Sisters in Love (Snow Sisters, Book One: Love in Bloom Series #1) (15 page)

Sally set a cup of coffee in front of Blake
and sat down across from him. She clasped her hands around her cup
and looked into the dark liquid. “Thanks for coming over,” she
said.

“Sure, whatever you need. I’m happy to help,
but I think before you tell me whatever it is you need to tell me,
I need to talk to you about Rusty.” He’d wrestled with how to tell
Sally about Rusty’s excursion all night and finally decided that
the truth was the only appropriate path and that not telling her
could only lead to a tangled web later.

Sally lifted her eyes. “I’m sure that
whatever it is, I already know.” She looked back down into the
steaming coffee.

“Sally, when I took Rusty to basketball
practice the other night, he…well, he didn’t really go to practice.
I know I should have said something, but with all that you’re going
through—”

“I know,” she said in a flat tone.

“You know?”

She looked up with tear-filled eyes. “That’s
part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Surely you knew about
our problems—mine and Dave’s?”

Shit
. The last thing Blake felt
prepared to handle was their marital issues. “I don’t get it. As
far as I knew, you and Dave were the happiest couple around. He was
always carrying on about your family movie nights, Rusty’s
basketball practice. Hell, getting him to spend any time
away
from you was like climbing Mount Everest.”

A tear slipped down Sally’s cheek. She shook
her head. “Family movie night? We did that once, like date night.
Dave was anything but happy, Blake.” She looked down again. “Wow. I
really thought you knew.”

“No,” he said thoughtfully. “Why are you
telling me all of this?”

“I’m telling you for Rusty. I know he quit
basketball; the coach called me two months ago.” She swallowed
hard. “But that’s also about the time that I realized Dave was
really having an affair.” She wiped a tear. “Before that, I just
thought, I don’t know, that something was going on, but I didn’t
really know what.”

“I just can’t believe that, Sally. I mean,
Dave gave me a hard time for slee—dating so many women all the
time.”
Did he? Or did he only egg me on?
Blake couldn’t be
sure anymore. “He adored you and Rusty. He said he went to every
basketball practice.” Blake ran his hand through his hair and let
out a long sigh. “I just don’t understand this. I feel like I’m
being Punk’d or something.”

“I wish you were. Dave was really good at
covering his tracks. For the first few weeks, he claimed to be
leaving work late, going skiing with you at night.”

“Me? He and I hadn’t gone skiing for ages
before…the accident.” Blake took a sip of his coffee and lowered
his face to his hands, trying to figure out what was going on.
Could he have been that blind to Dave’s charades? He lifted his
head, anger bubbling into pain in his gut. Danica’s words came
rushing back to him.
This isn’t about you. It’s about Sally and
Rusty
. He remembered Kaylie’s advice of empathy. “I’m sorry
that you two were having trouble,” he said with compassion. “I
still don’t understand why you're telling me all of this now. I
mean, Dave’s gone. There’s nothing I can do.”

She leaned her elbows on the table and then
crossed her arms over her chest. Blake watched her open her mouth,
then close it again, struggling to find the right words. He had an
urge to hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be all
right, but how could he do that when everything was not all
right?

“This is embarrassing. The whole awful
situation is just…humiliating. I never told my family about it. I
didn’t know how. I was afraid about what it said about me as a
wife.” Tears streamed freely down her cheeks. “Rusty is falling
apart at the seams, and I just don’t know what to do.”

Blake was still reeling, trying to get his
arms around Dave having an affair. “Does Rusty know?”
That would
explain his comments
.

“I don’t think so. At least, he’s never said
as much. But being a teenager is hard, and he’s acting out in so
many ways. When he came home the other night, the night you drove
him to his supposed practice, that was the first time he seemed
normal in forever. He’s so angry all the time, and whatever went on
between you two, well, it seemed to help.”

“But I caught him. I’m not a parent, and I am
really confused by all of this.” Blake ran though his memories of
his night with Rusty. He had been so gruff with Blake, so
who-gives-a-shit
, that what she said made no sense to
him.

