed ominous, but Sierra hadn’t wanted the first year to pass without them doing something. “Only this year. From now on, we’ll celebrate his birthday.”

  “That sounds better.” Danny picked up the green pencil. “His favorite color.”

  Mason put his hand on Danny’s shoulder. “That’s why your mom asked me to pick up green balloons. Your dad wore green ties with his suits all the time.”

  Danny smiled up at Mason. “We gave him a new green tie every birthday. He liked them.” Danny frowned again. “They all burned in the fire.”

  “He drank green beer once and his tongue was all green.” Oliver scrunched up his face. “It was yucky.”

  “The beer or his green tongue?” Mason teased.

  “I can’t drink beer.” Oliver stated that with all seriousness.

  Mason tickled his belly. “Silly me. What was I thinking?” He set Oliver back on his feet and handed him the light green pencil. “What do you want to write to your dad?”

  “I miss him.”

  “That’s perfect, bud. Let’s get on that. If you can’t think of what else to say, you can draw him a picture.” Mason held his arm out so Sierra could slip in beside him. He held her to his side as they watched the boys write their messages.

  Oliver stuck his tongue out a little while he carefully printed his block letters and tried to spell the words correctly.

  Danny kept his hand over what he wrote, wanting his message to be private.

  She glanced up at Mason and mouthed, Thank you. He’d made today easier for the boys. He’d given them permission to never forget their dad even if they were lucky enough to get an extra one like Mason.

  Mason took a slip of paper and wrote a message, then read it aloud. “David, your boys are amazing. Thank you for bringing them into my life.”

  Danny and Oliver stared at him for a long moment before they both smiled.

  Oliver held up his note. “I drew him a picture of Horse.” Oliver couldn’t remember all the horses’ names, so he just called them all Horse.

  “Love it.” Mason turned to Danny. “Did you finish yours?”

  Danny held up six or seven rolled pieces of paper. “Do you think he’ll know what they say?”

  “I think he hears everything in your heart.”

  Danny turned to Sierra. “What did you write?”

  She held up the first note. “I love you and miss you every day.” She showed him the second one. “Thank you for leaving me the boys so I’ll never be lonely without you because I see you in them every day.” She wanted Danny and Oliver to know that they reminded her of David. That she’d never forget him because she had them. She wanted them to know she thought about David every day.

  She showed him the last one. “I got a great job. We have a new home. We’re happy.”

  Danny hugged her. “He’ll be happy to know that.”

  “That’s all he wants for us. I know this past year has been hard. We miss him. We wish he was here. But he’d rather see us smiling than sad for him.”

  “I’m glad we moved to Grandma’s,” Oliver announced.

  Dede rolled up the slip of paper she’d finished writing. “I just told your father how happy I am to have you all here with me.” She tied the note to one of the balloon strings. “How about we send these to your dad?”

  Mason helped tie each of Danny’s and Oliver’s notes to the balloons. Sierra tied her own.

  They gave all the balloons to the boys in the front yard.

  “One at a time, or all at once. Doesn’t matter,” she coaxed the kids.

  Oliver meticulously pulled one at a time free from his bunch and let it loose, marveling as each rose up into the sky.

  Danny divided the bundles between his hands and let them go together, his hands raised, eyes to the sky as they floated away.

  Sierra stood with Mason, his arm around her back. Tears gathered in her eyes. Grief over David’s sudden passing, missing what they had, wondering if they’d have fixed things or gone their separate ways, grateful for the time they had, and still suspicious about what he’d kept from her—her thoughts and emotions were all over the place.

  Mason kissed her on top of the head. “You okay?”

  “It just hits me sometimes. He’s gone. He’s not coming back. He’s going to miss so many things in the boys’ lives. And I still have questions about why he needed that loan and if he was hiding something even bigger from me.”

  “About that . . .”

  She turned to him, but Oliver ran over and slammed his little body into her leg and hip.

  His arm gripped her leg and he looked up at her. “Mommy, look at them. They’re all going straight up to Daddy.”

  She stared up at the sky with Oliver and brushed her hand over his head, so happy she’d done this with the boys. “I have something else for you and Danny.”

  “Really? Can I have it?”

  “Danny. Come up to the porch.” She waved him in from the yard.

  Her mom stood on the porch with the two wrapped packages for the boys.

  Sierra leaned down and kissed Oliver’s nose. “Grandma has a special present I made for you and Danny.”

  Oliver took off up the steps to take his package from her mom.

  Mason touched her arm. “Sierra, about the information you wanted . . .”

  “Did your investigator get back to you?”

  “Yes. I didn’t want to do this today, but I don’t want to keep it from you any longer.”

