Sisters by Choice

by Susan Mallery

  He frowned. “I knew that. Kristine, I was in love with you. We were planning our life together. We got married, for God’s sake. What is the problem?”

  “You lied to me.”

  “Would you stop saying that? What does it matter now? We have kids and a great life. What happened that you’re acting like this?”

  “Nothing happened,” she told him, furious he wouldn’t see her side of things. “Nothing has to happen, Jaxsen. I simply found out that you tricked me into giving up my virginity. As you’d already slept with half the female population of the high school, I understand it doesn’t matter to you, but it’s very important to me and it changes how I view our past. I was giving my heart and you were interested in getting laid.”

  He stared at her. “You’re really upset.”

  “You’re just getting that now?”

  “You’re also acting crazy. Do you have your period or something?”

  “This isn’t hormones. This is me finding out that you lied to me.”

  “Would you stop staying that?” he roared.

  “What would you prefer I say instead?”

  He glared at her for a long time, then turned. “Nothing,” he muttered as he left. “Don’t say anything at all.”

  * * *

  The morning started with someone opening a pallet of kitty litter using a sharp knife and slicing through a half dozen bags in the process. The litter spilled onto the warehouse floor, creating a mess that shouldn’t have been a problem, only the new shop vacs hadn’t arrived yet and there were only two push brooms. Sophie had spent nearly thirty minutes trying to clean up the mess, stopping only when Bear shooed her out of the area.

  “Don’t you have real work to be doing?” he’d asked, sounding exasperated. “Stop trying to handle every detail yourself. I’ve got this.”

  “And the moron who created the problem in the first place?”

  Bear shook his head. “Not talking about that with you, Sophie. This is my department. I’ll manage it.”

  She handed him the broom and made her way to the restroom where she washed her hands before heading to her office. She nearly turned around when she saw three well-dressed women waiting there.

  Who were they and, more important, who had let them in? She was not in the mood to be friendly. Despite Kristine’s reassurances that they were fine, Sophie still felt awful about what she’d said.

  “Can I help you?” she asked, standing in the hall.

  They turned toward her. The shortest of the three—a brunette in her midthirties—smiled. “Good morning. I’m Cathy from the Marysville Women’s Shelter. We were hoping to talk to you about what we do and maybe interest you in a sponsorship.”

  Money. They wanted money. She had no doubt the cause was excellent, but this was not something she wanted to be dealing with today. Or any day.

  “If we could just have a few minutes of your time,” Cathy said.

  Sophie held in a groan. “I’m busy right now. If you’d made an appointment, it would have been easier for me.”

  The women looked confused. “We did make an appointment.”

  “With who? I don’t have a secretary.” She heard a phone ring and waited for someone to answer it.

  “I’m not sure,” Cathy said. “But I did call ahead.”

  The phone continued ringing.

  “Excuse me,” Sophie said, hurrying toward the front office where Amber was playing solitaire on her work computer.

  “The phone,” Sophie said pointedly.

  Amber looked at her. “I’m on my break. It’s not my fault that you don’t have backup for when I’m on break. Or did you want me to just keep working, no matter what? That’s illegal, by the way. I know my rights.”

  The phone went silent as the caller gave up.

  Amber smiled. “See. Problem solved.”

  Sophie swallowed the scream she felt building inside, then stalked back to the women waiting in her office.

  “This isn’t a good time,” she said between clenched teeth. “I’m sorry you came all this way, but I can’t deal with this right now.”

  “Then we’ll be in touch,” Cathy assured her as the women left.

  Sophie watched them go before circling back by Amber’s desk. “Please tell someone when you go on break so the phone is answered.”

  “Sure.”

  The easy answer did nothing to reassure her, she thought grimly, walking back to the warehouse. As she entered the open area, she saw the shipping tables had been moved into a new configuration.

  “What are you doing?” she asked Bear. “You’re changing things?”

  “It will be more efficient and we’ve talked about this.” He guided her into his office. “Sophie, you have to get off me. I mean it.”

  “But the shipping area? It’s my favorite.”

  “Everything is your favorite. You’re not involved, you’re obsessed. You’re letting the big things slide so you can count paper clips.”

  Before she could tell him that wasn’t true, Amber appeared. “Some lady is here to interview for the office manager job. I put her in your office.”

  “I don’t have time for that. Reschedule the interview.”

  “You’ve already rescheduled it twice,” Amber told her. “She seemed annoyed by that when she told me.”

  Bear’s look was pointed. “You need an office manager. And an assistant. And a bookkeeper and God knows what else. Focus, Sophie.”

  “I am focused.”

  She was—every second of every day. There was simply too much to do. She was trying to go from zero to sixty all on her own and just when everything seemed to be moving in the right direction, some idiot cut through a dozen litter bags with a knife.

  “You need to handle the interview. I’ll take care of everything else in the warehouse.”

  She looked at Bear and nodded slowly. He was a good guy. She was beginning to trust him—not an easy thing for her. She knew he was just doing his job.

  “Fine. I’ll interview her, but I won’t like it.”

