Betting on You (20 page)

“Oh my god, but she was so tiny!” Aria shook her head. “By the time I was four months, I look like a snake that had swallowed an egg.”

“You totally did,” Melody agreed, giggling when Aria nudged her in the side with a sharp elbow. “Sorry, but you did. I would never have imagined your stomach could get as big as it was by the end.”

Aria lifted one shoulder. “At least I didn’t get stretch marks.”

“Good genes,” Melody said with a sigh. “I hope I got them. Not that I would really care. Babies are worth a few stretch marks.”

“My friend, Hannah, calls them battle scars,” Aria said with a smile.

“Is there anything else left inside?” Lark asked, already backing toward the outdoor kitchen at the edge of the botanical gardens.

She didn’t want to talk about babies. It was one of the many topics that reminded her of a perfect night that she wished she could forget.

“No, I got everything. Sit and visit for a minute.” Melody patted the grass beside her and Aria.

Lark glanced at her watch. “I really should get home, y’all. I’ve got to get up early and get all the silver shined so it will be ready for the bridal shower tomorrow afternoon.”

“No you don’t,” Aria said. “It’s my turn to prep the serving plates. Mom’s going to watch Felicity so I can take care of it first thing.”

“Sit,” Melody repeated. “Take a load off. It’s not so bad now that the sun is setting.”

Lark sighed and fiddled with the van keys. “Honestly, I’d rather head on home. We’ve got a forty minute drive and I really don’t feel like—”

“Sit!” Melody and Aria said at the same time, giving Lark her first hint that this wasn’t going to be a friendly, sisterly visit.

If she had trusted her instincts, she would have bolted right then.

But she didn’t, and so she sank grudgingly down to the sweet-smelling grass and sat cross legged next to her sisters, watching the pink sunset light turn purple and the air begin to flash with sleepy-looking lightning bugs, twilight turning the garden into an even more romantic place than it had been during the day.

Lark closed her eyes against the beauty of the scene, only opening them when Melody laid a warm hand on her arm.

“This has gone on long enough,” Melody said. “We’re worried about you.”

“What has gone on long enough?” Lark asked, playing innocent though she had a pretty good idea what her sister was talking about.

Melody was taking about the numbness, broken only by periods of intense sadness and bouts of prolonged crying Lark did her best to do in private, but couldn’t always, not when she spent up to twelve hours a day working with her sisters. Melody was talking about Lark’s inability to care the way she used to, and the way her smile had gone into mid-summer hibernation.

She was talking about Lark mourning the loss of Mason.

“You know what I mean,” Melody said. “If you miss Mason that much, you should call him.”

“I can’t call him,” Lark said, rolling her eyes. They’d had this conversation half a dozen times already. It was getting ridiculous. “And you know why. So give me a break, okay?”

“Then let’s find you someone to talk to. A counselor or something,” Melody said. “If you’re determined not to give that poor man another chance, at least give yourself one. You can’t live like this.”

“I’m fine,” Lark said, wanting to stand up and storm away, but lacking the energy.

That happened a lot lately. She just…ran out of steam, and couldn’t seem to get going again. It was hard to believe she used to be one of those people who could go all day on three hours of sleep and a few cups of coffee. It was hard to believe she’d ever been the smiling, beaming person in the picture on the side of the van.

“You’re not fine,” Aria said, chiming in. “Trust me, I know what depression looks like, Lark. I was there not so long ago, remember?”

Lark shrugged. “Well, you snapped out of it. I will, too. Just give me some time.”

“No,” Melody said, surprising Lark with the heat in her tone. “You don’t get more time. Aria is dealing with an unrepentant asshole who is too much of a jerk to even send money to help support his daughter, let alone come see his baby girl. You’re bringing this on yourself.”

Lark’s eyebrows drew together, anger stirring inside her for the first time in weeks. “I am not bringing this on myself. You know what happened.”

