The Bakery Sisters (4 page)

“I
THOUGHT YOU WERE LYING
,” Nicole said as they pulled out of the hospital parking lot. “I thought I was having drug-induced hallucinations. I can't believe she's here. She's possibly the most useless human being on the planet. Why me? Why now?”

Wyatt didn't have any answers, so he kept quiet. He'd heard enough about Claire over the years to form an unflattering opinion of her. But today, at the hospital, she'd looked so hopeful and wounded at the same time. He'd almost felt bad for her.

Which only proved what a fool he was when it came to women. He always picked wrong. He had the divorce to prove it. Nicole knew her sister a whole lot better than he did, and he trusted Nicole. What she said went.

“What are you going to do about her?” he asked.

“I supposed asking you to shoot her would be a waste of time.” She sighed. “I don't know. Ignore her and hope she goes away.”

“You're going to need some help, at least for a couple of days. You won't be able to take care of yourself.”

He kept his eyes on the road, but felt Nicole's angry stare. “You have got to be kidding me. You're not suggesting I let her stay and attempt to take care of me. Do you know how incredibly useless she is? She's not a person, Wyatt. She's a trained monkey. I'm amazed she can even drive a car. Oh, wait. I haven't seen the car. I'll bet you money it's a limo, with a driver. Claire wouldn't want to risk her delicate and valuable hands by actually doing work. Holding the steering wheel might impact her performance and we wouldn't want that.”

He'd known the sisters didn't get along and the bare bones of the estrangement, but he'd never understood the depth of Nicole's anger and bitterness before.

Nicole had been hurt when Claire had gone away, but until now, he'd never known the wounds went so deep. Sarcasm and black humor concealed a lot of pain. It was just like her to play the bitter bitch to protect herself.

“I can come over in the evenings,” he said. “After work.”

She slumped down in the seat, then pressed her arm into her midsection and groaned. “I don't want that. You have to take care of Amy. I'll be fine.”

“No, you won't.”

“I don't want to think about it. Not right now.”

None of this was supposed to be a problem, he reminded himself. When the surgery had been scheduled, Drew, Nicole's husband, had still been in the picture.

Wyatt thought of his stepbrother and instantly wanted to pound him into the ground. What a total idiot. Talk about screwing up big-time. Drew had crossed the line and Nicole was never going to forgive him. Wyatt wasn't sure he would be able to forgive his brother either.

He glanced in his rearview mirror and saw Claire in the car behind them. Even from a couple of car lengths away, he could see her death grip on the steering wheel and the determination in her face.

“You should move in with me and Amy,” he said. “That's the easiest solution.”

“No.”

“You're being stubborn.”

“It's part of my charm.”

Under normal circumstances, Jesse could have pitched in, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. “If you don't want me, you'll have to have someone,” he said. “At least for the first couple of days. Claire can keep food in the house, bring it to you.”

“Ha. You think the piano princess can cook?”

“She can order takeout.”

“I can do that.”

“And check on you.”

“Did I mention a trained monkey? It would be a lot more helpful. Or one of those service dogs.”

“She's your sister.”

Nicole glared at him again. “She was the start of my bad luck streak.”

“You're overreacting. Use her. There should be some pleasure in that.”

“Less than you would think.”

They arrived at the house. After parking, Wyatt came around to the passenger side and opened the door.

Nicole looked at him. “Don't even think about carrying me. I can walk.”

“When was the last time you let a man sweep you off your feet?”

“I would never do that.”

“You need to work on your trust issues.”

With that, he gathered her in his arms. Claire had already opened the back door. She followed them inside.

He went up the stairs and into Nicole's bedroom. Someone, probably Claire, had pulled back the covers. When he set Nicole in the bed, she sucked in a breath, then forced a smile.

“Thank you.”

She'd gone pale. He knew she had to be hurting. “When can you take something for the pain?”

“Not for a while. I got a shot in the hospital. I'll be fine.”

She didn't look fine.

He pulled off her athletic shoes, then unzipped her sweatshirt. She eased out of it and he tossed it on a chair.

She wasn't wearing a bra. He could see her breasts moving under her thin T-shirt and wished the curves tempted him. Falling for Nicole would solve a lot of problems. Unfortunately, he felt nothing.

He pulled the covers over her, then sat on the edge of the bed.

“It's just for a few days,” he told her. “I'm happy to hang out here in the evenings and you know Amy loves you but you'll need help during the day.”

She closed her eyes.

“It won't be so bad,” he said.

“I hate you.”

“Is that a yes?”

She sighed. “Yes.”

He stood. Claire hovered in the doorway. He went past her then waited until she'd trailed after him into the hallway and downstairs. Once they were in the kitchen, he faced her.

“You said you came here to look after your sister,” he said.

“Yes. Obviously. Why else?”

“Fine. Then that's what you're going to do. Help. This isn't about you. Nicole is in a lot of pain. She's going to be healing and your only job is to make her life easier. You don't get to run off to visit clubs or hang out with your friends. You're to be here and be responsible. This is a serious commitment. I'll be checking in every night and I promise you, if you screw this up, you'll be sorry.”

Claire looked at him as if he were an alien life form. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“What was unclear?”

