Speaking of sisters, my phone rang then. I glanced at the screen. “It’s Harley. I better take this, or she’ll give me hell,” I commented.
The guys chuckled as I stood and walked into the kitchen to take the call. “Hey, sis.”
“Hey, can I come visit?” my sister asked, getting right to the point, as she was wont to do.
“You know you’re always welcome. What’s going on?”
“I just dumped Joey, and I need a place to stay. There’s no fucking way I’m going back to that job to stare at his face anymore. So, I quit my job too. I thought maybe I could crash up there for a while and figure out what I want to do next,” Harley explained.
Harley had a touch of a temper, not the bad kind, but the quick kind. She never pitched a fit. She made fast decisions and acted on them immediately when she was upset.
I thought about Elias’s empty bedroom upstairs. “You’re welcome to stay. Give me a heads up on when you’ll be here.”
“It’ll be in a few weeks. I’m gonna go stay with Terese for two weeks,” she explained, referring to another one of our sisters. “I haven’t seen her in a bit and then I’ll come up there.”
“That’ll work.”
“Perfect. Love you.”
The line clicked in my ear the second I said, “Love you too.”
Shaking my head with a laugh, I stared at the phone in my hand and took a breath. I loved my youngest sister, but sometimes she stirred things up. She also always had an opinion on my life. It would be interesting to have her here.
Chapter Three
Gemma
I took a bite of the scone and a subtle orange flavor broke across my tongue. “Oh, my God,” I moaned, my words coming out muffled because I was chewing. I moaned again and swallowed. Leveling my gaze with Cammi’s, I said, “This is amazing. I thought you said baking wasn’t your forte.”
Cammi smiled, her blue eyes twinkling. “It’s not. I set up a gig with Daphne out at the resort. She’s going to do a rotation of baked goods for me since they have room in the kitchen out there. She’s incredible. We’ve even got a plan for delivery with the guys who come to fly every day. Between them, somebody comes to town every single day. They drop them off for me the afternoon before, and I pop them in the oven the next morning.”
“Wow. I already thought your coffee was incredible, but now with this, you’re taking it to the next level.” I meant every word. I’d discovered Misty Mountain Café on my second day in town, and I loved it.
Cammi beamed. “Thank you. Really. Like I told you, before this year my only expertise was coffee. I’ve got coffee down to a science. Taking this place over is a big step for me, and I knew I needed to up my food game.”
“You’ve given up doing massage?” I asked, referring to the side job Cammi told me she did occasionally in the winters for the physical therapy clinic at the hospital.
“Yeah, I had to. There’s no way for me to fit it in. Is that something you do? I mean, you teach yoga so…” Her words trailed off. Her honey brown hair bounced as she nodded, as if she was answering herself.
“I don’t do massage,” I offered with a smile. “I want to focus on my yoga classes. That, and the horse stuff. I love spending time with animals, and it’s working out to be a pretty sweet set up for me.”
“You gotta do what fits for you. Do you plan to stay in Diamond Creek long term?” she asked as she prepped the coffee I’d ordered before giving me the sample scone to taste.
“I’m hoping to stay. I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough business. I’m realizing if I do double duty in the summer, there are plenty of tourists who want to sign up for yoga classes while they’re here. In the winter, I can charge monthly fees for the locals and maybe some extra things on top of that. I love it here.”
“Diamond Creek’s a good place. I grew up here, so I might sound biased. Even though it feels like it’s the middle of nowhere, we’ve got good restaurants and plenty of shopping. There’s a small town vibe with a touch of the city.”
Turning, I looked out the windows of the small café, which offered a view of the mountains and the ocean bay sparkling under the sunshine. “I wouldn’t say city as far as the view goes, but as far as the restaurants and the coffee, hell yes. Now, I’ve got a morning yoga class, so I’ll catch you later.”
Cammi blew me a kiss and waved as I turned away, calling, “I’ll see you for the evening class.”
On my drive to the yoga studio, my phone rang. My car dashboard indicated it was my mother. I took a deep breath. Although I loved my mother, calls from her did, in fact, require deep breathing techniques on occasion.
Tapping the button to take the call, I said, “Hey, Mom.”
“Gemma, how’s Alaska?”
“It’s still great, Mom. Just like I told you three days ago.”
My mother’s sigh filtered through the car speakers. “I know, sweetie. You’re a long way away, and I’m still getting used to that.”
“I know, Mom. It’s not as far as you think. Portland’s a four-hour plane trip away.”
“I know, I know. We miss you.”
I turned my car onto the road that led to my yoga studio. “I miss you too. I’d love it if you all came up to visit soon. The weather’s gorgeous here in the summer.”
“I’ll talk with your father and see what his work schedule looks like. I hope you’re making friends.”
I bit back a sigh. God bless my mother. She worried about me. But then, she was a worrier. “I promise I’m making friends. I’ve got a class in just a few minutes, so I need to go. I’ll call you this weekend, okay?”
“All right, sweetie. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
With the tap of a button on my dashboard, I ended the call. As I turned into the parking lot, I took another breath and ordered myself not to feel guilty about moving away. I was blessed with two loving parents and an older brother who was also awesome. The cliché that family could be complicated rang so true in my life. Love only added another layer to the complications.
I wouldn’t describe myself as the black sheep of my family, but maybe the gray sheep. I didn’t quite fit, and I’d struggled with feeling like a disappointment. Both of my parents were brilliant. Both of my parents were highly successful lawyers.
Meanwhile, my brother was a star student, valedictorian of his high school class, blasting through college in three years and finishing law school in another two. He did everything at double speed. It was hard to follow in his footsteps. My parents never seemed to know what to do with me because school hadn’t come as easily for me as them. They didn’t know what to do and didn’t bother to get an assessment. They’d been confused about why I was struggling in school when I was younger. When they finally did get me tested and discovered I had dyslexia, things were much better, but then I was playing catch up and still saddled with the frustration of the situation.
I never quite got over feeling like such a disappointment. Fortunately, I excelled at sports. Softball was my thing, and I’d been a high school star, until my coach took a shine to me and a few other girls on the team. It’s not all that fun to be a statistic—yet another teenage girl fending off inappropriate sexual advances from an adult coach.