“I should have warned you about his
practice.” She made air quotes when she said the word
practice
. “But I was in no shape to deal with anything, and
he needed the outlet. He doesn’t know that I know he’s off the
team, and I just couldn’t sit here with his cursing and stomping
around.” Anger lifted her voice. “It was selfish of me, and I’m
sorry. I just needed a break.” With that, her entire body seemed to
collapse. She covered her face with her hands, and her shoulders
shook with sobs. She looked like a small child trying to hide from
big-world problems. And this one was massive.

“Hey, hey,” Blake said softly. “I didn’t
mind. I’m happy to take Rusty to his…friends, or whatever you need.
You weren’t being selfish. Really, it’s fine.” He really needed to
talk to Danica. She would know what to do.

“It’s just…” Her voice hitched. “Rusty needs
a man in his life, not a man who’s with me, not a replacement for
his father, just someone who gets it, you know? Dave didn’t have
time for him, and it’s unfair to ask it of you, but I’m afraid to
ask this of anyone else. Just forget it. I should never have said
anything.”

Blake was so shocked by the entire situation
that he didn’t know what else to say.

“She was there, you know, the woman he had an
affair with. I saw her in the back of the funeral home.”

Blake thought of the woman in the church and
began putting two and two together.

“I wanted to yell at her for showing up, but
I saw her sitting there alone, crying, and all I could think was
how Dave had screwed her over, too.” She wiped her eyes.

“Sally,” Blake began, but then realized he
had no idea what to say. Dave was his friend and business partner,
even if he was screwing around. What did friends and business
partners say in these circumstances?

“Listen, it is what it is, right? I get it,
and believe it or not, I still love the man. And the woman, well,
how can I really blame her? Maybe she didn’t know he was married,
or maybe she did. I don’t know. She fell in love with him, I’m
sure, for all the same reasons I did. It just sucks.”

“I feel like such a fool. I should have
known, seen something.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. He was too good at
covering up. But none of that really matters anymore. Right now,
he’s gone and Rusty is left without a man to turn to.”

“Have you thought about a therapist? I mean,
I’m not really qualified to step in; you know what I mean?”

“You’re a man,” Sally said lightly. “You’ve
been a teenage boy, and besides, he won’t go to a therapist. I’ve
been playing that angle for the last two months.”

“Sally, there’s stuff about me that you
probably don’t know.” Blake stood and paced, while Sally remained
seated, wiping her eyes, gathering her wits about her like she was
redefining a shield.

She sat up straighter, tucked one leg under
the other, and cleared her throat.

“Dave probably didn’t let you in on much of
my life, but I’m a…serial dater, I guess you’d say.”

“You’re a player; anyone who knows you, knows
that,” she said like she was stating yesterday’s news.

“Yeah, okay, you could put it that way.” He
hesitated. “Everyone knows that? Really?”

“Blake, it’s not like you hide it in any way.
I’ve known you for a few years now and you’ve never said the same
woman’s name twice, so yeah, it’s pretty obvious. But it doesn’t
really matter. I mean, I’m not looking for someone to teach Rusty
about dating and women, just to be there for him to vent to.” She
sighed. “Like I said, never mind. It’s really not something I
should have expected you or anyone else to do.”

Blake thought about Rusty. Would he do more
harm than good spending time with the kid? Could he turn his back
on Dave’s son? What would Dave want him to do?
Goddamnit,
Dave.
He took a long, hard look at Sally and realized the last
thing he wanted to do was hurt her in any way. Sally was broken,
the woman in the church was broken, and Dave had done the damage.
Blake turned his back to Sally, realizing that what he did with
women probably caused similar pain. He’d heard it too many times to
count—
Why didn’t you call me back? You make me feel like a piece
of meat. You used me
.

He turned back to Sally. “If you can overlook
what I’ve done in my life and the things I haven’t done—like the
right thing. Ever. Then yes, I will help you in whatever way you
need with Rusty, and I’ll do my best not to have him turn out like
me.”

