The Bakery Sisters (52 page)

“They were never married. My mom doesn't talk about him at all. It's always been just the two of us. She worked really hard when I was young. Money was tight. She did everything for me.”

A possibly scary thought, although Jesse decided not to judge until she knew all the facts. “She sounds nice.”

“She is mostly. She didn't care that I was into computers. She never bugged me to go outside or worried that I didn't have a lot of friends. She kept saying I'd grow into who I was meant to be and not to worry if things weren't how I wanted them now.”

“Good for her,” Jesse said.

“When I was fifteen, I got really frustrated by this computer game I was playing. I broke into their system, accessed the code and rewrote it. Then I took the new version to them. They licensed it from me. Our money situation got better then.”

Jesse stared at him. “You licensed a computer game when you were fifteen?”

He nodded.

“For a lot of money?”

“It's a couple of million a year.”

If she'd been drinking she would have choked. “So you're rich?”

“I guess. I don't think about it much.”

“You're rich and you wore a pocket protector?”

“You've got to let that go. I said I threw them all out.”

“You're rich.” She couldn't get her mind around that fact.

“What's your point? Does it change anything?”

More than he knew, but warning him about women only after him for his money was something they could talk about later. She laughed. “It changes who's buying dinner.”

Present day…

J
ESSE HAD ALREADY DECIDED
to get all the reunions over as quickly as possible. It was like jumping in the deep end of a cold pool. Sure the shock nearly killed you, but it was over fast. So she did her best to shake off the conversation with Matt, ignoring the rapid pounding of her heart and the mass of memories that crowded her brain, then drove to a second unfamiliar address, guided by the trusty nav system.

This house wasn't gated, but it was nearly as large as the one she'd just left. Yet instead of being a testament to great architecture, it was a rambling two-story house that proudly announced a family lived there.

A tricycle and several toys littered the wide covered porch, while a minivan was parked in front of the garage. One of those decorative wreaths hung on the door, which made Jesse wonder if she had the right address. Nicole had never been the wreath type before. Maybe she'd changed.

Jesse tried to imagine it, but couldn't. Still, in the five years she'd been gone, not only had her sister married—a wedding Jesse hadn't been invited to—but she'd had a son and twin girls. The information came compliments of Nicole's fraternal twin, Claire, the sister Jesse had never really known.

She parked on the street and grabbed more pictures from her purse. Convincing Nicole who had fathered Jesse's child was nearly as important as convincing Matt, although for very different reasons.

She got out of her car and walked up the main path. As she approached the front door, her shoulders slumped. The old feelings she'd thought she'd gotten over returned. The voices that said she was nothing but a screwup. That she ruined everything she touched, didn't appreciate anything.

“Stop!” she said aloud, pausing in front of the steps. “I'm not that person anymore.”

She wasn't. She'd grown up and changed. She was responsible, a single mother who'd made it on her own. When Jesse left, Nicole had claimed she would come crawling back in a matter of weeks. That hadn't happened.

After squaring her shoulders and raising her chin, she walked up the stairs, then pressed the bell and waited.

She heard yelling from inside, and the sound of running feet. The front door jerked open and a little boy stared up at her.

“Who are you?” he demanded loudly, his voice competing with the sound of babies crying. Apparently both twins were awake and not happy.

“Eric, I've told you. Don't answer the door without checking with me first. And don't ask who the person is.”

Eric had blond hair and blue eyes like his mom. He was the same size as Gabe and just about the same age. He sighed and addressed Jesse.

“I'm not supposed to answer the door on my own.”

“I heard. So maybe you want to go get your mom.”

“I'm here,” Nicole said, walking around the corner, carrying a baby in her arms. “Can I help—”

She came to a stop. Her eyes widened and all the color left her face.

“Hi,” Jesse said, feeling awkward and unsure of her welcome. “It's been a long time.”

Nicole stared. “Jesse?”

“It's me.”

“I can't believe it.” In the distance, a baby continued to cry. Nicole glanced in that direction. “It's Molly. Holding them both when they need to be walked is impossible. Hawk's out of town. He didn't want to leave, but he and Brittany had planned the trip celebrating her graduation from college for a while and it didn't seem fair to cancel it because I have twins who aren't sleeping.” She rocked the crying baby in her arms and looked desperate.

