But about him not wanting anything to do with the girls.
It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time her half sister had made up a story.
In the end, Lee Ann had put the phone down and had one more glass of wine instead. She’d simply wanted to talk to him more than anything else. Life as a single mother wasn’t easy, and she was often lonely. Those times brought back memories of her high school senior year and the boy she’d once planned to spend the rest of her life with.
Instead, she was spending it with his kids.
Kendra cackled out with laughter at something Reba had said, and Lee Ann couldn’t help but say a silent prayer of thanks for her daughters’ health. Stephanie had come home at five months pregnant, sick around the clock and barely able to keep anything down. Lee Ann had left college on the weekends to help take care of her, yet nothing they’d tried had ever allowed Steph to gain more than a minimum of pounds.
Finally, six weeks early, the girls had been born. They’d been taken by Cesarean, and during the procedure the doctor had discovered that Stephanie’s insides were eaten up with cancer. The months-long sickness hadn’t been solely due to the pregnancy, and no one had known until it had been too late.
Somehow, though the kids had been born with low birth weights and had been growing alongside fatal cancer, their health—both then and since—remained relatively unscathed.
“Mom!” Fingers snapped in front of Lee Ann as Candy got her attention. “Geez, Mom. Where’d you zone off to? We asked a question.”
She smiled at the long, tall young ladies standing before her, now trying their best to appear too bored to be in the same room with her. They didn’t have to fake the annoyance, though. They had that one down to a tee. Swirling her fingers into a pyramid of soft flour piled on the countertop, Lee Ann lifted her hand and flicked, sprinkling both girls with powder. “What do you want?”
Fake outrage followed by instant giggles ensued as the girls dragged their own fingers along the flour-covered laminate and returned the onslaught. They may be developing teenage girl attitudes she rarely cared for, but they were still her fun little girls.
After being bombarded, Lee Ann conceded defeat and ducked her head, arms outstretched over the dough. “Stop!” She laughed as powder landed on her head. “I’ve got to finish these and get them in the freezer so there are enough for the fund-raiser.”
With one hand propped on a hip attached to too-long legs, Kendra raised a dark eyebrow and made a face of superiority. She looked very much like her biological mother in that pose. “Then don’t start what you can’t finish.”
Lee Ann didn’t think of her sister often these days, but today seemed to be the day for a walk down memory lane. It had been almost thirteen years since Stephanie’s death. In fact, five weeks from today would make it exactly so. Five days after she’d given birth to the girls. Lee Ann flicked her fingers toward Kendra one last time. “What were ya’ll asking me?”
Candy laid out their plans. “Sadie Evans...You remember, her father owns the good restaurant in town. Well, the diner is good, too,” she tacked on in a hurry, and Lee Ann guessed that had more to do with the fact her mother worked there during the weekday breakfast shift than any devoted love for the place. “She wants us to come over and have dinner at her house and then work on our school project.”
“It’s a school night,” Lee Ann interjected.
“I told her that.” Candy rolled her eyes in the exasperating way both she and her sister had picked up over the last six months. “Said you’d say no, too. Especially since we were out last night at the basketball game. But she has these really fab ideas, and they’re going to take forever to get done.” Thin shoulders lifted in a shrug. “We need to get started or we won’t be finished before the Christmas break.”
There were four weeks before the Christmas break, so Lee Ann wasn’t buying that at all.
“Kendra and I already did our homework,” Candy continued. “If we leave now, we’ll be home by nine o’clock.”
When Candy finally took a breath, Lee Ann opened her mouth to get in a question, but Kendra took over.
“Sadie’s mom will pick us up and bring us back.”
Candy shot her sister a frustrated glare before continuing, with a slightly less accommodating tone. She liked to be in charge. “Sadie’s mom said she needs to get us before she starts dinner, though. And since there’s only one more school day this week, can’t you say okay just this once? Please.”
Silence fell over the room as both girls stood perfectly straight—wide-eyed and unblinking—waiting for her answer. Lee Ann peered around them to see if her mother was taking this in. They were now going for sweet, but with all the preteen running through them, they had no idea they came up short. Reba hid a grin behind her hand.