Ridley gave her a quick hug. “No, I needed to get out of there. It’s poker night so there was way too much testosterone at my house.”
They walked into the kitchen. Raina had forgotten that quickly how much of a disaster it still was. “Let me just clean up a bit.” She moved some of the baking cups she’d used and the bag of flour from the kitchen island so Ridley could sit down.
“Um, Ray. What happened in here?”
Raina couldn’t think of anything to say so she just blurted, “I’m making cupcakes.”
“You are? I didn’t know you could bake.”
“I can’t. Not really.”
Ridley walked over to the oven. The timer only had a few minutes left. “They smell really good. I’m hungry, too.”
“They’re chocolate cupcakes. I have milk, too.”
Ridley bumped her arm affectionately. “I’m really glad you called me. I feel like I’m always calling you and dumping my problems on you. It’s nice to know you need me, too.”
Raina laced her arm through her sister’s and lay her head on Ridley’s shoulder. “Of course I need you. I know I’m not the easiest person to love, but thanks for never giving up on me. I’m going to do better. I’m finally learning that it’s okay to need help sometimes.”
The timer went off and Raina jumped.
“I’ve got it.” Ridley stuck her hand in the oven mitt Raina had left on the counter and pulled the oven open. She pulled the cupcake pan out carefully and placed it on the stove.
“They look perfect,” Ridley remarked. “Just like the ones you see in the bakery. I can’t believe you made these. I’m so proud of you, Ray.”
“I finally got them right.”
In the days since Nick had moved out, she hadn’t been twiddling her thumbs. She’d organized her cupboards and annoyed Sam with her obsessive cleaning. Nesting, it was called. Whatever the case, she hadn’t been sitting around crying. She’d been strong. But in th
at moment, bonding with her sister over cupcakes, Raina started to cry.
Ridley dropped the oven mitt and raced to her side. “Oh no, sweetie, what’s wrong? I thought you wanted to learn to make cupcakes?”
“I did. But he’s not here. I finally got it right and he’s not here.” Somehow just the thought made her cry harder, in big gasping sobs that made her chest hurt.
Ridley enfolded her in a tight hug and rocked her back and forth. Raina felt like she was free falling off a cliff. Her sister was the only solid, stable thing in the avalanche of emotion and she held on with both hands.
“You miss your husband. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I love him,” Raina wailed. Part of her wanted to curse these damn pregnancy hormones but a tiny, smug part of her knew that what she was saying had nothing to do with her pregnancy and everything to do with her heart.
Ridley cupped her face and grinned. “You think I don’t know that? The two of you have been crazy in love with each other since you met. You just didn’t know what to do with it then.”
Raina shook her head. Just the thought of Nick made her simultaneously happy and sick to her stomach at the same time. It was a cruel fate that her last memory of him was watching him walk away.
She wondered if he was still working himself into the ground trying to find funding for the Alexander Foundation. Was he eating right and getting enough sleep?
Did he miss her?
“I don’t even know how he’s doing. What if something bad happened to him? I wouldn’t even know.”
“Nick is at our house right now,” Ridley said.
Raina gripped her sister’s arms. “He is?”
“Yeah. He’s been staying at his place in Virginia Beach. I’m not going to lie. He doesn’t look good. He looks about the same as you do.”
Raina sighed. “Then why did he leave? How could he do that? After everything we’ve been through I thought we would stick together through anything. But he never came back.”