The Magnolia Sisters (Magnolia Sisters #1) - Michelle Major Page 0,22
“I totally forgot,” Carrie told them, pushing away her barely touched burrito. “Between finding out about the two of you—”
“She says,” Meredith muttered, “in the same way someone would talk about discovering they had a communicable disease.”
“That’s not how I said it,” Carrie argued weakly. “It was a shock, as was the state of Dad’s house.”
Meredith picked up her fork and pointed toward the green-chili-smothered burrito. “Are you going to eat that?”
Carrie shook her head, and Meredith pulled the plate closer.
“How are you so tiny?” Avery asked the pixie-sized woman. “You eat like a team of linebackers.”
“Good metabolism,” Meredith told her after shoveling in a bite. “I get it from my...” She shook her head. “I always thought I got it from my dad’s side of the family, but I guess that’s not the case.”
Both Avery and Meredith looked at Carrie.
“The Reeds have good metabolisms,” she said with a nod. “Dad’s family came from Scotland. His great-grandfather was a blacksmith. He settled in Cambridge and met my—our—grandmother when her family moved into the house across the street. Childhood sweethearts.”
“Did Niall have brothers and sisters?” Avery asked, unable to completely squash her curiosity about the man whose DNA she carried.
“A brother who was five years younger,” Carrie confirmed. “He died in a car accident when he was twelve. It destroyed their family. Gram and Gramps got divorced, and Dad didn’t stay close to either of them.” She shrugged. “He always said his unhappy childhood inspired the joy in the scenes he painted. He was trying to capture the ideal version of a family he never had.”
“And chose not to create for himself,” Avery added.
“Oh, he created it.” Meredith dabbed at one corner of her mouth with a napkin. “With his perfect wife and perfect daughter. I’m not exaggerating when I say they were like royalty around here. Only no one knew he had a whole below-stairs story going on at the same time.”
Avery could tell Carrie wanted to argue but she only said, “Looks can be deceiving.”
“Right.” Meredith rolled her eyes. “Even knowing what a two-timing jerk he was, the town is still giving him the celebrity treatment. His paintings haven’t sold well in years. He’s a laughingstock in the real art community, but we’re going to treat him like a fallen hero at the memorial.”
Finally, Avery’d had enough. “Are you about done with the pity party?” she asked Meredith, whose mouth dropped open.
“Did you seriously just ask me that? Do you know what I’ve been through with all this? How my life—”
“Welcome to the club, sister.” Avery leaned forward. “I mean that literally. Sister. We are sisters.”
“Half,” Meredith muttered under her breath.
“Sisters,” Avery repeated.
“Sisters,” Carrie said with conviction.
When Meredith didn’t respond, Avery shrugged. “We can debate which of us has been more wronged and who gets to be the most resentful until we’re old and gray. You don’t have to like it or either of us. I understand Niall gave you plenty of reasons for your bitterness. But who is it helping at this point?”
Meredith slugged back the rest of her margarita but gave no answer.
“Exactly. For better or worse, we’re in this together. At least until we can figure out what to do with the messed-up, debt-riddled nightmare of an inheritance he left us.”
Meredith cracked the barest hint of a smile as she asked, “How do you really feel?”
“Angry, confused and slightly panicked. My life was already half off the tracks and this has pushed me even closer to the edge. I don’t like it any more than you do. I don’t want this to be my reality. Our father didn’t leave us much of a choice.”
“You have a choice,” Carrie said, inclining her head toward Avery. “This town isn’t your home.”
Avery swallowed, hating the emotion that clogged her throat and definitely not willing to admit she didn’t have a home anymore. “I know.”
“Don’t you have a life to get back to?” Meredith asked. “What do you mean ‘half off the tracks’?”