Lark was careful not to look at Aria. She had gone through a period of blaming her sister, but had come to realize that wasn’t fair. Aria might have stuck her nose where it didn’t belong, but Mason was to blame.

Only Mason, and that’s why she would never see him again. Never. Even if her soul shriveled up and died while she was trying—and failing—to get over him.

“This is what I know,” Melody said, holding up a finger and ticking it off. “I know Mason made a mistake four years ago that he promised never to repeat again. I know he went to counseling and said it changed him for the better. I know he loves you and treated you very well when he—”

“For five days!” Lark took a deep breath, and lowered her voice. “Five days doesn’t prove anything.”

“What about the letters?” Melody asked. “I know he’s been sending you one every week since you told him to leave town. Have you even been reading them?”

Lark’s jaw dropped. “How do you know about the letters?” she asked, refusing to answer Melody’s question.

She hadn’t been reading them, but that was none of her sister’s business.

“Mason called me and asked if you’d been getting them so I…checked your mailbox a few times,” Melody said, sitting up straighter and lifting her nose in the air.

“You talked to him behind my back?” Lark said, outraged. “How could you, Melody? You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“We
are
on your side,” Aria said, laying a slim hand on Lark’s back. “We love you, and we want you to be happy. That’s why we decided we had to talk to you tonight.”

“Gang up on me is more like it,” Lark said, only slightly mollified.

“Consider it a March family intervention,” Melody said, showing no sign of backing down. “When Mason left the first time, we all put up with the crying and the moping and the feeling sorry for yourself for months and months on end, but this time it’s different.”

Lark flinched, too shocked and hurt by her sister’s words to work up a response.

“You were young before,” Melody continued. “And it was your first broken heart, and Mom and Dad told us to give you time to learn how to heal. But you’re twenty-five now. You’re a grown woman with a successful business, who’s already been down this road. Even if Mason had done the same thing he did four years ago—which he didn’t—there would be no excuse for the way you’ve been acting.”

“I’m ready to leave,” Lark said, standing up.

Melody popped to her feet, blocking Lark’s path to the driver’s side of the van. “Mason never should have run away without any explanation, but at least he’s done the work on himself to make sure he’s not going to hurt someone like that again. Now it’s your turn, Lark.”

“My turn to what?” she asked, voice rising.

“To do the work. To grow up and take responsibility for your feelings and realize no one is perfect. Not even you.”

“I never said I was perfect,” Lark said, more hurt by her little sister in this moment than she could remember being in the entire time they’d grown up together. Even when Melody was four and had colored in permanent marker all over Lark’s new chef costume. “And who are you to decide what I need to do with my life? You’re twenty-two, Melody, and you’ve only dated one boy for more than six months. You’re not—”

“I’m young, but I know what it’s like to love someone who isn’t right for me,” Melody said, crossing her arms at her chest. “I loved Brian. I didn’t want to break up with him, but when I realized that we were never going to work long term, I did it.”

The day Lark had told Mason it was over, Melody had come home in tears from her last date with Brian. When she had taken Felicity over to his parents’ farm to pet the animals, Brian had not only refused to hold the baby, but had made little effort to conceal his lack of enthusiasm for small, drooling people who still made a mess in their diapers. Melody had finally flat out asked him whether he wanted children in the future, and he’d confessed that he found babies “kind of gross.”

No one inferred that Melody’s treasured baby niece was gross and got away with it. She’d broken up with Brian on the spot, and refused to even consider giving the boy a second chance.

“And I’ve been sad about it,” Melody continued. “But I’m not going to let it destroy me or my relationships with the other people I care about.”

Lark shrugged, trying to act like she wasn’t bleeding inside from Melody’s attack of tough love. “Well, maybe you’re stronger than I am. Or maybe you don’t love the same way I do. Maybe it’s not as intense an experience for you.”

