peek out between the slats and not press her whole face and body against the glass. Marissa needed to be glad for small favors.
“Oh my freaking god!” Angelina exclaimed.
“Will you lower your voice,” Marissa hissed, her face burning with inexplicable embarrassment. Well … actually … it wasn’t exactly embarrassment that made her skin heat up. She knew exactly what Angelina was seeing. She’d peeked out that window endlessly these past weeks. And that moment didn’t turn out to be any different. She moved up beside her sister and peeked out at Jackson right along with her sister.
“Jesus, Mari, he’s gorgeous! Look at that ass! You could bounce a quarter off that thing.”
“Lina!” But the scold was ruined when she laughed behind it. “He is pretty,” she said as she made herself move away from the window and pick up her tepid coffee. “I’ll give him that.”
“Pretty? He’s a god. He’s the kind of guy that makes you wish to be a bar of soap in his shower.”
Coffee sprayed across Marissa’s desk as the remark hit her mid sip. Marissa dissolved into a coughing fit and half-inhaled coffee swam in her lungs. “Oh my god!”
“You said it, sister,” Angelina said with a giggle as she turned away from the window. “So what are you going to do about it?”
Angelina waited patiently as her sister recovered a normal breathing pattern.
“I’m doing nothing about it of course!” she croaked out. “Jackson is a patient. Doctors don’t date patients. It’s a matter of ethics.”
“Please,” Lina said rolling her eyes. “I’d quit for that.” She nodded toward the window.
“Well, I’m not you. And it’s a good thing too because someone has to pay the rent.”
“Oh. Ow. Low blow, sis.”
Marissa frowned. It was a low blow. Times were tough across America, and Angelina’s personality couldn’t fill just any kind of job. Oh, her smiling eyes and sunny strawberry-blond looks made it easy for her to get a job, but the opinionated champion of underdogs and lost tromping through the woodsan better causes everywhere eventually got on nerves and infuriated or exasperated her bosses. The fact that Lina was just too sweet for words and was as compelling as the day was long … that made it really hard to fire her as well. But eventually she got on a last nerve or crossed an inappropriate line and the employment opportunity would dissolve around her.
“I’m sorry. I know you try.”
That was part of the problem. Lina tried too hard to champion the world. She came dead last on her own list of things that needed taking care of. Everything else came first, whether it was the Hudson River, the homeless, or the extinction of Siberian tigers … just to name a few.
“Angelina, you really need to be more careful,” she said with a sigh, fingertips rubbing at the ache throbbing at her temple. Marissa knew she was wasting her breath, and in a way she was proud of her sister for that. She stood for something. She wasn’t ever afraid of anything.
Marissa couldn’t say the same. In fact, she was the overcautious, strait-laced, serious one of the family. Yes, that’s exactly how she would describe herself.
“You need to loosen up,” Lina said, for the thousandth time. “Before you know it your youth will be gone and bam!”—she smacked her hands together—“You’re old and decrepit with cobwebs in your vagina and you’ll be sitting there wondering why you never actually lived your life. I constantly hope you’ll throw caution to the wind one day and just embrace your life.”
“And I constantly wish you’d tread a little more carefully.” Marissa sighed. “Let’s face it, we’re never going to be what the other wants us to be.”
“Never say never,” Lina said with a mischievous wink. “If you’re up against the glass drooling over that, then I have tremendous hope for you!”
“That,” she said, pointing to the window, “is never going to happen. Not in a million years. So give it up.”
“Humph. Maybe so. Maybe not.” Lina moved toward the door. “You never know what the future holds.”
“Never, Lina. So stop bringing it up,” Marissa said sternly as Lina pulled open her office door.
“I’ve got to jet. Later, sis,” she said waving as she breezed out the door. “Hey Weiss!” she shouted across the bullpen. “Coffee and donuts on me!”
of Random House, Inc.y “If youCHAPTER TWO
Jackson looked to his left, a flash of movement briefly catching his attention. Rising to his full height, he smiled as he watched the blinds drop