“Is that really what you think of me?” She shook her head. “Never mind.” She crossed to the counter and leaned against it. “Part of me wants to ask what she's told you, but I don't really want to know. I mean, why would I set myself up that way? I'm bad and she's good and that's how it's always been.”

She paused and swallowed. Wyatt had the sudden sense that she was fighting tears. While he was a typical guy and would do almost anything to make a woman stop crying, he told himself that this was nothing more than an expert performance. He refused to be engaged by the play.

But Claire didn't cry. She took a couple of breaths, then faced him.

“You don't know me. Regardless of what Nicole has told you, you know nothing about me. I could say the same about her, which is sad. We're twins. Fraternal, but still. I hate how much we've messed over each other's lives. I hate how things are now. I don't…” She stopped and pressed her lips together. “Sorry. You don't actually care about any of this, do you.”

He watched her without saying anything.

She squared her shoulders and raised her chin. “I'm here to help. I have no interest in nightclubs, I never have. I don't have any friends here in Seattle, so you don't have to worry about distractions. I want to take care of Nicole and reconnect with her. Nothing more. Those are the only words I have. You'll either believe them or you won't. The bottom line is, I'm not going anywhere. Not until Nicole is better.”

She spoke with a quiet dignity that appealed to him. His instinct was to believe her, but Nicole had always talked about how Claire played people with the same easy skill that she played the piano.

Still, he didn't have a choice. He couldn't take off from work and he had a daughter to deal with.

“I'll be around,” he told her. “Watching.”

“Judging. There's a difference.”

He shrugged, not caring if he offended her.

He pulled a business card out of his shirt pocket. “My cell is on this. You can always reach me on it. If there's a problem, call.”

“There won't be.”

He handed her the card, instead of just putting it on the counter, then realized his mistake the second their fingers touched.

The heat was so bright and raw, he expected the kitchen to explode. He swore under his breath as he glared at Claire, blaming her for the unwelcome chemistry flaring between them. She stared at the card, then looked at him.

“That was weird,” she said.

There was genuine confusion in her voice and questions in her eyes, as if she'd felt it, too, but didn't know what it meant.

Yeah, right, he thought to himself. She
was
playing him.

Play away. He didn't care. It didn't matter how he reacted when he touched her—he would never act on those feelings. He wasn't controlled by his hormones. He was a rational man who thought with his head, not his dick.

Still, when she smiled at him and said, “Thank you for taking care of her,” putting her hand on his arm, he wanted to pull her hard against him and kiss her until she begged for mercy. The image was so powerful, his mouth went dry and he got hard in a heartbeat. Talk about humiliating.

He stalked out of the kitchen without saying goodbye and vowed he would keep his distance from Claire. The last thing he needed in his life was another useless woman making him crazy and ruining everything she touched.

 

C
LAIRE STARED
at the clothes she'd laid across the bed and sighed. Apparently packing was not an intuitive skill. She'd been so careful with everything. Yet here were all her clothes, horribly wrinkled.

Normally Lisa's assistant du jour would whisk the clothes away and bring them back perfectly pressed. If she wasn't around, Claire could call the valet service at the hotel herself. But this wasn't a hotel.

She studied a silk blouse and wondered if it was safe to iron. With another sigh, she reminded herself she didn't know how to use an iron and if she wanted to practice, perhaps a designer silk blouse was not the place to start.

“Am I really totally useless, or is this an isolated incident?” she asked herself, speaking the words softly aloud. Better to know the truth than pretend. Her goal was to change—to fit into the real world. She needed to know where she was to find out how much work was required to get where she needed to go.

A sound from down the hall caught her attention. Still holding the blouse, she hurried toward Nicole's room and found her sister coming out of the bathroom. She was bent over at the waist, one arm pressed across her midsection. Her face was drawn, her mouth pulled in pain.

“You should have yelled for me,” Claire said as she hurried to her side. “I'm here to help.”

“If you figure out a way to pee for me, I'm all ears. Otherwise, stay out of my way.”

Claire ignored the snarky comment and rushed to the bed where she quickly smoothed the sheets and pulled back the covers. Nicole ignored her and what she'd done as she slowly, carefully, crawled back in bed. Claire reached for the covers.

“If you tuck me in, I swear I'll kill you. Not today, but soon and when you least expect it.”

Claire stepped away from the bed.

When Nicole was settled she closed her eyes. After a second, she opened them again. “Are you just going to stand there?”

“Do you need anything? More water? Ice chips? They'll help you stay hydrated without making you nauseous.”

“How do you know that?”

“I was reading some articles on the Internet.”

“Aren't you mama's little helper?”

Claire clutched her blouse in one hand. “They didn't say anything about surgery making one ill-tempered, so I guess the sarcasm is all you.”

“I wear it proudly, like a badge of honor.” Nicole shifted and winced. “What are you doing here, Claire?”

“Jesse called me a few days ago and told me about the surgery. She said you were going to need my help.” Claire didn't want to say the rest when it was obviously untrue, but she couldn't think of a way to avoid it. She'd already told Wyatt and she suspected he had passed it on to Nicole. “She said you were sorry we were still estranged and that you wanted us to be a family.”

She spoke without shaking, without her voice giving away her potential hurt. But it was still there, hidden. Because connecting was the one thing she wanted.

“You believed her?” Nicole shook her head. “Seriously? After all this time, you think I'm suddenly going to change my opinion of you?”