Sisters by Choice Read online

  The relief of something positive to do made Sophie feel marginally better. She put out food for Lily, then helped Dugan move the tiny kittens onto the warm towel. They woke up and squeaked out their protests. It only took a couple of minutes to clean up the box and put down fresh towels. Lily ate a little and used the litter box, then returned to her babies. She licked each one of them, settling them close to her. In a matter of minutes the whole family was asleep.

  Sophie and Dugan retreated to the kitchen where he opened a bottle of wine. She saw her groceries were put away and had no idea when he’d done that.

  Once she had her wine, he sat across from her at the kitchen table.

  “That was hard on you,” he said, his tone conversational.

  She sighed. “Is that your way of asking why I freaked out?”

  “It was unexpected. I get you were upset.”

  “Babies shouldn’t die.”

  His gaze was steady. “You’ve had a lot of loss in your life.”

  “Asking or telling?”

  Instead of answering, he reached across the table and took her hand in his. “I’m glad I could help.”

  Her eyes filled with tears again. “Me, too. I know it’s silly, but it just hit me. Probably because I lost my cat not long ago. I’d had CK since I was a freshman in college. She’s the reason I started the business. We’d been through everything together and I couldn’t imagine losing her, but then I did.”

  “Is that why you’re fostering? Because you’re not ready to have a cat of your own?”

  She nodded. “Kristine suggested it. I thought it would be good to have another heartbeat in the house, but I didn’t think a kitten would die.”

  “Are your folks alive?”

  The change in topic surprised her. “I don’t know,” she said. “My mom died when I was a teenager. It was really awful. She was killed in a car accident, so there was no warning. My dad had left a few years before. Mom was the one who worked hard. She was a pharmacist—the only one on the island. My dad was always looking for the next big thing, which he never found. He drifted from scheme to scheme until one day he drifted right out of our lives. At the time I thought he was leaving my mom. I didn’t think he was leaving me, too. But when she died, he didn’t want me to come live with him.”

  She closed her eyes against the memories.

  “So you lost both parents at the same time,” Dugan said quietly.

  She nodded. “We’ve only spoken twice since then. The last time was ten years ago.”

  “Did you go into foster care?”

  “What? No. I moved in with Kristine and her family. They did everything they could to make me feel welcome, but it was still so hard. I missed my mom every day. I was a teenager, so we’d been fighting a lot. She worried I wouldn’t make something of myself. After she died, I did everything I could to make her proud of me, but it’s not like she knows what I did.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  She looked at him. “Please don’t get metaphysical on me.”

  “I would never do that. I’m simply pointing out you have no idea what happens after we die. It could be nothing, it could be completely different from what we’ve been told. Maybe she knows everything you’ve done and is proud and happy.”

  Sophie wished that were true. “What about your family?”

  One shoulder rose and lowered. “I’m so normal, I’m boring. One of three kids, raised on the East Coast. I have two sisters. I’m the middle one.”

  “But the only boy. That makes a difference.”

  He grinned. “So they tell me all the time. My parents are still married and I get home about once a year.”

  “How’d you end up on Blackberry Island?”

  Humor brightened his eyes. “I was on a spiritual journey and found my way here.”

  “Did you inherit the house you live in?”

  “No, I bought it.”

  He paused as if waiting for her to ask more. Under normal circumstances she would have pursued the topic, but she was too sad.

  “Tell me about CK Industries after you graduated from college. Did you grow too fast?”

  Another zig in the direction of their conversation. She considered her answer. “It wasn’t that we grew too fast. It was more that I couldn’t control things as much as I would have liked. I made a lot of dumb decisions when it came to employees.”

  “In what way?”

  “They oversold themselves and I believed them so I ended up with a lot of people who didn’t have the experience or skills I needed them to have.”

  “Did you fire them or live with the disappointment?”

  An insightful question she didn’t want to answer.

  “Both,” she admitted. “Firing people is hard. I’ve gotten better, but I don’t like it. Sometimes it’s just easier to do everything myself.”

  “But you can’t,” he said gently. “Sophie, do you get that?”

  “I can do a lot. Nobody knows the business better than I do.”

  “That’s true, but you have the limitation of time. I’m sure you can do any three jobs better than the people you hire but there aren’t only three jobs at CK. There are dozens and you can’t do them all. Do you trust yourself to hire the right people?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Sometimes.”

  “So you don’t.”

  “Bear is great. Amber, my cousin, is a disaster, but I knew she would be.”

  “And you hired her anyway.”

  “She’s family.”

  “Sorry. Of course you’d hire her. You want people you know. Even if she’s awful, she’s a known entity. You can handle whatever pain she causes because it’s familiar. If only everyone would love CK as much as you do, but you worry they don’t and while you get that a lot of people simply want a good job, you don’t want to accept that.”

