for the seventy-five cents, kiddo. Mommy can afford it with her awesome job. I bet if you ask Mason for chores at the ranch, he’d pay you a dollar.”
Sierra scoffed. “Amy! Really?”
Amy winked at Danny and Oliver and headed out the back door.
Sierra stared at both the boys. “We’ll discuss allowances later. Be good. Have fun with Uncle Rex.”
Rex finished tearing down the old calendar and replaced it with the new one, a satisfied smile on his face when he studied it. “That’s more like it.”
She bet he appreciated that he had a spot on the calendar now and so did Date Night and Family Time.
“Who’s up for kickball?”
All the kids scrambled off their stools and headed for the front door.
Rex caught her arm. “Hey, I’m sorry you’re going through this. I had no idea about David and Heather. It sucks. I hope you’re okay.”
She put her hand over his. “Thank you. I will be.”
Rex gave her a half smile and headed out after the kids.
Sierra walked out to the back to find her sister, knowing what she’d just said to Rex would be true one day.
She would be okay. She just needed time to let the feelings come, to reevaluate her life and what happened, and put it into perspective.
One day it wouldn’t hurt this much.
There’d come a time when the anger didn’t rush in and consume her.
One day it would be a memory that didn’t sting so sharply.
Her happiness would overshadow the pain and betrayal.
“So I spoke to Mom this morning after she went to see Heather. We hate Heather, right?” Amy held up a glass of wine from her Adirondack chair in the garden.
Sierra took the glass, fell into the other chair, stared at the beautiful flowers, focusing on the pretty pink roses, and sighed. “I don’t want to hate David or Heather, but they make it damn hard not to.”
Amy clinked her glass to Sierra’s. “Bastard. Bitch. What the fuck were they thinking?”
Sierra appreciated her sister’s outrage. “I don’t know.” She took a sip of the sweet and smooth peach wine, loving the flavor and crispness. She needed more sweet in her life.
“It hurts.” Her chest grew heavy with thoughts of what her sister and husband had done, scenarios of how they carried out their trysts, and how she’d been oblivious to it all. “I think it would be easier if it was some stranger, a random woman I didn’t know. But Heather . . .”
“It keeps circling my mind. How could she? Why? How did it even happen?”
“That’s the thing. I have some of the details, but it doesn’t really matter how, when, why. They did it without thinking about what would happen when they were discovered.”
Amy turned her gaze from the flowers, focused on her, and put her hand on Sierra’s arm. “They had a child together.”
“Hallee.” Just saying her name hurt Sierra’s heart something fierce. That poor girl. Caught in the middle of all this. The living reminder of how her parents hurt and betrayed Sierra. An innocent child. “I don’t know what to do about her. She’s Danny and Oliver’s half sister. How do I explain that to them?”
“They’re too young to understand what really happened. Maybe it’s better to tell them now in a simple way. She’s their sister. They have the same father. Leave it at that. When they’re older and they understand more, they’ll ask questions and you can tell them more of the real story.”
Sierra thought that might be the best way to handle it.
“But if you tell them, they’ll want to see Hallee, which means . . .” Amy let the rest go unsaid.
She’d have to see Heather. She’d look at Hallee and bring back all the hurt.
She didn’t want to keep reliving this nightmare. But she also didn’t want to punish the kids or keep them apart.
“David and Heather have put me in an impossible position. If I don’t let the boys see their sister, I’m the bad guy. If I do, I have to deal with Heather and the affair coming up over and over again for me.”
“Well, if you’re okay with the boys seeing Hallee, they can have playdates here, then you won’t have to deal with Heather. Anyway, David left our sister holding the bag on this one.” Amy sipped her wine and looked at her over the rim of the glass. “Do you think if he’d lived, he’d have left you for Heather?”
She’d asked herself that a hundred times. “I don’t know.