Stonehill series collect.., p.117
Stonehill Series Collection, page 117
“You’re a salesperson, Meg.”
She nodded. “Yeah. And a damn good one. But you know what else? I’m happy, Aya. I’m really happy. Are you?”
Aya’s cold exterior showed the first real signs of cracking when a tear slid down her cheek. She swiped it away and looked around the square.
“I know Mom and Dad don’t understand,” Meg said. “But I thought you would. You’re my sister. If anyone knows how hard it is to live up to their expectations, it should be you.”
“They expect a lot from us because they want us to be successful.”
“I am successful. I have a job I love, friends I love, and I’m living on my own. They don’t support me—financially or emotionally,” she added. “Everything I’ve accomplished has been from my hard work.”
“You live in a dinky apartment.”
Meg lifted her brows. “Yeah. Because I’m saving for a house, Aya.”
“Your car is a dinky old sedan.”
Meg pointed. “Well you’ve also got the debt that went with buying your fancy car. My car is paid off, and my rent is a fraction of my income. Do you honestly think that just because I haven’t buried myself in debt, I’m not successful? Let me explain something that being a real estate agent has pounded into my head. Being upside down in debt is not a symbol of success.”
“I’m not upside down in debt, Meg. I have things because I have a job that allows me to afford them.”
“Are you sure? I think you have those things because Dad convinced you that you need them to prove to others that you’re successful. The Aya I remember wanted a bright red motorcycle and a house on the beach of the Outer Banks.”
Aya got that sad look in her eyes again. “I was a kid, Meg.”
“Yeah. A happy one.”
“If I recall, you wanted to be a baker or something. You didn’t do that any more than I became an artist.”
Meg reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. She opened the gallery of photos and swiped until she found one of her and a group of her friends wearing chef hats and showing off their creations. “I didn’t become a baker, but I attend baking classes every week.” She swiped a few more pictures and showed her another. “And I take art classes.” She laughed slightly. “Once a month we have painting parties with wine and lots of laughing.”
Aya smiled but still looked broken. “Do you do landscapes?”
“Of course. I mean”—she shrugged—“they look like a drunk penguin painted them, but I do it.”
Finally, Aya laughed. but then her face crumpled and tears filled her eyes. “You always were the brave one, Meg. I could never do that.”
“Yes, you could, Aya. You just have to stop listening to Dad’s voice in your head. It’s okay to try and not be perfect. Sometimes messing up is the fun part.”
Wiping her cheeks, Aya glanced at the café. “Is that why you’re having lunch with him? Because messing up is fun?”
“Aiden broke my heart, Aya. I loved him so much, and then he just left.”
“I remember.”
“But we were kids back then. Neither one of us had grown up yet. We’re not back together, but I think we’re becoming friends again.”
“You’re okay with that?”
She nodded. “My best friend is married to his cousin. So I have to be okay with that because we are going to see a lot of each other.”
“But you’re helping him buy a house? Why would you put yourself through that?”
“Because the only way to deal with the hurt is to face it. I’ve been avoiding facing the hurt you and our parents have caused me, but this”—she gestured between them—“has made me realize that it’s time to face that pain too. I know you are all disappointed in me for dropping out of medical school, but that was a long time ago and you need to get over it. I’m living the life I want to live, and that’s my right. You’re my family and I love you, but if you can’t accept that this is who I am, and love me anyway, then maybe I don’t need to be around you guys anymore. What you did at Christmas dinner, Aya, telling me that you hired a professional instead of me, was like a knife to my heart. I’m really tired of you acting like I’m something to be mocked and laughed at. I made my own choices, and they were the right choices for me. I’m sorry you can’t respect that, but I will no longer tolerate being talked down to. If that means that I don’t see you anymore, then that’s the way it has to be.”
Aya sniffed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Meg. I’m so sorry.” Aya wasn’t a hugger, but she hugged Meg then, tight and unrelenting. “I’m jealous, okay? I’m so jealous of you that I can’t breathe sometimes.” Finally, she pulled back. “Look at you. You’re so smart and pretty. People like you.”
“People like you. A little,” Meg added and giggled through her tears.
“I didn’t know how to stand up to Dad back then. I still don’t. You always did what you wanted and didn’t care that he got mad.”
“I cared. I just couldn’t be what he wanted. I was so unhappy. Aiden leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me.” She didn’t realize how true that was until she said the words. “It crushed me, and when I bounced back, I bounced back a million times stronger and more determined to be who I wanted to be.”
“So, I just need to find some jackass to break my heart?” Aya asked.
“Maybe.”
“I’m glad to hear that you’re happy,” Aya whispered. “And I really am sorry I hurt you.”
“I forgive you.”
Aya glanced toward the café again. “Be careful with him, Meg.”
“I am. We’re just friends.”
“I know how much you loved him.”
“Yes. But do you know how much I love you?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“Don’t,” Aya begged with a moan.
Too late. Meg took her hand and dramatically started belting out an old pop song they used to dance to behind their closed bedroom door. Dressed up in heels and far too dark makeup, they’d pretend to be superstars like Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Aya eventually laughed, but it took until the second verse.