  She studied his serious face. “What do you mean ‘longer’?”

  “I’ve actually had it for a little while. I just didn’t know how to break the news to you.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. “It can’t be worse than what I’m imagining. Just tell me.”

  He glanced at the boys and her mom waiting on the porch. “Not here. We’ll go over it after the boys’ ride this afternoon. Maybe Dede can watch them while we talk.”

  Her stomach tied into a knot. “It’s that bad?”

  “If I’ve learned anything in my law practice, it’s that secrets are always bad. I wish I didn’t have to tell you what I know, but . . . you deserve the truth. I just hope you’re prepared to hear it.”

  “Mom! Can we open these?” Danny called out.

  Sierra touched Mason’s arm. “We’ll talk about this later.” She headed for the porch, then remembered what she was supposed to tell him about their ride. “Heather and Hallee are joining us at the ranch later.”

  Mason stopped in his tracks behind her. “Why?”

  She caught herself and turned back to him. “She wants to introduce Hallee to a horse.”

  “I wish you’d told me about this sooner.”

  His reluctant tone made her raise an eyebrow. “Have you run out of horses?”

  He shook his head. “No. It’s just . . . we really need to discuss the information I received from my invest
igator. But you didn’t know, so we’ll deal with it later.” The postponement frustrated him. He seemed to want to get it over with, but she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know given his dire tone.

  He touched her back to get her moving up the stairs to where the boys waited at the table, their presents in front of them, hands ready to tear into the packages. “Let’s do this and save the rest for later.”

  Sierra let it go, tried to shake off her worry, and focused on the boys. “Okay, you two, I don’t want you to think you’re going to get presents every year but after the fire and we lost everything of your dad’s I made some calls to our friends in Napa and downloaded what I had and made you these.” She nodded for them to go ahead and open the gifts.

  They tore open the wrapping paper and tossed it away. Danny and Oliver both stared at their photo books, a picture of each of them with their dad on the cover.

  “Our friends sent all the pictures they had of you guys with your dad. Aunt Amy and Heather and Grandma gave me some from family gatherings. I used all the ones I had stored on my phone and put them all together in these books.”

  Danny flipped through pages, tears rolling down his cheeks.

  Oliver simply stared at the cover, his face solemn.

  Her mom wrapped her arm around Sierra’s middle. “They’re gorgeous, Sierra. When you told me what you were doing, I never expected it to turn out like this. It’s like a photography book.”

  “You custom-make them online.” She addressed the boys then. “I wanted you to remember all the good times we had with Dad. Now any time you miss him, you can look at these pictures and see his face and remember how much he loved you.”

  Choked up, she swallowed back her own tears.

  The books had taken quite a bit of time to design, but they turned out so well. She customized each one to focus on either Danny or Oliver, though of course many of the pictures showed both of them. But there were lots that were just one of them with their dad and her.

  She vowed to make new ones for them every few years, so they had their memories to look at instead of all the pictures simply sitting in the cloud doing nothing for anyone in cyberspace.

  Sierra hoped this helped heal their hearts. She couldn’t give them back everything lost in the fire, but this had been a way to bring the memories back to life for them.

  They were so young. She didn’t want those memories to fade away without them having something to help bring them back to life in their minds and hearts.

  Danny finally looked up at her, so much sorrow in his eyes. “Thanks, Mom.” He clutched the book to his chest. “Thanks.”

  She hugged him close. “You’re welcome, sweetheart.” Tears tracked down her cheeks.

  Oliver pressed his face into her side. She put one arm around him, too, and held both her boys close.

  This had been a hard day. Necessary, but difficult. They needed this chance to remember and keep the healing going and the memories of David alive.

  Her phone rang in her back pocket. She let the boys go and pulled out her cell and read the caller ID. “It’s work.”

  Mason moved into her place next to the boys. “Your mom told me about the books. I’d love to see them.” Mason and her mom kept the boys occupied while she took the call.

  “Hi, Mike. How’s the Gilmore place coming along?”

  “One of the subs hit the gas line. We’re shut down. Emergency services is on the way. We’ve cleared the area, but we’re going to need the owner down here.”

  “I’ll call him and meet him there as soon as I can.” She raked her fingers through her hair and silently swore.

  Mason touched her arm. “What is it?”

  “A work emergency. I need to meet the owner at a property.”

  “Dede is meeting her friends for lunch. I’ll take the boys. Join us at the ranch when you’re done.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He squeezed her hand. “It’s part of being a family, right? We look out for each other.”

  The sweet sentiment touched her heart. “You make everything easy.”

