Crazy Love(18)

“Sorry you’re tired. But you have to tell us what happened.”

Jessie’s apology for Krista’s exhaustion sounded less than sincere, but Krista knew that her sisters were not going to drop this. “I was in Abby’s room, checking on her, and he just…walked in.”

“What did he say when he saw you? What did you say?” Haley asked.

“He asked if I was okay and said I looked tired—”

“You do look tired,” Jessie interrupted stating matter-of-factly.

“Thanks, Jess. I know,” Krista replied flatly. Her sister was nothing if not brutally honest.

“Then what happened?” her normally quiet youngest sister Becca asked.

“Not a lot,” Krista shrugged. “Jamie came in and I had to go back to work. I did ask how long he planned on being in town but he said he didn’t know.”

“How did you feel seeing him again after all these years?” Haley asked with concern filling her voice.

“I felt…” Krista began but then stopped. She wasn’t trying to be secretive or keep anything from her sisters. She just didn’t know how to explain what she’d felt. After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Krista explained, “I felt like I was going to throw up and also like it was Christmas morning and I’d just opened up the toy I’d wanted all year.”

“Was it awkward?” Jessie asked, her face scrunching up like she’d just sucked on a lemon. Jessie was a cynic by nature and did not believe in love. Not the knock-you-on-your-ass brand of true love anyway.

Over the past few years, all five of the girls’ male cousins had fallen in love and gotten married. And a few months ago, their older sister Haley had also found her happily-ever-after. Just last week, she’d gotten engaged. So the topic of love had been discussed quite a bit. Krista’s fellow middle sister believed in friendship, companionship, and lust. Her thought was that if you were lucky enough to share those three things with the same person, then people thought you were ‘in love.’ But really you just had a friend you liked to hang out with a lot and see naked. Krista knew that Jessie only held that belief because she hadn’t experienced the soul-crushing reality that was love.

“No.” Krista shook her head. “It wasn’t awkward. It was kind of like no time had passed at all.”

“Are you going to talk to him?” Becca asked as she continued to pet Bear’s head as it rested in her lap.

“Yeah, I guess. If I see him. But right now, all I want to do is take a bath and go to bed,” Krista said as she pushed off the wall and stood up then started up the stairs.

Bear came bounding up the steps beside her. She knew that the second she was out of earshot her sisters were going to pick apart Chase’s return and what that meant. Usually she would want to be a part of any gossip fest, especially if it had to do with her.

Not this time. This time it was too real. Too raw. She just wanted to be by herself and try to process all of the emotions warring inside of her. Stepping inside the bathroom, she turned the faucet all the way to ‘H’ and closed the door, waiting for her bath to fill.

Alone. Finally. Just as she was pulling off her scrubs, she heard a bark at the door. Opening it, she found Bear sitting like a good boy, rapidly wagging his tail.

“Come in,” Krista said as she turned to the side to give all one hundred pounds of him enough room to enter.

As Bear plopped on the tile happier than a clam, Krista decided that alone time was overrated and maybe a little company wouldn’t be so bad.

* * *

The bus pulled to a stop as Chip announced, as he always did when they’d reached their destination, “We’re here.”

Chase pulled his attention away from the guitar he held in his hand and lifted his head to look out the large window on the side of the tour bus. It took him a moment to recognize the rundown house in front of him. The grass was overgrown, the paint was chipping on the siding, and the roof looked one good rain away from collapse.

He’d known that it was a better chance than not that since his father had passed several years ago his mom would have let the maintenance suffer, but he’d had no idea that it would be this bad. After setting his guitar down in his case and shutting it, he picked up his overnight bag, dipping his head under the thick strap and placing it around his neck so that he had his hands free to carry his instruments.

“What are you doing?” Tully stood, blocking his exit, his shaggy blond hair falling in his face.

“I’m going to stay here. If you guys want to hang around, you should check out the Lighthouse B&B.”