Meg smiled and stopped singing. “Are we okay?”
“You tell me. I’m the one who was a jerk.”
“We’re okay,” Meg said. “Would you like to join us for lunch? Please,” she begged when Aya bit her lip.
“I called him an asshole.”
“You weren’t wrong,” Meg said and laughed. “He’s changed, Aya.”
“You say that with far too much affection.”
“Sit with us. Take a minute to see that we’ve grown up.”
Aya nodded. “On one condition.”
“What?”
“You take me to one of your painting parties.”
Meg smiled wide. “Deal.”
Chapter 9
Meg didn’t want to think about how close Aiden was to her, but as he carefully clipped the stitches in her head, she could feel his breath tickling her cheek. Why did he have to freaking breathe? Closing her eyes, she forced out her own breath.
“Does this hurt?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“No.”
“You’re going to feel a little tug.”
As he pulled the threads from her skin, she had to admit he’d turned out to be an amazing doctor. She hadn’t expected that. Then again, the fact that he was removing her stitches in Mallory’s guest bathroom was probably not the best reference for his medical skills. Of course, he’d pointed out, if she’d made an appointment with her doctor like he’d been telling her, he wouldn’t have had to do this himself.
“That’s so cool,” Jessica whispered with awe. Looking at Aiden, she asked, “Can people with Down syndrome be doctors?”
“People with Down syndrome can be anything they want,” Meg said before Aiden could offer his own answer. Encouraging Jessica was a requirement as far as Meg was concerned. The girl had enough struggles in her life without people shooting down her dreams.
“As long as you work hard and pass all your tests,” Aiden added.
“Do I have to do math? Math is hard.”
“Math is hard,” Aiden agreed. “Meg had to help me a lot with math when we were in school.”
“Meg is smart,” Jessica stated, not leaving room for debate.
Meg smiled and offered the girl a wink.
“That’s it,” Aiden said. “Stitches are out. Several days later than they should have been.”
“Save the lecture for someone who will listen, Doc,” Meg said.
“I’m going to go ask Mom if I can go to doctor school,” Jessica announced and ran from the room.
Meg smiled as she left them. “Poor Phil is like chopped liver ever since Mallory adopted her. She never wants to talk to him about things anymore.”
Aiden chuckled as he washed the little scissors and tweezers he’d used for his mini-operation. “How are you and Aya doing?”
“We seem to be able to tolerate each other right now. It won’t last, but it’s nice for now. Thank you again for being nice enough to accept her apology at the café the other day.”
He looked at her. “Your family has every right to be angry at me for what happened between us.”
“Yeah, but her lashing out wasn’t about you.”
Leaning his hip against the sink as he dried his hands, he offered her a sweet smile. Damn it. He was far too good at those sweet smiles lately. “I’m glad you two are working things out. I hope that extends to your parents at some point.”
“I’m sure it will, but I can only fix one broken relationship at a time.”
“Oh, so if you’re working on your relationship with Aya right now, does that mean we’re fixed?”
She blew a sarcastic raspberry. “That’s so last season, Aiden.”
“Good. I’d like to start the new year knowing we’re better.”
“We’re better,” she said sincerely.
The smile on his face spread and lit his eyes. “Good.”
“How are your mom and Kara getting along?”
He chuckled and gave his head a hard shake. “Um. Depends on the day. She’s going to start helping Kara out a few hours a week. I guess Kara has a hard time with her daughter’s separation anxiety.”
“Yeah, that kid’s always been like glue to her mom.”
“She seemed to take to my mom okay, so they are hoping they can start working on putting some time and space between them so Mira can overcome her clinginess.”
“Well, she had a tough life before they adopted her, so I don’t think anyone can blame her for having codependency issues.”
“I agree, but I’m glad to see them working on them now.” He hung up the towel, but instead of leaving the bathroom, he resumed his stance against the sink. “Things like that can become increasingly difficult to resolve with age.”
“Are you a shrink now too?” she teased.
He shrugged. “In my downtime.”
Meg grinned.
“Would you two like me to bring some drinks and snacks in here?” Mallory asked from the door, Harris strapped to her chest in the soft blue wrap Kara had made for her. “Or do you plan to rejoin the party soon?”
“I’ll have a beer and a slice of pizza,” Meg said.
“That’s cute. Except there isn’t any pizza because you two were supposed to order it and pick it up before Dr. Howard decided to turn my bathroom into a triage center.”
“Actually, a triage center—”
“Pizza,” Mallory stated. “Now, please. People are starving.”
“Now,” Meg mimicked with a whisper as soon as Mallory disappeared.
Aiden took her hand and pulled her with him from the bathroom and down the hall. Aiden pulled his keys from his pocket, but Meg grabbed them.
“Oh, no,” she said, holding up her keys. “When you drive, I get stitches.”
He rolled his eyes but laughed as he followed her out of the house.
The small gathering around Aiden started quietly counting down to midnight. Jessica was spending the night with Mallory’s parents, but Harris was sound asleep in his crib just down the hall. They all intended to keep him that way. Aiden looked around the room, and his throat tightened with an unexpected surge of emotion. He was bringing in the new year surrounded by his cousin and the new set of friends he was making. And Meg.