“I can help,” Jesse said, stepping in the house without being invited. “Here. Let me take this one.”

“Are you sure?” Nicole asked, obviously reluctant to hand over her baby.

“I raised one myself,” she said.

“Right. Sure. Here.”

Jesse took the wrapped baby and smiled down at her. “Hello, pretty girl. How are you? Keeping mom up? She'll remember and punish you later. You might want to think that through.”

The baby's eyes focused on her face, then slowly began to close. Nicole hesitated a second, before retreating to the back of the house to collect Molly. Eric stared at her.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I'm your aunt Jesse,” she said as she closed the front door, stepped over several toys and followed him to a family room.

There was a sofa and television, along with toys and a couple of baskets of laundry. A stack of diapers sat in one chair. Shoes littered the hallway leading to the kitchen.

Jesse remembered Nicole's house being mostly tidy and quiet. It was a place Jesse had never felt at home. While this place made her feel at ease, she couldn't believe her perfect sister lived in chaos.

A small, hairy white dog raced through the room, followed by a slightly larger black-and-white dog. Pets? Nicole had pets?

“That's Sheila,” Eric told her. “Rambo is her son. Like I'm my daddy's son.” He seemed proud of the fact.

Nicole returned with a second infant and collapsed in a chair.

“Clear a space,” she murmured, rocking her daughter with a desperation that spoke of many nights without sleep. “Come on, Molly. It can't be that bad, can it?”

Kim, the baby Jesse held, had quieted enough for her to ask, “Want me to put her down?”

Nicole shook her head. “She won't sleep. She'll wake right up.”

“We can try,” Jesse said, knowing getting the twins into their own cribs was the only solution that was going to let Nicole rest.

Nicole's gaze narrowed, then she shrugged. “Whatever. They're in the sitting area off our bedroom. They have a room upstairs, but it got to be too far to walk when I realized they weren't ever going to sleep.”

Her voice was thick with emotion, as if she was inches from losing it all.

“I'll show you,” Eric said. He'd been hovering by his mom. Now he led the way down a short hallway and into the master suite.

Jesse had the impression of space, large furniture and a view of a massive backyard. She followed Eric into what would usually be the master bedroom retreat area. A love seat and coffee table had been pushed to the side. Two cribs stood in the middle of the space.

“This one is Kim's,” Eric told her, pointing to the one on the right.

She smiled at him. “Wow. You're very helpful. I'm sure your mom is happy to have you around. You're a great big brother.”

Eric beamed. “I'm the man of the house while Daddy's gone.”

“Your mom is so lucky.”

She eased the sleeping baby into the crib. Kim stayed asleep. Jesse wound the mobile above the crib and motioned for Eric to join her as she backed out of the room.

They returned to the family room. Nicole stared at her.

“She's sleeping?”

“Yes. Why don't I take Molly while you go grab a shower?”

Nicole hesitated, as if she was going to argue, then she handed over the infant and hurried down the hall.

Jesse gazed at the sleepy baby in her arms. “Do you have one of those chairs that rocks the baby?” she asked Eric.

He nodded and pointed to the far corner.

Jesse dug it out from behind a pile of towels and set it in front of the sofa. Molly fussed when she was put in, but quieted as the chair began to crank back and forth.

The piles of laundry needed attention first, Jesse thought. “Where are the washer and dryer?” she asked Eric.

He showed her the utility room off the kitchen. She loaded in towels, added soap and started the machine. She took baby clothes out of the dryer and quickly folded them, giving him socks to match up.

“Excellent job,” she told him, as she cleaned off the kitchen table, wiped it down, then stacked the clean clothes in piles. “Are you thirsty?”

“Uh-huh. I can have juice.”

There were boxes in the fridge. She got him settled with his drink, then loaded the dishwasher with as much as she could fit in before filling the sink and washing the big pots and pans by hand. She just started drying them when Nicole walked into the kitchen.

