Letting Go (Triple Eight Ranch) - By Mary Beth Lee Page 0,59
do.”
Oh she just loved throwing that around didn’t she? Work. Work. Work.
“It’s your summer, Cass. You’re off. Nothing earth shattering’s on that email that can’t wait until tomorrow. No new math equations. No calculator functions you can’t live without.”
Cass sighed, but she closed the computer. “Fine.”
As Cass walked into the living room, Anna noticed she still wore her expensive brown leather slingback high-heeled shoes that matched her creamy linen pants.
Man, she missed high heels. She missed looking good, feeling good, feeling sexy. Feeling like something more than a mother.
She looked down at her mismatched used to be white but now pink—after Justine’d washed them with the free red t-shirt she’d gotten for reading the most books in her class-socks and grinned. Nah. She wouldn’t trade her girls for high heels, that was for sure.
She stuck her middle toe through the hole and waved it at her sister. “My toe says hello to you.”
Cass sighed again, but she smiled. She hadn’t done a whole lot of that since she’d walked through the door.
“Did you get me off the computer to wag your toe at me?” She almost laughed, but didn’t quite make it. “Those socks need to find the trashcan yesterday.”
Anna put her foot back down on the wood floor and asked the question she’d been thinking half the night. “You mad at me?”
Cass didn’t answer right away, and Anna wondered why her sister always had to think things through for so long.
“Why would I be mad at you?”
Anna heard the words, but she saw the face delivering them and knew Cass’s feelings were hurt. “Oh, I don’t know. Justine’s whole I don’t even know her bit and Delia’s Wonder Woman.”
Cass sat forward, wrapped her arms around her knees, picked at the perfect soft pink polish on her thumbnails. “They’re just little girls, Anna. I’m not mad at you, and I’m certainly not mad at them.”
A breath Anna didn’t even realize she’d been holding came whooshing out, and she wondered why she even cared. It didn’t really matter, did it? “Good. That’s good. I just….”
A few seconds ticked by, and she wondered what to finish off with. She just what?
She didn’t even know. She certainly wasn’t going to sit there and say what she was thinking. What she was feeling. “I’m glad you came.” An almost truth. That would do.
Cass nodded, her face a jumble of somethings and nothings all at once. “I needed to.”
“And look. Momma’s already out of bed. You really are a miracle worker.”
”I’m no miracle worker.” Cass kicked one of Killer’s bouncy balls across the living room floor, and the dog whined from his bed behind the couch.
“It’s a start.” A commercial for toilet paper came on just then, the sound ten times louder than the show. Anna flipped the volume down. “I don’t know why they do that. Geez.”
Cass ran her hand through her straight hair. Its highlights sparkled in the light of the television. She probably spent hours every morning getting her hair to lay flat like that.
“So….”
“So….” Cass echoed her.
Man, this was uncomfortable. Painful, really.
“If you’d said well, I could at least say that’s a deep subject.” Cass tried for a little humor.
Anna pretended to laugh. But the sound was weak. Fake.
Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore. “Okay. Enough. We’re not going to sit here looking at each other saying so and listening to freakin’ toilet paper commercials and countdowns.” One of Delia’s favorite songs ran through her brain. “You’re my sister. I love you. You love me. We’re a great big family.”
Cass just looked at her like she’d totally lost her mind.
Anna laughed. Of course Cass had no idea. She pointed to the DVD sitting on the television. “Barney.”
Cass raised her eyebrows. “Oh. I thought he was just a dancing dinosaur.”
“Nah. He sings too.”
Cass smiled. “Now that’s interesting. Sings and dances. A multi-talented dinosaur.”
Anna laughed, thankful for the lighthearted moment. “Yeah.”
“’Cause you can never have too many talents if you’re a dinosaur.”
Anna watched her sister, surprised. Cass was really getting into this. Lord knows what she’d do if she stuck around long enough to actually see the show. If. Now there was a word Anna was well acquainted with.
“You planning on staying awhile?”
All the lightness in the room fell right back to dark, cold, tinderbox emotions just waiting to explode.
“Can’t we just make jokes about a dinosaur, Anna?”
Anna didn’t have time for jokes. She wasn’t willing to pretend she had any idea how long Cass would stay. “No. I need to know, Cass.