"Well, nobody in town but that delicious-looking guy at the grocery?" Faith tried to break the tension a bit. The stress lines that were evident on Crissy's face as she spoke and the tight way she held her shoulders were so unlike the brash, confident woman she usually was that Faith was a little freaked out.
"Mmmm, he was tasty, wasn't he? Too bad he was there with his whole family," Crissy sighed. "All the good ones are taken... So! Speaking of boys. Any luck with your own social life? Any new guys I need to threaten against breaking my little sister's heart?"
Faith groaned. "No, Cris, geez. When have I had the time to date anyone?" As subject changes went, this was a perfect choice. Well, not perfect for avoiding embarrassment, but it would definitely help her sister relax, so she'd take it.
Crissy raised her eyebrow and narrowed her eyes. "If you would stop taking on so much damn work that you can't breathe, you'd have plenty of time to date someone. That's the joy of freelancing, after all, right? Making your own schedule? You took the time to come here with us at the last minute, taking the time for a date should be easy."
"How do you think I managed to get two weeks free to come up here? I shuffled my projects around and squeezed the time out. As it is, I'm going to have to find some internet somewhere and get an hour or so of work in, before too much longer."
"Don't dodge the question, sis."
Faith sighed and drained her own glass– er, cup.
"Crissy..."
"Faith."
"You know perfectly well how much men suck," Faith said, pouring the last of the wine. She glanced pointedly at the room in which Kaylee was sleeping. "Your baby-daddy didn’t even leave you a phone number, let alone helped raise his kid.”
"Don't start with me, miss one-bad-apple-spoiled-my-life. I had a one night stand in L.A. that ended with an statistically unlikely accident, which wound up becoming the best thing to ever happen to me. He has no idea he’s got a kid so you can’t be mad at him,“ Crissy stabbed a finger at Faith. "You let a slimy jackass talk you into a few dates– after I warned you about him, I might add– and then when you found out he was going out after your dates to troll the clubs, you shut yourself down. And now we're done wallowing in self-pity, it's been a year and a half. I'm signing you up for some online dating site or something when we get back."
"Crissy!" Faith groaned. She knew that her sister meant it, was the worst part. "Come on, why do I need to date to be happy? I'm fine. Besides, Dad set the standards way too high. I'm never going to find a guy like that so I'm not going to bother. I'm perfectly happy on my own."
"Uh-huh. Sure," Crissy drew the word out as she rolled her eyes the way only sisters can.
"You suck."
"Not lately, but hey, a girl can dream!" Crissy wiggled her eyebrows and leered at Faith. "Maybe when we get back I'll call that guy back. The one from Kaylee's favorite restaurant."
Faith cracked up.
It was easily the best week she'd had in months, and it had only been a few days.
"Aunt Faith! I'm all done!"
Kaylee's voice rang out through the cabin and Faith grinned at the sound. It was just her and Kaylee in the cabin at the moment, making sure that all the mud was out of Kaylee's hair. Chasing frogs was all well and fine, but Kaylee had needed to be convinced that they don't belong in the house. Then she had to be convinced that she didn't belong moving into the frog's house either.
"Are you sure? Really, really Kaylee-bee?" Faith wandered down the hallway toward the bathroom. Between the two adults, they had finally coaxed the mudball formerly known as Kaylee into the yard to get hosed off then into the shower to get washed, by making promises about baking brownies. This meant that someone had to go to the grocery in the nearby small town and get brownie making supplies.
And more marshmallows. Because there's no excuse for staying in a cabin and not having marshmallows, Kaylee had explained. Faith was pretty sure the kid was onto something.
"Really, really! See?" Kaylee threw open the bathroom door and revealed herself, all wrapped up in a towel, her hair half combed, but clean enough to qualify in Faith's book.
"As long as there's not going to be any mud on your pillowcase in the morning, I'm convinced," Faith laughed. "Now scoot on into your room and get some clothes on. Your mom'll be back soon and we don't let chefs into the kitchen if they're not dressed. The health inspectors would shut us down so fast!"
"Aunt Faith, there's no spectors! There's no such thing as ghosts!" Kaylee giggled but dashed into her room.
"Inspectors, sweetie. That means people who come and look really hard for something wrong and then write a really long report about it and send other people to stop us from doing things," Faith said. "Like making the best brownies ever known!"
Kaylee giggled again and went dashing off into her room. Faith smiled. She hadn't been convinced that her sister hadn't lost her damn mind when she got pregnant with Kaylee and insisted on raising her on her own, but the kid had turned out to be the light of