“Where's Molly?” she asked.

Jesse pointed to the slumbering baby in the rocking chair. “There's a load of towels going in the washer. The dishwasher is full, but I didn't know if it would pull too much hot water from your shower, so I waited.”

Nicole sank into a chair at the table. “You didn't have to do this.”

“I don't mind.” She knew what it was like to be overwhelmed, to think she was never going to get enough rest to feel human again.

The doorbell rang. Nicole winced, but Eric went running. “It's Billy and his mom,” he yelled. Molly started to cry.

“I'll take the baby,” Jesse said.

“Thanks. Eric's spending the afternoon at his friend's house. I'll be right back.”

While Jesse soothed Molly back to sleep, Nicole saw off her son, then returned to the kitchen, looking exhausted. They stood staring at each other for an awkward second.

“So, you're back in Seattle?” Nicole asked as she sank into a chair at the table.

“For now.” Jesse remembered the pictures she'd brought and went to get them. When she returned, she handed them to her sister. “Gabe's been asking about his father. I've put off their meeting as long as I could, but I'm running out of excuses. So we're here, at least for a few weeks.”

She hesitated because Nicole hadn't looked at the pictures. “I went to see Matt this morning. He wasn't expecting me.” There was an understatement. “I'd told him I was pregnant when I left, but he didn't believe he was the father. Given the circumstances, I guess I can't blame him.”

Now came the hard part, Jesse thought. She'd practiced what she wanted to say dozens of times, but suddenly couldn't think of any of her carefully prepared phrases.

“I didn't sleep with Drew,” she said, jumping in and hoping her sister would listen. “I never slept with him, tried to sleep with him or thought of him as anything but your husband. He and I were friends. We would talk and that was it. I was in love with Matt.”

Nicole stood and crossed to the dishwasher, where she pushed a couple of buttons to start the cycle. “I don't want to talk about this.”

“We have to eventually.”

“Why?” Nicole turned to face her, then sighed. “Okay. Maybe. But not today.”

Jesse wanted to push. She'd felt awful about Nicole's hurt and anger for five years and she didn't want to wait any longer. But the mature choice would be to let her sister get used to the idea of her being back first.

“I'll leave the pictures,” Jesse said quietly. “You can look at them later. There's a lot of Matt in Gabe. Especially in his eyes. It made it hard to forget.”

Not hard. Impossible.

Nicole nodded. “I will.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “I thought I'd hear from you when you turned twenty-five.”

Meaning she thought Jesse would show up to get her half of the bakery. Their father had left the business to both of them, with Jesse's half held in trust until she was twenty-five. Once she'd graduated from high school, Jesse had bugged Nicole to buy her out soon and give her the money. Nicole had refused. It had been just one more thing for them to fight about.

“I don't want to be given anything,” Jesse told her. “I want to earn my way in.”

Nicole raised her eyebrows. “Meaning what? You want a job? I thought you hated working at the bakery.”

A job? Jesse hadn't thought that far, but she could sure use the money. “A job would be great. But I have something else to offer. A brownie recipe. I've been working on it on and off for a couple of years. It's finally ready. It's better than anything out there.”

Nicole didn't look convinced.

Jesse fought disappointment and the voice that whispered her sister would never see her as anything but a screwup. The truth was, Jesse might know how much she'd changed, but Nicole had to be convinced. That was fine. Jesse wasn't going anywhere for a while.

“I'll bake a couple of batches,” Jesse told her. “We can set up time for a tasting.”

“All right. But if they're that good, why didn't you just start a business on your own?”

A genuine question or a slam? Jesse wondered. Five years ago, she'd taken the famous Keyes chocolate cake recipe, made the cakes out of a rented kitchen and sold them online. Nicole had been furious and pressed charges, throwing her baby sister in jail.

“They're that good,” Jesse said calmly. “I could have gone out on my own, but I wanted to bring them to the bakery. I told you—I'm interested in earning my way back in.”

Nicole stared at her, obviously not convinced. Jesse took that as a hint to leave.

“I'll call you,” she said as she headed for the door. “So we can set up a time that works for you.”