Project Love (Cascade Brides Series) (26 page)

A moment later, the door swung open.

Hope stood on the other side of the threshold, her hazel
eyes huge in her face. “You haven't changed a bit.”

Charity responded with
an assessing look, sweeping her twin from head to toe. Hope had
changed. The hard edge she'd left home with was gone. Her clear eyes,
pink cheeks, and wavy brown hair shone in the hall light. She was
even more gorgeous.
Oh, yay.

Charity looked past her and saw Faith approaching the
door. “Hope, invite her in. Hello, Charity. Thank you for coming.”

Charity stared at her older sister. Gone was the hectic,
pinched look she remembered. Instead Faith must've taken the same
pretty pill as Hope. She absolutely glowed.

And I haven't changed a bit
.

Still little. Still pitiful. Still a burden, dragging
everyone down
.

Charity didn't say anything as her sisters stepped aside
to let her in. Once door was closed, she crossed her arms over her
chest. “So how long is this supposed to last? I'm here under
duress.”

Hope burst out laughing. “I'm with you, girl.”

“
Not helping,” Faith said. “It's great to see you,
Charity. How have you been?”

Charity stared at her sisters, feeling trapped in some
alternate reality. “Are you serious? You asked me to come here so
you could find out how I'm doing?” She forced herself to calm. “I'm
fine. I'm a coffee barista who works thirty hours a week so I'm not
eligible for health insurance. Impressed?”

Faith's expression faltered before she rallied. “Well,
I finally got my high school diploma.”

“
I'm unemployed,” Hope quipped.

Charity blinked, not understanding the conversation.

“
What we mean is,” Faith began, “we're not here to
compare and judge.”

We. So I'm the one on the outside
.
“Then what is this?”

“
Don't you think it's abnormal that we've been
estranged so long? Don't you think it's time to move past our
differences and acknowledge each other as family?”

Hope looked askance at her older sister. “Yeah, I'm
thinking you got that from Shane.”

Faith flushed.

“
Here's the deal,” Hope said on a sigh, “there are
a couple of weddings in the future and we wanted to connect—as
family—and you know, make sure we're all there for the big days.”

“
You couldn't call to tell me you're both getting
married?” Charity cursed the heat behind her eyes. Years of
suppressed angst made her voice wobble and her hands shake. How long
had she lived in the shadow of her older sisters? Why had she
expected anything different?

“
And how many times did you ignore my call?” Hope
asked as she walked across the room and plumped onto the edge of the
bed.

Faith reached out and touched her arm. “Come sit down,
Charity. I had wanted this to be as pleasant as possible and we keep
saying everything wrong.”

Charity wondered who 'we' was this time.

“
So who's the guy?” Hope said with a half-smile. “We
saw you walk in with one.”

“
You were spying on me?”

“
Yes.”

“
Hope,” Faith chided. “We knew the approximate
time you were arriving and watched for you is all.”

“
How long have you
two been here?”
How long have you been planning a united
front against me? How many phone calls between you? How many shared
details?

“
Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes tops.”

“
Um, the guy?”

Charity glared at her twin. “His name is Daniel
Tabor.”

“
And he's your...?”

“
Significant other.” She wanted to close her eyes in
consternation. Why could she not coolly answer a question? Why did
she rise to the bait every time? Easing out a silent breath, she
walked over to one of the room chairs and sat down. What was Daniel
up to? Maybe he'd discovered the grooms-to-be were jerks and was
waiting to whisk her away from this place.

A girl could dream.

Faith dropped into the other chair. “So, I thought we
could spend a few minutes together getting acquainted before doing
the group thing.”

“
I think we're done here. Because apparently, I
haven't changed a bit.”

Hope sent her a strange look.

Faith sighed. “I know this is uncomfortable but I also
know we're all old enough to deal.”

Charity said nothing. She didn't trust herself to speak.
Too many feelings battled within her for dominance. Guilt at leaving
her sisters in the lurch after the funeral. Regret that she'd been
the needy one. And a strange longing to reconnect with Faith—the
person who had mothered her more than her own mom. At the moment,
Hope was mostly an unknown quantity, and best avoided. Especially as
her twin had retained her familiar tinge of sarcasm. She looked down
at her hands where they were clenched in her lap, summoning the
courage to speak up. Taking a deep breath, she faced her sisters.
“Congratulations on your upcoming marriages. I hope I'm invited to
your weddings. Beyond that, I'm not sure there is much more to say.”

Faith frowned while Hope sat forward on the bed.

Charity soldiered on, determined to get the words out
before tears choked her voice. “Except this; Faith, I am truly
sorry I abandoned you after mom's funeral. That was unbelievably
selfish of me and I have always regretted treating you that way. And
I'm sorry I was such a drain on the family.” She turned to her
twin. “Hope, I know you resented my presence in your life.” The
words were bitter in her mouth, but she forced them out anyway.
“Sorry for cramping your style.”

A tense silence followed her statement. Charity
compressed her lips, wishing she felt some release after speaking.
Instead she felt the old misery and mortification creeping back in.

“
You
did
cramp my style,” Hope said suddenly. “And I did resent you for
it.” She paused. “But I was also self-centered and thoughtless. I
should've looked out for you. And you weren't the only one who took
off after the funeral.”

“
I didn't need looking after,” Charity said.

“
Yeah, you did,” Hope said, giving her a hard look.

