Timber Creek (Sierra Falls 2)

“Knew better than anyone. ”

Ruby clucked. “How to do things. How not to do things. ”

“Not Emmy, though. ”

They sighed in unison, remembering their sister, who’d recently passed. “Emerald was never afraid to be soft,” Ruby said. “To be…what’s the word?”

“Vulnerable,” Pearl said.

Ruby nodded. “Vulnerable. Emerald let herself need people. And look. Of the three of us, she’s the only one who found love. ”

Laura refused to accept that she was destined to live a loveless life. “Yeah, but then Emerald was alone. ”

“That’s a different story,” Pearl said. “She knew love, though. Once. ”

“And what we wouldn’t give to say the same. ”

Pearl reached out and took her sister’s trembling hand. “To have a child like she had. Emerald had Marlene. Had four strapping grandsons. ”

She focused on her tea. “I’m not interested in men right now. ”

“If you’re not careful, you’ll wake up one day and find that you’re eighty years old. ”

“Trust us,” Pearl said. “It happens. ”

“I just can’t seem to…balance it all. ”

“Oh dear. ” Ruby spotted it instantly.

She blinked hard. She neve

r cried in public, and now she’d been caught twice in one week. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what my problem is. ”

“There, there. ” Pearl leaned over to pat her knee. “The problem is, you’re too much like that petit four. ”

A disbelieving laugh burst from her. “What?”

Cute pink teacakes with bows pretty much summed up everything she wasn’t. She was strong and in control of her destiny…not fluffy and crumbly.

“It’s true,” Ruby insisted. “Hard and pretty on the outside, but soft on the inside. ”

“Surprisingly sweet, too,” Pearl added with a smile.

“I don’t know about that. ” She felt the tears burn and blinked hard to stop them. Dammit.

“You work so hard,” Ruby said.

Pearl interjected, “But you have to take care not to become hard. ”

“I have to act hard to do what I do. ” She’d let herself go soft before, and it’d only brought hurt.

Ruby handed her a clean but rumpled handkerchief. “Don’t let our boy make you cry. ”

“Eddie? Eddie is not making me cry. ”

Pearl gave a decisive nod and turned to her sister. “Sparks. ”

Ruby hummed. “Definitely sparks. ”