  “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this line of conversation,” she said primly, wondering how on earth he had figured it all out. He was just some Tai Chi guy. Maybe he had a degree in psychology or something. Regardless, she was surprised by his insights and uncomfortable with what they said about her.

  Dugan stood, then drew her to her feet and kissed her.

  “Poor Sophie,” he said, his voice gentle. “Now you don’t know what to make of me. It’s okay. When you get the urge to pull back, remind yourself that the sex is really great and giving it up would be foolish. Besides, it’s good to have a friend who isn’t family. I know you can’t trust me just yet, but I’m hoping eventually you realize I’m on your side.”

  She glared at him. “You’re making a lot of assumptions.”

  “I know.” He kissed her again. “So what’s the verdict? Do I get to stay or are you kicking me out?”

  She thought about how rattled she still felt and knew that dealing with Dugan’s awareness was better than being by herself.

  “You can stay,” she told him. “But only if you go get takeout.”

  He smiled. “Done.”

  * * *

  Heather barely slept the night before she started her new job. She was excited and nervous. The opportunity was amazing and she wanted to do well.

  Her first concern was what to wear. For her warehouse job she’d been comfortable in jeans and a sweatshirt, but working in marketing was different. She needed something more professional, and her options were limited. Complicating the situation was the downpour outside her bedroom window. No way she could put on nice pants or a dress and her only pair of leather flats and then ride her bike all that way in the rain. That meant she was going to have to drive to work.

  She decided on a dress for her first day, and took the time to apply a little makeup. Too unsettled to eat breakfast, she drove to CK where she parked and hurried inside. Bear was already in his office. He spotted her, grinned and gave her a thumbs-u
p. Her equilibrium slightly restored, she walked through the warehouse toward the offices.

  Elliot had claimed space in the back. His office was large, with a window, a big desk and a table and four chairs in the corner. Sophie hadn’t told her what time to start, so Heather had planned to show up extra early, but like Bear, Elliot was already at work, as well.

  She took a moment to breathe, then knocked on the open door.

  “Good morning.”

  Elliot, a tall man with a slightly imposing air, took off his glasses and looked at her.

  “Heather, is it? Sophie mentioned she’d moved you to my department.”

  His tone was fairly neutral, so she wasn’t sure if he was happy about what had happened or not.

  “Is that all right?” she asked.

  “We’ll have to see, won’t we? I haven’t filled my staff positions yet. I have a few people coming in for interviews in the next week or so. I suppose we’ll have to work it out as we go.”

  He motioned to a chair in front of his desk. When she was seated, he began speaking.

  “From what I can tell, Sophie outsources a lot of the support functions of the company, mainly digital advertising and customer service. Hiring order-takers is one thing, but advertising is different. It should be customized and tracked and monitored. She and I are still working out our differences on that one.”

  Heather wondered if she should be taking notes. Or dictation, whatever that was. She wasn’t clear on her job function or what Elliot expected of her.

  “We should start by getting to know our customer a little better,” he said. “Who is the CK buyer? We know she’s probably female, but let’s dig in deeper. I have some ideas I want to present to Sophie and I need numbers to back them up. Pull the demographic reports for the past two, no, three years. Let’s see if there have been any changes. I want to look at education, income level, number of cats in the household. At the same time, pull together a report on all households who own cats. I remember reading somewhere there were more cats than dogs in the country. Is that true? What are the demographics of cat-owning families and how do those numbers compare with the CK customer?”

  He paused before offering her a faint smile. “That should keep you busy for the next day or so. Once you have the reports done, we’ll go over them and take it from there.”

  Heather swallowed. Reports? What did that mean? “Um, how long do you want the reports to be?”

  He frowned. “As long as they need to be. Heather, this isn’t a college assignment. It’s a real-world report.”

  His dismissive tone made her feel that asking more questions wasn’t a good idea, so she nodded and stood.

  “Where would you like me to work?” she asked.

  He waved toward the empty offices all around them. “Pick any one with a computer. Do you have the internet password?”

  She nodded.

  He held out a piece of paper. “The second password you’ll need to access the information we’ve talked about. I assume you know not to share anything you learn with anyone other than Sophie and myself.”

  “Yes.”

  Or at least she did now.

  Heather quickly chose the smallest office. Not only was it unassuming, it was also nearly the farthest one from Elliot’s. Not that she didn’t want to be close. It was just, the man terrified her.

  Heather booted her computer and logged on. She went online and looked up information on demographics and using them in a report. She downloaded statistics on cat owners and made notes. By two o’clock she felt comfortable enough to go into the company files to find the information Elliot was looking for.

  Only when she accessed the secure information, she had no idea what any of it meant. There were hundreds of pages of raw data and math formulas and graphs, and while she could find the past two years, the third year back seemed to be missing.

  By five, she was exhausted, hungry and had a headache that throbbed with every heartbeat. She locked her notes in her desk and vowed she would figure it out in the morning.

