like you have to marry him.”
Iris stood there and looked at her younger sister. Her younger sister, who was nearly nine years younger than she was. Who was not a virgin. At least, Iris assumed, all things considered. Her living with Logan made that unlikely.
There were these great mysteries in her world, and her sisters knew them. Her sisters that she had raised. Her sisters that had needed her to guide them and help them and take care of them all through their childhood.
Something about that seemed remarkably unfair.
Her sister was now suggesting to her that she engage in a fling. Because she knew that Iris was a virgin, and that made her feel horrendously exposed, inadequate and embarrassed. And she knew she shouldn’t feel any of those things. There was no shame in the fact that she hadn’t found anyone that was worth taking her clothes off for.
She wasn’t going to do it just because.
That was another thing about that strength that Griffin had pointed out.
She didn’t believe in doing anything just because. She was far too stubborn for that.
“I’m not having this conversation,” Iris said.
And she was rescued, because a moment later her sister Pansy walked in, dressed fully in her police uniform, the bulky belt around her hips, with her pepper spray and service weapon comically large on her petite frame.
“This is great,” Pansy said as she entered, looking around like she was scrutinizing a crime scene.
“We were just about to go into the kitchen,” Iris said.
She looked between her two sisters, and remembered what Griffin had said. About not comparing. She was struck by the fact that she did, possibly more than she realized. That something inside of her had decided that they were particularly special and deserved a certain amount of effort dumped into them.
A certain amount of effort that part of her didn’t seem to think that she deserved.
She blinked, and they headed back into the kitchen. She breathed out a sigh of relief, and gave a small prayer of thanks.
“Ovens,” she said. “And big giant mixing bowls. And everything that I could ever need.”
She wanted to run back up the mountain and give Griffin a big hug, because clearly he had purchased all the kitchen equipment.
His business manager did.
You should send her a thank-you note. You shouldn’t think about hugging him.
No, and the thought of hugging him made her feel flushed, and she didn’t want to be flushed in front of Rose and Pansy.
But she bet his body was hot. And very, very hard and...and...
She turned her focus away from that and fast.
At the back of the kitchen was a small door. And she wondered if that led to the apartment.
“I want to... I want to go upstairs.”
“What’s upstairs?” Pansy asked.
“It’s an apartment,” Iris replied, brushing past her sisters and heading toward the door, which unlocked with the same key. There was a small, narrow staircase, the stairs painted black. She walked boldly up, having the vague fear that there would be spiders. Spiders seemed to be a primary concern.
But when they got up there, they were welcomed instead by a beautiful open space with soaring ceilings. The natural lighting coming in from outside kept it from seeming gloomy or dark in any way. It had the same floor as downstairs, the same exposed brick and beams. The kitchen and living room were the same large space, and there was a large couch and coffee table at the center of the room.
She wandered to one of the doors, and pushed it open. A bedroom. Complete with a bed.
“This is a fully...furnished apartment,” Rose said.
“I know,” Iris said.
And right then, she knew the decision was made. Right then, she knew exactly what she was going to do.
“I... I think I’m going to move here.”
“What?” Rose asked. “You can’t leave Hope Springs.”
Pansy, for her part, was silent.
“I think I need to leave Hope Springs,” Iris said.
“Why?” Rose asked. “I’ve never wanted to leave. I’m perfectly happy there.”
“I left,” Pansy said. “I needed to. You love it, Rose, it’s not the same. And it isn’t that we don’t love it. I mean, it isn’t that I don’t love it. But I had to move away to find my life. It’s different for you.”
Iris nodded slowly. “I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t think I can. All I can tell you is there’s too much of my sadness wrapped up in that house. And there’s so much happiness there too. But I’m one thing there.