The Christmas Sisters

“A few?” Posy fastened her own seat belt, ignoring the repeated blare of the horn from the car behind her. “How many is ‘a few’?”

“I lost count. Who is going to turn down free champagne? You’d better get out of here before you become a victim of road rage. That guy behind looks as if he’s about to have a heart attack.”

“That’s what happens when you become emotionally attached to a parking space. You didn’t bring the children?”

“If I’d brought the children, would I be sitting here on my own now? You think I abandoned them in lost luggage? For once in my life, I traveled light. No kids. No bags.”

Posy proceeded with caution. “You decided to come home early for Christmas?”

“That’s right. And the airline upgraded me. I felt like Hannah. Do you have any idea how civilized it is?” Beth’s eyes were still closed. “Movies, reclining seat, a screen between me and the rest of the world, and people asking me whether they can get me anything. That never happens. I’m the one that gets things for other people and there is never a screen between me and anybody. For the first time in seven years, I used the bathroom without someone hammering on the door wanting my attention. I got to eat chocolate without having to share it.”

Posy deduced that there was more to Beth’s early arrival than a desire to spend quality time with her family. “Well, you’re sharing a bathroom with Hannah this Christmas, so you can expect a lot of hammering if you’re in there for too long.”

Beth didn’t open her eyes. “She’ll cancel. She always cancels. Dinner, Hannah? Sorry, I have to cancel. Spend the weekend? I’m overwhelmed with work. Visit your

nieces? Oh wait, sorry, can’t make it.”

Posy thought about the time their mother had spent in the kitchen. “If she cancels, I’ll kill her.”

“Maybe it would be better if she did cancel. At least I wouldn’t have to spend the whole time telling the kids to be quiet.”

“Why would you do that? It’s Christmas. Overexcited kids is part of the fun.”

“Hannah doesn’t like my girls.”

Posy was startled. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Ignore me. I don’t suppose there is any chance I could stay with you instead of being in the lodge?”

Posy thought about Luke. “No chance at all.”

“Thanks. I love you, too.”

“It’s nothing to do with not loving you, and everything to do with the fact that I live in the hayloft. It’s not exactly a family-friendly space. There’s only one bed and I’m in it.”

She didn’t bother adding that her bed had seen a lot of action lately.

“Hannah won’t be home until the last minute, so I’ll have the bathroom to myself for a while. I need my own bed,” Beth said. “And I’m going to sleep in the middle of it, alone. No more getting up to Ruby in the night while Jason snores next to me. No more broken nights. No more early mornings. For the next week, it’s all about me.”

Posy felt a flash of alarm. Beth was starting to sound like Hannah, and there was no way she was going to be able to handle two Hannahs over Christmas.

She pulled into the flow of traffic and headed out of the airport. The place was busy, but in a week’s time it would be busier still as more people arrived home for the holidays.

She waited until they were on a straight stretch of road to continue the conversation.

“What is going on, Beth?”

Beth shook her head. “I do not have to answer that.”

“You called me in the middle of the afternoon using a secret code we haven’t used since we were teenagers and begged for an airport extraction without Mom knowing. The least you can do is give me an explanation.”

“Can it wait? And can you slow down? I don’t feel so good.”

“That’s what happens when you consume your body weight in champagne.”

“If you’re going to be judgy, I’ll be forced to point out that the last time we used the secret code was on your seventeenth birthday when you drank so much you couldn’t walk home and I had to sneak you past Dad.”

Posy grinned. “I remember that. I’m not being judgy, but I am going to stop somewhere and pour black coffee into you. I can’t let Mom and Dad see you like this. And while I do that, you can tell me what’s going on.” They were now a distance from the airport and the road had narrowed. Snow lay in banks at the side of the road and Posy slowed her pace. The surface was icy and she wasn’t sure when it had last been gritted.