True Colors

“I’m not going to say anything. Except that you have to tell Vivi Ann now. Before something bad happens.”

“What’s the point? She always gets what she wants.” Winona felt that bitterness move again, uncoil from its resting place.

“That’s poison, thinking like that. We’re sisters.”

Winona tried to imagine following Aurora’s good advice, even chose the words she could use and turned them around in her head. All she could come up with was a perfect picture of herself as pathetic. “No, thanks.”

Aurora sighed. “Well. She obviously hasn’t said yes yet or we would have heard. Maybe Vivi Ann knows she isn’t ready. You know how romantic she is. She wants to be swept away. When it comes to love, she’ll either be in it from the start or out of it, and Luke hasn’t rocked her world.”

Winona let herself hope. It was a tiny flare of light, that hope, but it was better than the dark that preceded it. “I pray you’re right.”

“I’m always right. Now get up. Travis bailed in the middle of the night. We’re going to help Vivi Ann clean the cabin.”

“What if she shows off her ring?”

“You made this bed of lies; I guess you’ll either crawl under the sheets or get the hell out of it.”

“I’ll go change.”

“I’d change more than your clothes, Win.”

Ignoring the jibe—or was it advice?—Winona went up to her bedroom and put on an old pair of jeans and a baggy gray UW sweatshirt.

In no time at all they were in the car, driving to the ranch.

Inside the cabin, they found an absolute shambles, with weeks’ worth of dirty dishes on every surface and a pile of them in the sink. Vivi Ann was on her knees, scrubbing a stain from the hardwood floor. Even in her oldest clothes, with her long hair tied in a haphazard ponytail, and no makeup on, she managed to look gorgeous.

“You’re here,” she said, giving them both that megawatt smile of hers.

“Of course we came. We’re family,” Aurora said, putting the slightest emphasis on that last word. She elbowed Winona, who stumbled forward.

“I’m sorry I missed the banquet, Vivi Ann. I heard it was a great night.”

Vivi Ann stood up, peeling off her yellow rubber gloves and dropping them beside the bucket. “I really missed you. It was fun.”

Winona could see the vulnerability in her sister’s eyes and knew that she’d hurt Vivi Ann. Sometimes all that beauty got in the way and Winona forgot that Vivi Ann could easily be wounded. “I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it.

Vivi Ann accepted the apology with another bright smile.

“Did anything happen after I left?” Aurora asked.

Vivi Ann’s smile faded. “Funny you should ask. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you guys. Luke asked me to marry him.”

“He told me he was going to,” Winona said. Her sentence seemed to fall off a ledge of some kind, landing in an awkward silence.

“Oh.” Vivi Ann frowned. “A little warning might have been nice.”

“It’s not the kind of thing a woman usually needs a warning about,” Aurora said gently.

Vivi Ann looked around the cabin. “He’s so perfect for me,” she said finally. “I should be over the moon.”

“Should be?” Winona said.

Vivi Ann smiled. It was forced, though. “I don’t know if I’m ready to get married yet. But Luke says he loves me enough to wait.”

“If you don’t think you’re ready, you’re not,” Aurora said.

That awkward silence fell again.