Taking Heart (12 page)

The sisters shared an amused smile before Ren said, “Lucky. I’ve always
wanted to go to Singapore.”

“Me too, but he’s not getting much sightseeing done. He has a lot of work
to do.” Jolene stopped cutting the broccoli and gave Ren a long, assessing
look. “So how are you?”

“I’m fine,” Ren said, perching on a barstool and stealing a broccoli
floret to munch. “And will you please stop asking that? I don’t need to be
handled with kid gloves.”

“I have kid gloves!” Nina cried and ran out of the room.

Jolene took advantage of the absence of little ears. “Did you call him
back?”

“Who?”

Jolene rolled her eyes. “Eric, who else?”

“No. Why would I call him?”

Jolene took an impatient breath, as though Ren was her child and not her
older sister. “Because he called you. Because, despite the fact that you’re in
a bad place right now, you still like him.”

“You’re right. I
am
in a bad place right now, which is precisely
why I shouldn’t call him. He wants me to have things figured out. Well, guess
what, I don’t.”

Jolene held up her hands. “Okay. Don’t be so touchy.”

“Don’t be so nosy.”

“I’m your sister. That’s been my job since my diary-reading days.”

Ren groaned just as the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.”

A moment later, Ren returned with Lisa.

“No Jordan tonight?” Jolene said with a raised eyebrow.

Lisa sighed. “Why do you always ask me that? It’s not like we’re attached
at the hip.”

“I beg to differ,” Ren
said,
glad to jump on a
new subject.

“I’ve found it!” Nina came running into the room, holding up a pair of
pink snow mittens. “My kid gloves!”

Ren laughed and tickled her niece. As they set the very table that had
once belonged to their parents, she began to feel a sense of peace. Here,
inside the house that she had grown up in, things made sense. And even though
her parents were now gone, she still felt their love all around, in the
beautiful house they had built and, most importantly, in the family that they
had breathed life into. So maybe her future was uncertain now that Ben was
gone, but here in this house, with her sisters, she always had a place to belong.

A few hours later, after the dishes were done and Nina put to bed, the
three sisters all took a seat at the plush suede sectional, each with a glass
of wine in hand. Jolene turned the flat screen television on then promptly
ignored it, turning her attention to Ren. “So what’s he like? This Eric guy?”

Ren sighed. She was never going to get away from the questions.

“How is asking about the new guy going to help her get over the old guy?”
Lisa asked, taking a sip of the merlot. “Ren needs to concentrate on mourning
Ben first, going through the stages of grief. Then she can think about this
Eric guy.”

Jolene tucked her feet under her butt and leaned back into the couch. “So
Lisa, where
is
Jordan tonight, anyway?”

“He’s watching the game with his friends,” Lisa said. “Jolene, are you
trying to live your life vicariously through ours?”

Jolene smiled like the cat that ate the canary. “Is it that obvious?
Being married with a kid doesn’t exactly scream excitement, if you know what I
mean.”

“I’d trade you lives any day,” Ren said ruefully. Her eyes wandered over
to the image on the television, to some news entertainment show. “My life is
ten ways screwed up.”

Lisa patted Ren’s leg gently. “Just nine ways, sister,” she deadpanned.

“Ben was a great guy, wasn’t he? I wasn’t just imagining it, right?” Ren
looked at her sisters for confirmation. Both nodded.

“Of course he was!” Jolene cried. “Every girl at school had a crush on
him. Lisa included.”

Lisa remained tight-lipped but her face reddened, betraying her thoughts.
“Okay, yes, fine. When you guys first started dating, I had a little bit of a
crush on him.”

Ren smiled. “That wasn’t really a secret, Lisa. He knew.”

Lisa’s face flushed a deeper scarlet as Jolene chuckled.

Ren leaned her head back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling fan.
“God, I miss him.” Tears sprung to her eyes, but she tried to blink them away.
“And the worst part is that I thought I had him back, at least a little piece
of him, but it turns out I was wrong. He’s just gone and I have to face that.
Again.” The tears slid down the side of her face and into her hair. “I’m so
tired of being sad. At least, when I was with Eric, I was happy.”

“But—”

“I know, it wasn’t entirely Eric who was making me happy. It was the
thought that Ben and I were together again.”

“But what if it really was Eric that was making you feel that way?” Lisa
said.

Ren looked up and realized that she shared the same expression of
disbelief with Jolene as they stared at their oldest sister.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Jolene asked. “I thought you were on
Team
Eric Sucks
?”

Lisa shrugged. “Maybe it’s the wine. But I was just wondering if maybe
she actually had real feelings for the guy.”

“I know I do,” Ren said. “But it’s just tangled with my feelings for Ben.
So I need to spend some time unraveling.”

“Well, you have time, sis. Nobody’s telling you that you have to figure
it all out right away.”

Ren wondered if that were really true. Even if Eric thought she was
amazing, he would not wait forever. All of a sudden, her eyes caught a glimpse
of a familiar face on the television. She sat up. “Turn the volume up, Jo.”

All eyes were glued to the television.

“Okay, what are we staring at?” Jolene said a few moments later.

“Shh,” Ren said as goose bumps rose on her arms.

