His mother smiled and linked her fingers on the table in front of her. “I want to talk to you about that. The doctor thinks it’s time your father retired. He’s been doing far too much lately and it’s taken its toll.”
He hadn’t seen that coming. “He won’t do it. You know he’s going to fight you on this, don’t you? The last thing Dad would want to do is sell the business.”
“I know. It’s going to be hard but honey, we don’t need the money. We’re set for life and that’s what I want with your father, a decent life so we can do things together. I want to travel and we can’t do that with the business tying us to town. I wonder if you can talk to him about it, maybe he’ll let you put out feelers. See if there’s anyone in town interested in buying it.”
*
“It’s so good to see you. How’s the hand faring up after that long drive?”
Dakota held it up, wiggled her fingers in her half-sister’s face, flexed them a few times to prove she was okay. “Not too bad actually. The cold weather is always going to be hard with the circulation but it’s something I can deal with. Much better alternative than having two fingers amputated.”
Even though they hadn’t grown up together the girls were still close. The years living with her drug addicted mother after their divorce and her father’s subsequent new marriage, hadn’t turned Mari bitter toward her half-sisters.
“I wish you’d let me unpack for you. I could have saved you all this work.” She pointed to the boxes and the wrapping paper that littered the floor.
“Thank you but you know I want to do it myself. My mom and Dad smothered me after the accident. I know they meant well but it got to the stage where I didn’t think I’d ever be able to look after myself again if I didn’t leave. Unpacking and setting up this house is going to be good for me.”
She looked up at the ceiling, listening to her nephew squealing with glee as he watched the movie his mother had set up in the loft bedroom for him. “I love hearing that child so happy.” The scars no longer worried her as they had when she’d first seen what the surgeons had managed to do for her. Ragged lines of shiny skin ran across the back of her left hand, crisscrossed over all but her index finger. They would fade with time but Dakota was realistic. Her scars were there to stay.
Mari smiled. “Me too. When Rake died five years ago, I had horrible visions of Noah growing up missing him terribly and not being able to come to terms with being a fatherless child. But since he was so little when it happened, he’s coping much better without a father figure than I hoped.” She curled her legs underneath her and leaned back on the couch, a glass of wine in one hand, the fire crackling in the grate. Vanilla scented candles now sat in glass containers in the window filling the room with the warm comforting smell. Dakota had found it impossible to ignore the boxes after Adam had left and managed to get through two before her sister arrived.
“Once you get acquainted with your foster parents again, he’ll have more family and that’ll go some way toward making up for it. That was the idea for you moving here in the first place. Have you seen them yet?” Dakota sipped her wine and watched her sister’s reaction. The crackle of the wood fire seemed louder than it should have been when there was no immediate response.
Finally Mari spoke. “No. they’re away overseas and won’t be back for weeks which is good in a way. Gives me time to settle in and think about how I’m going to approach them. They were great foster parents and I didn’t appreciate that enough. Looking back, I can’t believe I gave them so much trouble. They may not even want to see me, and I wouldn’t blame them in the slightest. Have you thought of that?”
She put her glass down and pulled a tissue from the box on the table in front of her, dropping her head into her hands.
“You’re scared, you poor thing.” Dakota moved over to Mari and sat with her arm around her shoulders, wondering why she hadn’t noticed the frailness in her before. Mari put on a good front and she suspected she always had. “Do you really think they’ll take it that badly, hold your past against you? I mean, surely they’ll want to see Noah and you too for that matter. Once they know what happened of course, why you ran away.”
“I caused them nothing but trouble when my mom died and they took me in. I don’t see them welcoming me with open arms after what I put them through. I’m sure when they know I’m here they’ll avoid me like the plague. I don’t blame them. I’d do the same if I was them.” She rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes and sniffed. “I’ll be fine and so will Noah. When the time is right I’ll tell them what happened and why we left Cherry Lake. Until then, I’m going to concentrate on my business and try to get involved in the community again. I want us to belong, Dakota.”
“You always belonged, Mari. You just never let yourself believe it.” Dakota smoothed her hand down the back of her sister’s head.
Mari smiled and took a breath. “This move is about you. We have to get you back into the land of the living, make new friends