  “It’s not supposed to be hard. I don’t mind taking the boys. Soon, we’ll be together all the time. I hope.”

  She wondered why he added the last. “You know that’s what I want, right?”

  “Yes.” His excitement shone through. “And I hope nothing changes.” That drained the enthusiasm right out of him.

  “What would change that?”

  “I’m nervous about telling you what I know.”

  Anxiety tightened her gut. “Nothing David did would make me change the way I feel about you.” Her phone buzzed with a text from Mike. She quickly read it. “I need to deal with this. I’ll be back as soon as I can, then we’ll talk about David.” She went up on tiptoe and kissed him quick, gave the boys hugs good-bye, wondering about Mason and the way he spoke about what he’d discovered about David, and questioning if she’d come home to an even bigger problem than the one facing her now.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Mason heard a car pull up just outside the stables. He hoped Sierra had finished her work emergency early. He didn’t like the way they left things.

  He’d wanted to be wrong about David, who loved his family. He wanted to believe David would never do anything to hurt them.

  But David had hurt them. He’d done something he couldn’t take back.

  And he wasn’t here to answer for it.

  Which made it even worse, because Sierra deserved an explanation and an apology at the very least.

  A car door slammed.

  Mason plucked Danny off the stall door and set him on the ground. “I think your mom is here.”

  Oliver gave Jezebel’s big head a hug. “Bye, Horse.”

  Mason pulled Oliver off the gate, then swung him around in a circle and set him on his feet. Oliver giggled and smiled so big Mason smiled with him.

  He really loved having the boys here. “Let’s see if your mom wants something to eat before we ride. She probably missed lunch.”

  Danny tagged Oliver in the back. “You’re it!” He ran for the open stable doors just as a second car door closed.

  Oliver caught up to Danny. Only because he stopped to hug Hallee.

  Mason joined them and greeted Heather. “Hey. I forgot you were coming.”

  Heather touched her hand to her chest, partially covering the cleavage revealed by the one too many buttons undone on her black-and-white plaid flannel. In tight black jeans and boots, she looked ready to ride. “You certainly know how to make a girl feel welcome.”

  She teased, but he just wanted her out of here before Sierra came home, so they could pick up their conversation where they left off.

  But thinking the word home made him pause. He wanted Sierra to feel like this was home. He wanted her and the boys to live here. The boys accepted him in their mother’s life. But he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. He’d waited this long for her. He could wait for her to make the decision about where to live when she felt they were ready for it.

  He just wanted to give her everything and make her happy.

  He wanted to start each day with her.

  And maybe one day, they’d have another child together and give Danny and Oliver a brother or sister. He didn’t care which. He just wanted to see his eyes and Sierra’s smile on his little one.

  He wanted that future so bad.

  But it all hung on the secret he knew and had to break to Sierra.

  Heather stuffed her hands in her back pockets, widening the gap in her shirt as her chest thrust forward. “Hallee loves animals. I thought she’d love to see a horse up close and she can play with Danny and Oliver. It’s so nice to have Sierra home. I love seeing all the kids playing together.”

  Mason bit back what he really wanted to say.

  Oliver tugged on the hem of his shirt. “I have to pee.” He buried his face in Mason’s side.

  Mason brushed his hand over Oliver’s dark head. “Okay, bub. Why don’t you a
nd Danny go up to the house and take Hallee with you. There are Popsicles in the freezer. You can each have one.” To Danny he added, “Hold Hallee’s hand. Help her up the steps. Do not let her out of your sight.”

  “Got it.” Danny took Hallee’s hand and walked with her while Oliver ran for the house to use the bathroom.

  Mason watched them go, startled when Heather put her hand on his bicep and squeezed.

  “It’s so nice of you to let us come over and go for a ride. I’ve been thinking about you ever since we saw each other at the mailbox. I’ve been meaning to come by, but it’s hard to find a spare minute being a single mom and all.”

  He stepped away, putting a comfortable distance between them. “It must be really hard to do it on your own with Hallee’s father out of the picture.”

  “It is. I hardly have any time to myself.” She bit her bottom lip and edged closer. “That’s why I wanted to see you. I thought maybe you and I could go out and have some fun.”

  Stunned, he didn’t know what to say or do.

  She had to know he and Sierra were seeing each other. Right?

  Then again, they’d kept things quiet so the boys could get used to them seeing each other.

  Heather closed the distance and put both hands on his chest and went up on tiptoe, her body brushing his, her face inches from his. “It’s been a long time and I really want to get to know you better.”

  His brain finally caught up to what she meant. He took her by the shoulders and gently nudged her away while he let her go and took two steps back.