  Bear sighed. “We’re all so very proud.”

  Thirty minutes later she walked into Bear’s office.

  “How’d the interview go?” he asked.

  “She didn’t impress me.”

  “Did you let her try?”

  “She wasn’t right. That’s not the point. I need you to find a job for Amber.”

  “I thought she was answering the phones.”

  “She’s sitting at the desk, but she’s not doing the work.”

  Bear raised his eyebrows. “So fire her.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Then let me.”

  “No. I’m not saying I can’t fire someone. I can. I don’t like it, but I can do it. No, it’s that she’s family. My cousin.”

  Bear scowled. “Never hire family.”

  “Too late now. Anyway, she needs something else. Then I guess I need someone to answer the phones. I am so tired of hiring people.”

  “If you had an office manager, they could do it for you. You’re being shortsighted, Sophie.”

  She knew he was right but there was so much going on. So much that seemed out of control. “Let me think about it.”

  Sophie left his office and walked through the warehouse. Looking at the stock waiting to be shipped out to customers always made her feel better. She rounded a corner and saw Heather carefully photographing a canister set. As she watched, Heather measured the largest canister and made a notation, then took several more pictures.

  “What are you doing?” Sophie demanded in a shriek. “What’s going on? Are you stealing? Making knockoffs that you can sell on eBay?”

  Heather turned toward her, eyes wide. “Sophie, no. It’s not that.”

  “I trusted you and I gave you a good job. How could
you do this to me?”

  She was aware of people gathering, of Bear coming up to stand beside her.

  “What’s going on?” he asked in a low voice.

  Tears filled Heather’s eyes. “It’s not what you think. I’m not stealing or anything. Sophie, please. Let me explain. Please.”

  * * *

  Heather was shaking so hard, she thought she might throw up. Everyone was staring at her like she was a criminal, but the disappointment and hurt in Sophie’s expression were the worst.

  “My computer’s in my locker,” Heather managed, tears filling her eyes. “I can show you what I’m doing.”

  Sophie looked unconvinced but nodded once. “Let’s go see what you’re up to.”

  Heather led the way to the break room and opened her locker. She carried her laptop to the table and booted it, then sat down and opened the CK file.

  She wiped away tears, then motioned to the chair next to her. “It would be easier if you sat down so you could see the screen.”

  Sophie looked at her for a long moment before pulling up a chair.

  “I like to quilt,” Heather said, wishing her hands would stop shaking. “My mom taught me how when I was pretty young. We would do the easy, in-a-day kind. After a while I wanted to work on more complicated quilts. I found a free program that converts a picture into a quilt pattern, breaking the photograph or design into individual squares. It’s pretty crude, but I’ve been playing with it.”

  She pulled up the first CK logo quilt pattern. “I was wondering if the logo would make a good quilt. It’s charming and fun. But then I started thinking would anyone want to make a quilt of a company logo, so then I wondered how to personalize the quilt or the logo.”

  She clicked on the file with the cat stock photo superimposed on the CK logo. “So I did this. It’s not coming out exactly right. I’ve been playing with it for a while, trying to figure out the proportions. I don’t have professional training, so it’s kind of hit and miss.”

  She turned to Sophie. “I was thinking people would like more special items. Maybe canisters with their cat’s picture on them or things like that. I was measuring the ones we have to get the pictures to work on them. I wasn’t stealing.”

  Sophie looked slightly less stern. “How would the quilts work?” she asked. “People would buy a quilt with their cat’s picture on it?”

  “We could do that, but a handmade quilt would be really expensive. It’s hundreds of hours of labor. But I was thinking we could do a kit. They send in the picture and we send back a pattern with the fabrics. Then they would make the quilt themselves. We could also do the same thing with needlepoint or counted cross-stitch. Plus the canisters.” She swallowed. “I wasn’t stealing, I swear. I was trying to come up with some products I could tell you about. It’s just they’re not finished yet.”

  Sophie groaned, then hugged her tight. “I’m sorry,” she said, holding on for a few seconds before releasing her. “I was so horrible and I’m sorry. Look at what you’re doing. It’s amazing. I can’t believe it. These are fantastic. You are busy every second of every day and here you are trying to grow the company.”

  Heather felt herself relax. “I probably should have told you what I was doing.”

  Sophie brushed that comment aside. “It’s fine. I get that you wanted it to be right before you showed it to me. I completely overreacted. I’m dealing with a lot and sometimes I can’t keep it together. Anyway, these are great. You’re wasted in the warehouse. Tomorrow I want you to start working with Elliot in marketing. He needs people and you’re bright and talented and a hard worker.”

  Heather couldn’t believe it. “Marketing? But I don’t have any training.”

  “You’ll learn on the job. These are great ideas. We need that. I’ll tell Elliot to expect you.” Sophie smiled as she stood. “You have made my day, Heather. Thank you.”

  Heather wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden turn of events. She returned her computer to her locker, then turned and found her mother in the break room. Amber did not look happy.

