Sage seriously doubted whether Daisy’s housekeeper would want to do anything for her.
“I still have to work,” she said, pulling her hand free of her sister’s tight grip.
“Jobs are stupid.”
“Yes, they are, but I’m not a trust fund baby like you and Daisy. I have to work to pay my bills.”
“Sage, you have to stay. Pretty please?”
With her blue eyes wide and pleading, and the note of whine in her voice, she looked and sounded as though she was eight instead of twenty-eight. Sage held in a sigh.
“You’re making me insane.”
“I know. Isn’t it great?” Cassidy reached for the walkie-talkie on the high table by her hospital bed. “What do you want to eat?”
“Nothing. I’ll get something when I get home.” She shifted in the chair next to the bed and eased off her heels. Her feet were killing her—the pain almost enough of a distraction to keep her from being seriously annoyed with her sister. Of course if she got over that, she might have to think about what had happened with Adam and she didn’t want to. Not only had his assertion stung, she really disliked that she was still thinking about it.
His blunt comment that she’d “gotten mean” had caught her off guard. That was the only reason his words had made it past her defenses. She’d managed to act as if she hadn’t cared, then had stayed a few more minutes before excusing herself. To make sure he didn’t think she was sulking, she’d changed into a cute dress and had driven away, only to discover she had nowhere to go. Hitting a bar by herself was beyond grim, so she’d walked around Beverly Center for an hour before returning home and hiding out in her room, all the while trying to figure out what his words had meant. Beyond the obvious.
Not that she cared what he thought. He was just some guy she used to know. It wasn’t as if they were actually friends, or dating. She needed to get over it and move on.
“Sage!” Cassidy glared at her. “Pay attention to me!”
Sage stared at her sister. “When did you get to be a brat?”
“I’m not. I’m so bored. Things don’t hurt as much, so my nurses are weaning me off the painkillers. That means I’m not sleeping all the time. There’s nothing to do.”
“You have a television. Watch something. Read a book. Learn a new language. I’m not your personal plaything.”
“Entertain me! You’re the fun one.”
“I’m not feeling fun right now.”
She started to stand. Cassidy grabbed her hand again.
“Wait! I need to tell you something. Desean proposed.”
Sage sat back down. “Who’s Desean?”
“The guy I’ve been seeing. Kind of seeing. It’s been an on-and-off thing for a while now.”
“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”
Not that she and Cassidy talked all that much, but they texted on occasion and she was pretty sure she would remember her sister mentioning keeping a guy around for any length of time.
Cassidy didn’t do relationships—not ones that lasted past a weekend. She was pretty enough to get anyone she wanted, but she had no interest in keeping the man of the moment around past the time it took for her to have a couple of orgasms.
“Is it serious?” she asked.
Cassidy tilted her head. “He proposed.”
“So you said. That only means it’s serious for him. You’re the one I’m asking about.”
Cassidy waved her unbroken arm. “No. Maybe. I don’t know. I like him, but lately he’s been pushing me to, you know, commit. I can’t do that. I’ve told him and told him, but he won’t listen.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s sweet and all. Smart. Funny. Really good-looking, with muscles to die for, but I couldn’t marry him.”
“You could. You simply choose not to.”
Cassidy’s lower lip trembled. “That’s kind of a mean thing to say.”
There was that word again, Sage thought in annoyance. She was about to snap at her sister only to think that maybe she hadn’t been exactly supportive. Despite the healing bruises and the fact that she had more energy, Cassidy was still recovering from a serious accident. Maybe a little more patience was called for.
“How long have you been off-and-on seeing him?” she asked.
“A couple of years.” Cassidy pressed her lips together. “Maybe three.”
“Years? You’ve been seeing a guy for three years and I’m just now hearing about it?”
“It’s not a thing.”
“It is to him.” Sage softened her tone. “Cassidy, if he’s all that you say, why not give him a chance? A real chance.”
“Because it will all go to shit. You know it will. No marriage is successful. I mean on TV and stuff, but not in life. Name one person you know who’s happily married.”
Sage rolled her eyes. “Seriously? How about Daisy and Jordan? They’ve been together what? Ten years? Eleven? Twelve?”
Cassidy’s mouth widened into a smile. “You don’t know. Of course you don’t. It’s not like she would have told you.” She lowered her voice. “He’s moved out. They’re separated. Ben and Krissa come see me every day after school and they told me. It’s been a few weeks now. He’s moved into a hotel. I don’t think it’s an apartment.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “You should so go after him. It would serve her right.”
“Cassidy, stop it,” Sage said, mostly to buy time.
Daisy and Jordan separated? She wasn’t happy about the news—in truth it should be meaningless to her, except for some generic regret that any marriage had failed. Only she felt more than that. For reasons she couldn’t explain, her stomach felt a little queasy and she had the strangest desire to bolt from the room.
“Well, I hate her. It’s not my fault.”
“You have no reason to hate her. She’s taken you in, even though you’re difficult and disrespectful.”
“I don’t care if she likes me. Dad is the one who wants me to stay and she’ll always do what he says.”
“Why do you hate Daisy so much? When we were kids, she cared about you.”
“I just do. Besides, you and Mom were always awful to her. This isn’t on me.”
Sage wondered if that was true. She and her mother had been pretty awful—yet another piece of her past she would like to do over. Had Cassidy learned to disrespect Daisy from them?