“I’m in.”
“I’m out,” Dani said, standing.
Allie frowned and pointed to the chair. “Sit down, you’re not out.”
He walked to the door and then paused, remembering his meeting. “I’ll be late, but I’ll be here.”
She nodded. “That’s great. Thanks, Ethan.”
“I need to discuss my weekend plans, people.”
Allie winced. “You’re sure you’re still okay for Saturday? The Christmas tree lot?”
He grimaced. “I think we need to get out of the city and go to one of those…places that sells trees.”
Allie’s face lit up, and she even put her mug down on the table. “Really? I know a great farm.”
“You’re not taking him to Blueberry Hill.”
Allie nodded.
He shrugged. “Whatever you want. Sold.”
“So let me get this straight. Ethan is going to slap a live Christmas tree to the roof of his Porsche?”
“We’ll take the Range Rover.”
Dani sat up at attention. “I had no idea you had two vehicles…this gives me options.”
Allie turned to her. “This information does not change your life at all.”
“You really have trouble getting into the Christmas spirit,” Dani said, slinking down in the chair.
“Anyway, see you tonight,” Ethan said.
“Have a good day. Thanks for the coffee.” He held her gaze for a moment, taking in her gorgeous smile. She was standing in his kitchen, like she belonged there, like she wished him a good day every day, except she wouldn’t be looking at him that way if he didn’t convince her that it wasn’t important the shelter stay in its current location. Now that he had Allie in his house, the last thing he wanted was to lose her. He could have everything if he executed his plan properly.
Dani let out a scream. “Oh gross. Hook just puked on the rug!”
After she finished cleaning the rug, Allie made her way back to the kitchen. Dani was eating some kind of organic cereal from the box, flakes missing her mouth left and right and falling on the floor.
“Make sure you clean up after yourself,” Allie said with a frown.
Dani rolled her eyes. “Ethan has a cleaning lady, Bertha or something. That’s her job.”
It was a wonder how her sister went from rags to riches with such obnoxious velocity. “Don’t forget we’re going to Mom’s this morning.”
Dani groaned and dropped her head onto the table, the cereal box falling and the contents spilling. “Why do you insist on torturing me?”
Allie closed her eyes and counted to ten. “It’s Christmas. We’re going to have a coffee, give her a Christmas present, and then leave.”
“I’m not spending my day off from school hanging out with a woman who never had time for either of us, which is kind of ironic because I thought people who don’t work have lots of time.”
Allie finished off her coffee, not wanting to admit that everything her sister said was true. “She has issues.”
“What did we get her?”
Allie paused. “A Dr. Phil book, a box of chocolates, and a gift card to Whole Foods.”
Dani’s head shot up. “You’re freaking kidding me. Whole Foods? I think that’s a bit of a waste, considering most of her grocery shopping is done at two a.m. at the 7-Eleven down the street. And a Dr. Phil book? She’ll never read it.”
Allie crossed her arms, trying not to get defensive. “I don’t agree, and it’s too late to have an opinion. I paid for all of it. I asked you for input—”
“I would have bought her a one-way ticket to hell.”
Allie rinsed her mug in the sink before loading it into the dishwasher. “Which is precisely why I went shopping on my own.”
“How can you be so okay with this? With her? She’s a crappy mom.”
Allie sighed and leaned against the counter. She focused her gaze on the dark cabinets, the richness of the wood in the modern kitchen. It was too early to be dealing with family problems. It seemed like her problems just increased instead of getting solved.
She still hadn’t found a decent apartment for them. It seemed the landlord was still intent on selling the shelter, and she may have to face the fact that it was inevitable. Then on top of all of that, it was time to visit their mom, something she secretly dreaded. Going to visit her was always a disappointment and a reality check. Day-to-day she didn’t think about their mother; she didn’t resent her, she wasn’t angry at her. But when they actually went to visit, all those buried feelings stewed inside until she was filled with this dark energy that dragged her back into an even darker place.
She glanced over at Dani, who looked as though she needed some reassurance. Time to act like the grown-up. “She’s the only one we have, sweetie. I’m not subjecting you to living there, or going there for weekly visits. She’s not a bad person, and she’s had a hard life.”
“So have you. So have I. We’re normal.”
Allie raised an eyebrow, and her sister actually blushed slightly.
“You know what I mean, Allie. She uses her bad past for an excuse. She acts like a kid, and she can never get it together. She puts her boyfriends ahead of us. She doesn’t even love us.”
Allie knew her sister’s frustration. She knew it because she agreed with a lot of what she was saying. The only difference was that she had come to peace with it. There was also the fact that at one time her mother had made the right decision. But Dani had no idea about any of that. “Dani, you’re young and you’re pissed off at her, I get that. You haven’t forgiven her, and it might take a while, but the sooner you let go of that anger toward her, the happier you’ll be. And of course she loves us in her own way.”
Her sister scoffed. “Did you read the Dr. Phil book?”
“All I know is that the more I was mad at Mom, the angrier I became in general. I didn’t teach her a lesson by being angry. I just ended up hurting myself. We’re not going to change her. The odds are not in our favor that she’s going to wake up one morning and have an epiphany, try and turn her life around, and make it up to her girls. It’s not going to happen. So we forgive. We don’t forget, but we forgive. Move on with our lives. We have each other.”
Dani glared at her for a moment and stomped out of the room.
“Go shower! And hurry, I have a bunch of stuff to do later,” Allie said. She couldn’t acknowledge the self-indulgent behavior.
The only response she received was the slamming of the bedroom door. She sat down at the table and dropped her head into her hands. Normally, dealing with Dani just required patience, but when it came to discussions about their mother it also required her to hold on to her emotions. She didn’t know if she was giving the right advice. She didn’t know if these yearly Christmas visits were doing more harm than good. Hell, she didn’t know much at all. She looked like she had it all together. She was qualified to help teens, but sometimes she barely felt qualified to run her own life. What if she was screwing her sister up even more than their mother had?
She glanced at the clock, relieved that it was still early. She had a massive to-do list, and it was her day off. All she needed to do was get through the visit to their mother’s house and then she would spend the evening with Ethan. Which she felt inexplicably giddy about, as though it were a date or something. Of course, it was not.