  “I can’t believe you got a promotion like that.”

  “You were listening?”

  “Of course I was listening. Sophie was pissed. I was sure she was going to fire you and then where would we have been? I was going to tell her she couldn’t. But as always, things work out for you without you doing anything at all.”

  “Mom, I worked for hours on those designs.”

  “Whatever. I’m going to talk to Sophie. It’s not right that she treats me so badly. I’m going to tell her that I’m insisting on a better job and a raise. She’s just so full of herself now that she has this stupid company.”

  Her mother continued talking but Heather wasn’t listening. Instead, she was thinking about her new job in marketing. She’d seen Elliot around, of course, and knew who he was. She could learn a lot from him. She vowed she would arrive extra early, stay late and do everything she could to impress him. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and she was determined to make the most of it.

  Chapter Twelve

  After leaving work, Sophie forced herself to go to the grocery store. She had no food in the house and couldn’t face yet another pizza delivery. She bought a couple of frozen dinners, along with a rotisserie chicken and several salads from the deli case. She even got eggs for breakfast, along with more coffee. Although maybe she should be drinking less coffee what with her not sleeping very well lately. Not that the lack of sleep was necessarily caffeine induced. Last night it had been because of her Kristine guilt, but most of the time it was about work.

  She knew she was slipping further and further behind every day. As Bear continually pointed out, she couldn’t do it all and she was unwilling to let go. If she kept this up, the company was going to be in serious trouble, but knowing that and doing something about it were not the same thing.

  She called out to Lily as she put the groceries on the counter. “Hey, pretty girl. How are you feeling today? Sorry I’m so late. You must be hungry.”

  But instead of hurrying into the kitchen to demand dinner service, Lily was nowhere to be seen. Sophie quickly walked through the kitchen to the hallway, calling the cat as she went.

  “Lily? You okay?”

  She stepped into the bedroom where she’d set up Lily’s litter box and birthing place and turned on the light. Lily lay in the box, four small kittens at her side.

  “You had your babies.” Sophie hurried over and dropped to her knees. “Oh, little girl, you were all alone. I’m so sorry. I wanted to be here to help.”

  Lily regarded her quietly. Sophie didn’t know if she was judging or pointing out she’d gotten through it just fine. Either way it was done and it seemed as if everything had turned out all right.

  Sophie shifted to a sitting position and stretched out her hand toward the cat. She wanted to reassure her without being threatening to her babies. Lily leaned into her fingers, purring loudly. Sophie smiled at her.

  “You’re such a great mom. Look at you. At some point we have to get all this cleaned up but for now—”

  Her gaze shifted to something in the corner of the box. Something that didn’t look right and hadn’t been there that morning. Sophie went cold all over as she realized the something was a small body.

  “No,” she breathed. “No, please no.”

  Fear gripped her as tears spilled down her cheeks. She wanted to back away but knew she had to confirm the kitten was dead. Only she couldn’t imagine doing that. Thoughts of how CK had died in her arms slugged her in the heart, making it impossible to breathe.

  “Oh, Lily,” she whispered. “Was it bad?”

  The cat only purred and closed her eyes.

  Without being aware of what she was doing, Sophie pulled her phone out of her pocket. But when she went to make the call, she wasn’t sure who to talk to. Normally, Kristine was
her go-to person, but right now things were weird, and Amber was totally useless and Heather was too young and who else was there?

  She hesitated only a second before scrolling through her contact list.

  “Hey,” Dugan said cheerfully. “I was just thinking about you.”

  “Can you come over?” she asked, not bothering to keep the trembling out of her voice. “Please?”

  “Sophie, what’s wrong?”

  “Lily had her babies and I think one died. I can’t deal with this. I know I should be strong and it’s the circle of life, but I just can’t.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “Hurry.”

  Sophie stayed where she was, terrified to even look at the lonely kitten, yet unable to walk away. She cried and petted Lily and waited. It didn’t take long for Dugan to walk into the room.

  She pointed to the small body in the corner. “I think it’s dead.”

  He squatted next to her and kissed the top of her head, then reached for the kitten. Sophie flinched and turned away. Lily kept on purring as if she had no interest in what had happened. Dugan collected the tiny creature and stood.

  “The body’s cold,” he said. “I’d guess it died at birth. Did you contact the cat rescue place?”

  She shook her head.

  He held out his hand for her phone, then disappeared. Sophie stayed with Lily. The kittens had stopped nursing and seemed to be asleep. She gently stroked their tiny bodies, grateful to feel heat and heartbeats.

  “I called them,” Dugan said as he walked back into the bedroom. “They’re sending a tech out tomorrow to check on the rest of the litter, but they said not to worry. This sort of thing happens.”

  “Where’s the kitten?”

  “I put it in my car. I’ll bury it at my place.”

  “Thank you.”

  He held out his hand then pulled her to her feet. “Let’s move the babies and clean up the box. They said to offer Lily food, but not to worry if she doesn’t eat for a few more hours. I put a big towel in the dryer to warm it up. That way the kittens won’t get cold.”