Now, it was Melody’s turn to look offended. “That’s not fair, Lark. Just because I don’t give up on life when I’m hurt doesn’t mean I’m not—”

“I’m not giving up! I’m hurting, Melody, can’t you—”

“Hold on, y’all,” Aria said, stepping between them. “Just wait a second.”

Aria took Melody’s hand. “I think what Lark is trying to say is that you’ve always been a really positive person, Melody. Like Mom. That doesn’t mean you don’t feel things, but it may mean you’re naturally better at…bouncing back.” Aria turned back to Lark. “And I think what Melody is trying to say is that you’ve come so far since four years ago. You are a stronger person now, and there’s no reason to let what happened with Mason take that away from you.”

“So you think I need to grow up, too?” Lark asked, clenching her jaw against the urge to cry.

Aria met Lark’s eyes for a long moment. “Not to be a jerk, because I love you and I understand exactly what you’re feeling, but…yes.”

Lark nodded before tucking her chin, hiding the tears filling her eyes. “Well,” she said in a thick voice. “Thanks for the help, y’all. I feel so much better.”

“Oh, Sissy, we love you, you know we do,” Melody said, pulling her in for a hug, crushing the shorter Lark into her abundant chest. “And you’re going to feel better soon, I just know it. We’ll help any way we can.”

“Yes, we will,” Aria said, throwing her arms around them both, turning Lark into sister-hug sandwich filling

Lark stiffened for a second—resentment at being blindsided by an “intervention” warring with the need to melt into her sisters’ arms—but finally gave in and wrapped one arm around Melody’s waist and the other around Aria’s, pulling them close. They hugged for a good five minutes, rocking back and forth in the fading light until Aria finally pulled away and said—

“I love y’all, but I am hot as the devil’s nut sack. I can’t hug anymore.”

“Ew,” Melody said as she released Lark. “That’s disgusting, Aria.”

“So is how sweaty I am under this white button-down,” Aria said, pulling at the front of her shirt. “Maybe we should let the servers wear short sleeves from now on.”

“No way,” Lark said, stepping in to slam the van’s back doors closed. “Short sleeve button-downs are tacky looking.”

“So are sweat patches,” Aria said. “And servers who smell more onion-y than the appetizers.”

“Mitch does get kind of stinky by the end of a shift,” Melody said thoughtfully, snatching the keys from Lark and heading for the driver’s seat with a shouted, “I’m driving!”

“Shotgun!” Lark called, making Aria groan at being stuck in the middle for the ride back.

“But Mitch refuses to wear real deodorant,” Lark continued, letting Aria into the passenger’s side of the van and climbing in after. “He wears that hippy rock crystal stuff from the health food store. I think you two should give
him
an intervention.”

“I wouldn’t mind intervening in Mitch’s affairs,” Melody said, backing the van out of their space. “He’s kind of cute, don’t you think?”

“Gross, no.” Aria made a gagging sound. “He’s about as big around as my right thigh.”

“So?” Melody asked. “You’re skinny and we still like you.”

“Most of the time,” Lark added, earning a laugh from Melody and an elbow in the ribs from Aria.

Lark smiled. It felt good to goof off with her sisters, to smile and laugh on the way home as they talked about stupid stuff like Mitch’s armpits, the bleeding deer head cake their dad wanted them to make to celebrate the start of deer season this fall, and the garden war their nana was in with her neighbor to see who could grow the biggest watermelon before the fair started later in the summer.

Lark hadn’t felt this angst-free in months. She wasn’t sure if the feeling was going to last, but she was grateful for the reprieve from the misery that had been her constant companion. So grateful, that, for the first time in weeks, she made it through her shower and the rest of her pre-bedtime regimen without getting the slightest bit sniffly and fell asleep without a single Mason-flavored thought passing through her head.

And then she began to dream, a bizarre barrage of anxiety dreams that put her usual stress-induced nightmares to shame.

Flying over an ocean of grape Jell-O in a glider made of tissue paper when it starts to rain Earl Grey tea that scalds her all over as she falls into the Jell-O ocean and drowns?