He thought they were really making progress. She didn’t seem to harbor the anger and resentment anymore, and he no longer felt the need to apologize for the past every time he saw her. They had started spending a lot of time hanging out with Mallory and Phil, helping with the baby and running errands for the new parents. They had even taken Jessica to a movie to give Phil and Mallory time alone while Harris napped. The easy relationship he had made with Phil and Mallory was more than Aiden had hoped for when initially reconnecting with his cousin. The fact that Mallory and Meg were already close friends had just been the icing on the cake.
The four of them were falling into a routine that felt so natural, Aiden couldn’t help but hope that this was what his life was going to continue to be even after Harris was bigger and his parents weren’t so exhausted from caring for a newborn. Aiden still hoped that Sunday afternoons were spent with Meg. Maybe not doing laundry and running to the store for Mallory and Phil, but maybe for themselves. Relaxing days off like they used to have.
The irony wasn’t lost on him that fearing a future like that was what had led him to run away from Meg in the first place. Back then, the normalcy of housekeeping and grocery shopping seemed like a curse. Now, it seemed like everything.
As the countdown to the new year reached one, Aiden was tempted to lean down and kiss Meg as the rest of the couples in the room were doing. But they weren’t a couple, and he was clearly reminded of that when she simply pecked a kiss on his cheek. “Happy New Year, Aiden.”
He pulled her closer and held her a bit tighter than he should have. “Happy New Year, Megumi.” This was the first time he’d rung in the New Year with her in a long time. Even though he refused to let it be the last, he was going to cherish this moment.
When she pulled back from him, she gave him a warning glare, but the smile on her face showed she was teasing. Aiden wished the night didn’t have to end, but soon people started moving toward the door.
Meg finished gathering dirty dishes, despite Mallory’s insistence that she would clean up in the morning. Aiden helped, mostly because he wasn’t ready to leave Meg’s side just yet. That was silly, he knew, but the ringing in of a new year had him filled with the stereotypical hope that so many had on the first of January. He carried a stack of empty pizza boxes through the kitchen door and out into the cold to stuff them in the already-full recycling bin. There had only been about a dozen or so people there, but they had certainly gone through the food and beer during their celebration.
Rushing back in to get out of the cold, Aiden stopped in his tracks when he saw Meg putting on her coat to leave. The evening they hadn’t technically spent together was coming to an end, and disappointment filled his chest.
Meg spotted him and flashed a smile. “Drive home safe, Aiden.”
“You too,” he said as casually as he could. He wanted to tell her to wait on him, that he’d walk her out, but she had her sister with her. No need to make them all feel awkward.
When she was gone, he turned to the kitchen where Mallory and Phil were filling the dishwasher. Or at least they had been. Now, Mallory was standing with her hand on her hip with her lips pressed together and Phil had his arms crossed, leaning against the counter and smirking.
“What?” Aiden asked.
“What?” Phil repeated.
Aiden lifted his hands. “What?”
Phil scoffed. “Dude, you are so obvious.”
“Do people still say dude?” Aiden asked Mallory.
“He just did,” she said flatly.
“What’s the problem?” he asked.
Mallory shook her finger at him. “You listen to me, Aiden. Family or not, I’ll rip your face off if you hurt Meg again.”
Oh. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he let out a long sigh. “Listen, I’m pretty sure Meg has no desire for us to be more than friends. But if, by some miracle, she did give me a second chance, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to blow it. I lost her once. If I had her back, I’d never let her go again.”
Mallory softened her stance. “You better not. I just had a baby. I don’t want to go to prison.”
Chapter 10
Admitting that her anger had subsided seemed to ease the tension Meg felt around Aiden. New Year’s Eve had been the most fun she’d had in a long time, and though the regret of not kissing him at midnight had lingered in the back of her mind, she managed to ignore it…most of the time. Even better than she and Aiden moving on from the past was that Meg and Aya were actually acting like sisters instead of mortal enemies. They hadn’t been so close and easy around each other for years.
Meg felt like so many of the relationships in her life had mended, and that was easing stressors she hadn’t even realized were weighing her down. Of course, she still had a long way to go with her parents, but she wasn’t confident those were relationships that would ever be fully mended. She had spent too many nights lately tossing and turning, trying to find a way to make them understand she wasn’t a failure just because she didn’t have M.D. after her name. She was going to have to confront her father at some point, but for now, she was content just to accept that she had made peace with her ex-boyfriend and her sister.
The front door opened, and Meg’s heart fluttered a little as she glanced at the clock on her computer screen and confirmed the time. That should be her ex-boyfriend right now. Grabbing the folder with his name on it, she set the stack of papers on the opposite side of her desk and grabbed a pen.
“Hey there,” he said, walking in.
She smiled. “You ready for this?”
He rubbed his hands together and blew out a breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Taking the seat across from her, he stared at the stack of papers. “This is crazy,” he said, but the smile on his face wasn’t one of fear. He was so excited, and she was excited for him.