Danica had stewed all night over Blake’s
refusal to give Kaylie her night of pleasure. On one hand, she was
proud of him for denying himself the exquisite gratification that
she was sure her sister was capable of providing. She knew how
difficult it must have been for him to not follow through. She’d
seen stronger men than him unable to restrain themselves with her
sister. On the other hand, he’d been back in a bar again, obviously
flirting with disaster. Danica pushed away thoughts of Blake and
Kaylie.

“How did you make out at the funeral?” Danica
asked Blake, who sat across from her in a dark T-shirt and jeans.
They’d had only a few short sessions together, and Danica knew it
could take years to change behaviors. Every client had setbacks,
and she expected that of them. So why was she monitoring Blake like
he was different?
Concentrate, Danica
.

“I wanted to thank you for helping me through
that. I did fine, I guess. I mean, I made it through. I sat in a
middle row, as you suggested. So much has happened since then that
I feel like it was ages ago. In fact, I feel like every time I come
here wanting to talk about one thing, I get sidetracked with other
issues that seem to be rising up in my life way too
frequently.”

I’d like to see something rise. Jesus
Christ, Danica, focus!

Instead, Danica thought about Kaylie flying
through her door Saturday night. She knew she’d been right not to
tell Kaylie about Blake being her client, but what she wasn’t sure
of was if she should have him as a client at all. Their lives
seemed to be a bit too intertwined lately. What if Kaylie had slept
with him? If she had, would Danica have had to uphold some sort of
unwritten sisterly pact of full disclosure? Would she have had to
let Blake know she was Kaylie’s sister? Danica was not up to
answering any of those hypothetical questions. She’d been so
conflicted that she’d woken up at three o’clock in the morning with
a killer stomachache, and even now, several hours later, she sat
across from Blake with her stomach fluttering in ways she wasn’t
sure could be qualified as typical therapist woes. Maybe she needed
to rethink this relationship.

Trying to regroup, she locked her eyes on his
and said, “That happens to a lot of people, I think. But we can
talk about anything you want.”
Stay focused
. “Sometimes it
helps to list the things that we need to address. Then we can
prioritize and work our way through them.”

“Okay.” Blake leaned forward, resting his
elbows on his knees.

Danica caught a whiff of his musky cologne
and sat back in an effort to remain professional.

“Should I write them down, or…”

“No, just tell me and I’ll note them.”
A
good distraction
.

“Okay, well, there’s my bar hopping, Dave’s
affair, and Rusty.” He sat back and looked at Danica.

Did she see something other than worry in his
eyes, or was it her imagination? Could she be transferring her
lustful feelings onto him? She really needed to get a grip. She
noted each issue. “Okay, anything else?” Danica wondered if the
heat she felt in her cheeks was visible or just in her mind. She
looked down at the notebook again.

Blake smiled. “Isn’t that enough?”

She smiled at his joke. “It is, yes. Okay, so
which of these do you want to tackle first?”

He looked at her thoughtfully, his eyes
traveling over her hair to her face. She felt him staring at her
mole.
Stop. Please stop
. He lifted his eyes, then said, “I
just realized what’s different about you lately. You’re not dressed
all professional. Wait, that didn’t come out right.”

She had no control over the smile that spread
across her lips.
He noticed
.
What are you, fourteen? Get
a grip.
“Oh, this?” She tried to play it off casually, swatting
at her scarf and blouse. “My sister picked it out for me. I’m doing
a little soul searching of my own lately.”

“Well, I mean no disrespect, but you look
great in anything you wear. The blue scarf is really great. It sets
off your eyes.”

Danica looked down, as uncomfortable as she
was excited by his remark. She knew better than to let this go too
far. She reined in her smile and gave him a stoic nod. If she was
going to remain his therapist, then she had to draw a line
somewhere.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything
inappropriate,” Blake added.

“I understand. Let’s focus on your list,
shall we?” She searched his eyes for whatever had been there before
and was met with disappointment. She’d metaphorically slapped his
wrist, and as a therapist, she was in no position to apologize.
Damn
.

“I guess the first thing I want to talk about
is what to do about Rusty, then Dave, then, well, you know.” He
looked away.