“I can do that because I know I’m worth it, and all you have to do is convince yourself you’re worth it. Our parents lived through us long enough. We don’t have to fit their mold. We’re grown women with lives and personalities and degrees.”
“Well, one of us has a degree,” she said, grinning.
“The point is, save the money. Promise me that. Even if the money goes right into your savings account, do two things for me. Take the voice lessons once a week and save the money back. Open up another account, dump money from each paycheck there, and when you have four years saved up, re-evaluate what you want to do,” I said.
“How do I know what four years will cost me?” she asked.
“We can do some research. What the average living cost in Germany is yearly, multiply it by four, add the plane ticket, and tack on another two thousand just to be on the safe side.”
“For someone who’s so free, you’ve a
lways been good with money.”
“Being free means knowing how to get the best bang for your buck,” I said, winking.
“Okay. Promise. I’ll save up the money, and when I get home, I’ll schedule my voice lessons.”
“Good,” I said, grinning. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I dropped everything and went now. I’ve got to do this gradually. Change is a big thing for me.”
“I know. You’ve always been weird about it.”
“But gradually? And with a few wine-filled weekends with you? I think I could have something going here.”
“That’s the spirit!” I exclaimed.
“But I’m going to need more wine before I really sink my teeth into it.”
I giggled as I watched my sister drain the first of the five bottles she brought. We finished off the pizza we ordered and talked, gossiping about everything from her lack of a sex life to my fulfilling one. She wanted more information on Bryan, so I tried to conjure as much as I could, and then we talked about what we needed to do in order to find her a man. I suggested finding her someone while she was here. At least for a night or two, to help her loosen up a bit. She was all for the idea until the pizza hit our systems. Then all we wanted to do was crawl into bed, turn on the television, and lay there until we fell asleep.
I got a message from Bryan just before we passed out, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face that night.
Dinner went as well as could be expected. Kept thinking about you. Hope your sister’s okay.
Chapter 19
Bryan
The beer slipped down my throat easily as Hailey pressed into my body. My arm was thrown around her shoulders, my fingertips dancing along the skin of her upper arm. Anna was there, drinking with us while we waited for the fireworks to start. Balboa Park was the best place to take in the fireworks on the fourth of July, and I couldn’t wait to share them with Hailey. Anna kept talking about how wonderful the gallery was coming along. She loved the black flooring and the way the outside of the building was coming together. Hailey seemed relieved at her sister’s praise, and I smiled down at her before I took another sip of my beer.
I’d told Drew to meet us there, knowing I’d have to pull him from the office. Even though he talked about opening his own tattoo shop, I knew he was going to enjoy the corporate life. I hated being in that office. I wanted to walk around the sites and see how things were running. I enjoyed going to the homeless shelters and employing new people to work on our projects. But Drew enjoyed his office. He enjoyed the corporate environment. He enjoyed the meetings where he got to be the boss and everyone dropped their schedules to listen to him.
He might be a tattooed surfer guy to most people, but to our company, he was the guy who kept the professional end of things running smoothly.
“So, Anna. What do you do for work?” Drew asked.
“I’m a lawyer at a corporate firm in Phoenix.”
“Arizona?” he asked.
“The one and only,” Anna said, grinning.
“Do you enjoy it?”
I felt Hailey tense up beside me when he asked that question. I looked down at her and watched the stormy gaze of a worried sister roll across her face. If there was one thing Hailey kept filling me in on while her sister was here, it was how worried she was about letting her fly back to Phoenix. She told me about their first night together, how it took an entire bottle of wine for Anna to admit what her parents were forcing her into. She talked about how much wine Anna was drinking while they were together, how it worried her that her sister was coping with alcohol at night to deal with her stress.
I pulled her closer to me, trying to comfort her while we listened in on their conversation.