“Carson Kingsley was spotted around town yesterday with his sidekick,
Eric Sorenson. After disappearing from the scene at the beginning of the year,
Eric finally resurfaced a week ago when he and Carson were spotted at their
favorite nightspot, Club Amsterdam.” They flashed to a video of the beefy actor
Carson Kingsley walking confidently beside a darker-haired man. Ren’s breath
caught in her throat as she recognized the face under those aviator sunglasses.

“No…” Jolene said.

“Is
that
your Eric?” Lisa said with equal incredulity. “Tell me
that’s not your Eric.”

Ren began to nod, but her heart stopped when they showed a grainy video
of Eric inside the club, having an intimate conversation with a sexy woman over
a table littered with alcoholic beverages.

Jolene clicked off the television once the segment finished and the show
went to commercial. “Eric Sorenson is the guy you met and slept with in
Colorado?” she asked, sounding as if she herself didn’t believe the words that
were coming out of her mouth. “
That
Eric Sorenson?”

Ren leaned back, shock still rendering her speechless.

“That guy is known for being a nobody who got famous because he parties
and drinks with actors,” Lisa said, jabbing a finger in the television’s
direction. “That guy is a walking Valtrex ad.”

“Lisa!” Jolene cried. “That’s… that might not even be true.”

Ren shut her eyes, avoiding the looks on her sisters’ faces. She couldn’t
decide which shocked her more: the fact that Eric was appearing on television,
or that he apparently had reverted to his old ways. And now her sister Lisa had
brought up a good point, one that had escaped scrutiny when she had been naked
under him. He was not someone you could call virtuous.

His words came back to her:
Sometimes I wish I were a better person.

“Hypocrite.” The word came out of Ren’s mouth before she knew what was
happening.

“Who? Me?” Lisa asked.

“No,” Ren said with a sigh. “Eric. He told me he was trying to become a
better person. I guess he’s done trying.”

“Lisa was right. About Eric being nothing but an L.A. player.”

Lisa pushed her glasses up her nose. “For the record, I don’t want to be
right.”

“I guess that’s that, then,” Ren said, setting her glass of wine on the
coffee table and standing up. “At least that eliminates one of the things I was
worried about.”

“Ren,” Jolene said, grabbing her hand as she walked by. “Stay here
tonight. We can stay up and talk about it.”

Ren shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. This is one issue I
intend to put to rest.”

“So you’re done with Eric then?” Lisa asked with a smidge of skepticism.
“You are going to completely write him off?”

“Yes, definitely,” Ren said with determination. “As soon as I give him a
piece of my mind.”

Eric emerged from the bathroom whistling a tune. It finally felt like he
had steered his ship around towards clear waters. Though he knew it wouldn’t be
easy, he hoped he was on the right course towards a life he could be proud of.
The private classes he was paying for with Greg Hudson, master woodworker, were
proving to be a challenge, but one that filled him with a sense of being. It
felt good to be working with his hands again, no matter the splinters or the
inherent danger of cutting off an appendage or two.

Eric dropped his towel on the floor and climbed into bed, realizing that
it had been a long time since he’d had a guest stay overnight. He had almost
closed the deal with a woman the other night at the club, one who was
interested in his woodworking stories (or at least acted like it), but he had
stopped short. At the time, his actions had perplexed him, but now, in the
silence of his bedroom, he realized he had been self-sabotaging. And he had a
sneaking suspicion it was because of one girl with a penchant for wearing a
hideous sweater.

As if summoned by his thoughts, the phone began to ring, and his reason
for sleeping alone showed up on caller ID. “Ren,” he said as soon as he picked
up the phone.

“Hi, Eric.”

He laughed, in excitement, in relief. “I was just thinking about you!”

“Funny, because I was just thinking about you.”

He closed his eyes and lay back on the bed. “Really?” he asked huskily.
“What were you thinking? And don’t skimp on the details.”

Ren gave a surprised snort. “God, you are so sleazy. That’s not why I
called you.”

He opened his eyes and grinned. “Well, it was worth a try. What’s up? How
have you been?”
Are you over Ben yet?

“I saw you on television.” For the first time, he heard the shortness in
her words. Ren was apparently not happy.

Eric folded one arm behind his head. “Oh? What was I doing?”

“Partying and picking up women,” she said with distaste.

“Oh.”

“I hope you haven't started doing cocaine again, too, because I don't
think it's great for your heart.”

“Wait a minute!” he said, sitting up. “Not that that’s any of your
business, but no, I haven’t started taking drugs again. Thank you.”

“I thought you said you wanted to be a better man?”

“I do!”

“It certainly didn’t look like it. Even the host of the show was saying
you’d reverted back to your old ways.”

He took a deep breath. “Are you angry because I’m partying and drinking
with people I haven’t seen in months, or is something else bothering you?”
Suddenly, her words sunk in. “You saw me picking up women.”

“I saw you with a woman on national television,” she said. “Right after
my sisters asked me about you.”

“You told your sisters about me?” he asked. “What did you say?”

He heard some
finger-snapping
. “Hey, Eric,
focus!”

Despite her anger, he felt a little bit of happiness warming his chest.
He must actually mean something to Ren if she was telling her sisters about
him. “I’ve really missed you, Ren.”

“That’s not what it looked like on television,” she said, the hard edge
in her voice starting to subside. When she sighed, he imagined all of the hot
air leaving her body in surrender. “I’m sorry. I know I have no right to be
jealous.”