  When she got home, the house was empty. Heather fixed herself a quick dinner, then went into her room where she read about marketing reports until her eyes were blurry.

  Midmorning Wednesday, Heather returned to Elliot’s office, two reports in hand. She set both on his desk.

  He looked from them to her, then nodded at one of the chairs. “Have a seat.”

  She sat down and realized she was shaking so hard, her legs were bouncing. She pressed both hands on her thighs and hoped he didn’t notice.

  Elliot flipped through the pages on the CK customer. Heather had included charts and graphics, most of which she’d created herself. She had no idea what he wanted, so didn’t know if she’d even come close. But she’d worked hard and hoped that he would—

  He tossed down the pages, dropped his glasses on the desk and looked at her.

  “Who are you?”

  The question startled her. “You mean my name?” Didn’t he know that? Had he forgotten already?

  Elliot sighed heavily. “No, not your name. Who are you? Why do you have this job? What is your relationship to Sophie?”

  “I’m, ah, her cousin’s daughter. I’ve known her all my life.” She felt herself flushing. “I’ve been working on some marketing ideas for the company. Superimposing cat pictures on different products.”

  As she spoke, she recognized how stupid that sounded. “She, ah, saw my work and thought it was good.”

  Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose. “You put cat pictures on a tea towel and now you’re in marketing?”

  The heat on her cheeks deepened. “It was more than tea towels,” she whispered. “It was a canister set and I created a quilt pattern.”

  “Well, then.” He studied her. “Do you have any experience or education in this field? College classes, an internship, anything?”

  Heather shook her head.

  “I should have gone back to P&G,” he muttered.

  “I’m sorry,” Heather blurted. “I can redo the reports. If you tell me what you want, I can do it.”

  His dark gaze settled on her face. “That’s the problem, Heather. I did tell you what I want. You’re no good to me as you are. I don’t have time to train you on the basics of your job.”

  “Please,” she said, knowing she sounded desperate and not caring. “Please give me a chance. I’m a really hard worker. I’ll come in early and I’ll stay late. I’ll get you coffee and do whatever you say. I’m dependable and I learn fast. Until I started working in the warehouse, I had three jobs. Four, if you count the babysitting. But I gave up being a waitress to work here full-time. They’ve already hired my replacement. I can’t lose this job. Please, I don’t have any money in the bank. I have to take care of my mom because she won’t take care of herself. It’s just how it is. I’m trapped and scared and my grandmother is selling the house and we don’t have anywhere to go and this is such a great opportunity for me. I want to study graphics and marketing and I’m going to community college, at least I was until the car accident, but I’m going back. I mean that. I’m going back and I’m going to do it. I just really don’t want you to fire me.”

  Heather pressed her lips together in an effort to stop talking. She had a feeling her emotional dump wasn’t going to help her cause at all, but there was no taking it back.

  Elliot continued to study her for a long time. Finally, he threw the reports into the recycling bin by his desk, pulled out a pad of yellow paper and started speaking as he wrote.

  “Age, gender, average income, number of cats, years of education, type of employment.” He looked at her. “Full-time versus part-time. Pull together all the information we have on the CK customer. Put it in a chart with the year at the top and the characteristics down the side. What we have for this year, last year and the previous two years. So four years in tot
al. Add categories as you see fit. Then do the same for the average cat household in the country. Put that in a second chart. It should take you no more than two hours. Bring the information back to me.”

  “Is that what you wanted before?” she asked.

  “No, but it’s enough for now. Can you do it?”

  “Yes.”

  He passed her the pad of yellow paper, then pointed to the door.

  Heather wanted to tell him she would do her best or salute or something but instead she rose and scurried from the room. She’d been given a second chance and she wasn’t going to blow it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Things were not better at home. Jaxsen refused to admit he’d done anything wrong and he’d made it clear he thought she was overreacting. Kristine felt he was dismissing her very real sense of hurt and betrayal. He wouldn’t see that his lie had been significant. She’d been saving herself for true love and he’d lied.

  As she drove to the airport to deliver another three dozen cookies to Bruno, Kristine acknowledged that she and Jaxsen were stuck. If history was destiny—or however that old saying went—she would be the one to cave. She would be the one to say it was fine, that she understood, and he would say he loved her and things would go on as before. She thought maybe that was the most sensible course, but for once she didn’t want to be sensible. He’d lied. Teenage boy or not, he’d hurt her feelings, had dismissed her reaction and once again she was expected to simply suck it up for the sake of their marriage.

  When did he suck it up? she fumed as she drove toward the small airport. When did he do anything he didn’t want to do? Jaxsen helped around the house, but only with the things he liked. He would get the boys ready for bed but he wouldn’t read to them because “all their books were boring” as he’d told her a dozen times. He wouldn’t help clean the kitchen or the bathrooms, he wouldn’t tidy up, but he would vacuum because he liked doing that. He lived his life doing what he wanted, when he wanted, and the rest of them be damned.