“It started at the beginning of spring.” Her voice was unsteady as she attempted to keep her emotions in check. “My parents’ fiftieth anniversary was approaching. You do know that my sister and I were adopted?” When he nodded, she continued. “My parents were childhood sweethearts and had married as soon as it was legal. But when they went to have kids, they found that they couldn’t have them biologically. Which was lucky for my sister and me. But by the time my sister and I came along, our parents were older, not that it ever slowed them down.”
Apollo remained silent, but she was certain that when he said start at the beginning, he hadn’t meant to go this far back. But he’d realize shortly that it was all relevant. Or at least it had seemed so at the time.
“Anyway, with their golden anniversary quickly approaching, I wanted to do something super special for them—something they couldn’t do for themselves.”
“I’m sure anything you’d have done for them would have been appreciated.”
“I know. But I wanted—no, I needed—this event to go above and beyond the norm. I wanted to show them just how much they meant to me and my sister. But Andrina was distracted with planning for the baby. I tried splitting up all of tasks that needed to be done for the party, but my sister kept forgetting to do this or that.”
“Was this something unusual for her?”
Popi shrugged. “Not really. My sister wasn’t much of a planner. She liked to do things spur of the moment. Day planners were foreign objects to her.”
“And so she left all of the party preparations up to you?”
“Yes. But I was busy with the island weddings, plus I had morning sickness.”
“You’d think your sister would be bending over backward to help you—what with you having her baby and all.”
“She was in the beginning. I think as the thought of a baby became the reality of having a baby, she got jealous.” Popi had never thought of it before, but looking back now as the pregnancy had progressed, Andrina had slipped into the shadows of her life. “It must have been so hard for her to face that I could have a baby when she couldn’t.”
“She’s lucky to have a sister like you. Not everybody would step up and have a baby for their sibling. You are special.”
Popi shook her head as though driving away his compliments. “Trust me. I’m not great.”
“So, what happened? Did you two have a fight?”
“Yes. But it gets worse.”
He tightened his hand around hers. “Go ahead. I promise nothing you say is going to drive me away.”
“That’s because you haven’t heard it yet.”
He placed a finger beneath her chin and lifted her chin until their gazes me. “We’ll work through this together. Just like on the island, we can do anything together.”
She wanted to believe him. She truly did. But she knew this was going to be a game changer. And not in a good way, like the baby.
She drew in an unsteady breath as she turned her head to stare straight ahead into the black night. She just couldn’t bear to witness the disappointment, the hurt and the anger that would surely cross his handsome face.
She drew in a calming breath. “I had a lot going on that day. I’d been dealing with a rather difficult client who had gone full-blown bridezilla on me. Not that there’s any excuse for what I did.” She sighed deeply in resignation that nothing would undo the past, no matter how much she wished that it were so. “And by the time I spoke with my sister that evening, I was exhausted and had little patience.”
“I’m sure your sister understood. Everyone has had those days.”
Popi shook her head. “Not like this. We were arguing over our parents’ party—again. I felt like I was doing all the work. Calling the caterers. Setting up appointments with bands. Ordering invitations. You know. And my sister was just sitting back, letting me. She said that was because I was a party planner and I could do it better than her. When she said that, I lost it. I was tired of being taken for granted by her. Every time she needed something or when she didn’t feel like doing something, she dumped it on her little sister. She’d been doing it all of our lives.”