Faith seemed to be struggling for composure. “I admit,
I was bitterly disappointed in how everything fell apart after mom's
death, and that I had to deal with it alone, but I get that both of
you were younger and unable to handle some of the consequences of how
it all happened.”

It sounded like a flimsy excuse to Charity.

“
But I've worked through those things, with God's help
of course, and with Shane's. Family connections meant so much to him
that he encouraged me to reach out to you.”

Hope stared down at the bedspread.

“
I'm not asking for us to pretend that there's not a
difficult past that binds us, but I guess I just wanted to see my
sisters. Make sure you're okay, and maybe even ask you to share my
wedding day.”

When Hope looked up, her face had paled somewhat. “Eric
is the same way. He hounded me about this. A few years after leaving
town, a lot of the family anxiety had mellowed. At least for me. So I
called Faith back.”

“
I found out Hope's number from the whale watching
charter business she owned.”

Charity was distracted
by the fact. She regarded Hope with confusion. “You
hate
the water. What were you doing on a boat?”

“
Let the record show I hate the water because you left
me to drown in that lake.”

“
We did not,” Faith said, her face darkening. “What
gave you that idea?”

Hope rolled her eyes. “Maybe it was because you ran
off screaming as I went under.”

Charity struggled to remember that day, but the memory
was too fuzzy.

“
There was a teenager there. He told us to run for Mom
and that he had you. I even looked over my shoulder as we left and he
already had pulled you from the water.”

Hope's eyes narrowed. “I don't remember it that way.”

“
It's how it happened,” Faith said firmly. “I'm a
good swimmer. I wouldn't have left you to drown.”

Hope's features were etched with disbelief.

“
That's because you
basically
were
our
mother, Faith,” Charity said in a hollow voice. “If we didn't
have you, we wouldn't have had anyone.” To her horror, tears began
to slip down her cheeks.

Faith got up from the chair and knelt at her feet. She
took Charity's trembling hands in her own. “We had each other. Even
though we fought, even though we were confused. Don't forget, I left
home as soon as I could, too.”

Charity grasped her sister's hands like a lifeline as
her shoulders shook with the weight of grief, loneliness, and a
clinging sense of rejection. Once the dam was breached, she couldn't
stop. Every grievance, every dismissal, every frustration came
tumbling out.

Soon Hope and Faith added their own upsets to the list.
And after talking every single one through, it was a shock to find
out so many instances were misunderstandings due to a lack of
context. Faith had been short and chilly because of worry,
exhaustion, and financial troubles. Of course Charity had some idea
of that, but hearing each situation explained made her original
reactions look overblown. Hope's behavior was similar, although
resentment at having to care for a younger sister colored most of her
attitudes, made worse by the fact that she was not able to join the
lifestyles of her friends due to her responsibilities. Charity was
made more aware that her clinginess had been compounded by an
emotionally absent mother and her own illnesses that left her lonely
and depressed.

Some families came together through such hardship, but
without the strong guidance of their mother, they'd been rudderless
and had allowed petty squabbles and anxiety to drive them apart—to
three difference places in the state.

Now that she was an adult, combined with the
explanations, Charity could appreciate the toll the stresses had
taken on her family. And she was sorry they'd allowed that to happen.
Maybe they could take a step back—along with a deep breath—and
learn from their reactions. Learn how to draw together instead of
drift apart.

Or at least just get along.

A box of tissues appeared before her face as her sobs
began to subside. Charity pulled out a wad and pressed them against
her face, embarrassed that she'd lost control so quickly. But when
she looked up at her twin, she saw her hazel eyes were filmed with
tears, too.

Faith took a few tissues and pressed them to her cheeks
as well. “I think we can admit we failed each other in many ways,
but bottom line, we're sisters and that's what matters.”

“
You sound like Eric,” Hope said, returning to her
perch on the bed. “It sounds so easy, but—”

“
It won't be,” Faith said. “There's a lot of water
under the bridge.” She stared up at Charity. “But can we try? Can
we make a fresh beginning?”

Charity realized with a start that her heart longed for
Faith and that she'd been denied her for too long. And where Faith
had once been her shelter, Hope had been the one to prod her out of
her comfort zone. With ridicule, yes, but without even that, she
might never had ventured out on her own, might never had tried to
find her own way.

I might never have met Daniel
.

She looked at Hope, who regarded her with a rueful
expression.

Maybe it wouldn't be so
bad to start a tentative relationship with her twin.
I'm a
lot tougher now. I can stand up to her better than before
.

Hope's sharp gaze seemed to see into her very soul and
Charity lowered her eyes, not quite ready for the battle royale.

“
I'd like to try,” Hope said after a moment. “I
really kind of missed you two.”

“
Did not,” Charity mumbled.

“
I so totally heard that,” Hope said, sending her a
glare softened by the slightest twitch at the corner of her mouth.

Faith got to her feet
and Charity missed the warmth of her hands immediately. “So we
agree. We can start by pretending to be friends, then maybe we'll
find we really
are
friends.”

“
Or just sisters,” Hope said. “That'll work in a
pinch.”

Charity wasn't sure what to say. A part of her wanted a
restored relationship, but she was still wary. “We could always try
for strained acquaintances.”

“
Technically
acquaintances wouldn't be strained,” Hope said. “By definition
there has to be some intimacy before a relationship can become
strained
.”

When Charity joined Faith's confused look, Hope held up
her hand. “Sorry. Eric is a terrible influence on me. Just be glad
I didn't use the word 'ergo'.”