The Bakery Sisters (17 page)

She sat up and gave him a pained smile. “I didn't mean that exactly.”

He looked at her. “What did you mean?”

“That I, um, well…” She swallowed. “I don't have a lot of experience with sex.”

He had a cold, hard knot in his gut. “How much are we talking about?”

She pulled the sheet up to cover herself. “I was a virgin.”

She kept talking but he didn't hear anything but a rushing sound. A virgin? A virgin?

Without thinking, he scrambled out of bed and pulled on his jeans. This was not happening to him. It couldn't be. A virgin? She was twenty-eight.

“How?”

She sighed. “How did it happen? How is it possible? It just is. I don't meet a lot of men, I'm not willing to be with someone interested in volume. There are a dozen reasons and they don't really matter.” She raised her gaze to him. Her eyes were dark and filled with confusion. “Are you mad?”

He didn't want to hurt her. In theory he supposed he should be thrilled in some primal, macho way. He was the only sexual partner she'd ever had. In truth, what he wanted most was to bolt for freedom.

“You're mad,” she said.

“No. Just confused. Why me?”

She shrugged. “I like the way you kiss.”

As simple as that? A virgin?

He watched her mouth begin to tremble. He guessed that tears wouldn't be too far behind.

“Claire.” He sat on the bed. “It's okay. Seriously. You surprised me—I never would have guessed that.”

She perked up. “Really?”

He nodded. “I would have gone slower if I'd known.” He wouldn't have gone at all, but she didn't need to know that.

“You didn't have to. I enjoyed everything. Especially…you know.”

Her orgasm. Was it her first? Did he really want to know?

He didn't know what the hell he was thinking, but he knew he had to make this right between them. He leaned toward her and touched her face.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded and he kissed her. She kissed him back. Wanting rose up inside him, but he pushed it away. He wasn't going there again. Not until he got it all figured out.

Claire kissed him again, then got out of bed. “I should get home. Nicole is there with Amy and you probably want your daughter back.” She dressed quickly, then smiled at him. “I'm okay if you are.”

“I'm great.”

“Good.” She rose on tiptoe and kissed him again. “Thank you. For everything.”

“Anytime,” he said before he could stop himself.

When she was gone, he paced the length of the house, swearing loudly and wondering when the hell everything had gotten out of control. If she was a virgin, there was no way she understood what he'd meant by not getting involved. She could say she did and even believe it herself, but he was her first lover. Wouldn't that matter?

Another thought brought him to a standstill. Right there in the hall, he realized that she wasn't likely to be on any kind of birth control. He hadn't used a condom.

The potential for disaster was so huge, he wanted to put his fist through the wall. He stopped himself by thinking that broken bones wouldn't help anyone. One problem at a time.

The odds of her being pregnant were slim to none. He would do better to figure out what was going to happen between them now and how Nicole was going to skin him alive when she found out he'd slept with her virgin sister.

 

C
LAIRE PRACTICALLY
floated into the house. She felt sore and squishy and better than she had in years. She should have done this sex thing a long time ago. Of course being with Wyatt had been fairly spectacular. She doubted if anyone else would measure up.

She was also impressed with how he'd handled the news about her being a virgin. He hadn't seemed that upset at all.

She parked behind Nicole's house and walked into the kitchen. Amy wasn't there, but Nicole sat at the table.

Claire grinned, prepared to tell her what had happened, when Nicole raised her head. She looked white with fury.

“How could you?” she demanded.

Claire was stunned. They'd talked about Wyatt. Why would she—

“How could you go behind my back and bail Jesse out of jail? I wanted her there. For once I wanted there to be consequences for her actions. I'll never forgive you for this. Never!”

“Y
OU CAN'T NOT SPEAK
to me forever,” Claire said the next morning over coffee. She was stating what she
hoped
was true, rather than what she was sure of. It seemed very possible her sister could hold a grudge for a very long time.

Nicole looked up from her mug and raised her eyebrows. “Watch me.”

“We have to talk about what happened.”

Nicole returned her attention to the paper on the table and didn't answer.

“Oh, that's mature,” Claire told her. “I know you're upset about me bailing Jesse out of jail. I agree what she did was wrong, but I can't believe you were just going to leave her there.”

Nicole stood up and started to walk out of the kitchen. Claire trailed after her. “This is crazy. We're all family.”

Nicole spun back to her. “We're not a family. Not by any definition I care about. We share biology, nothing more. You have been living your life around the world, living in your bubble of being special. You don't know anything about me or my life. Speaking of which, I'm going back to it, starting today. I'll be at the bakery, running my business. Mine. Not yours. You are no longer welcome here. Not at the bakery or here in the house. If you're so hot on staying in Seattle, there are many very nice hotels. Or you could stay with Jesse, seeing as the two of you are so close.”

Claire couldn't believe it. “After all we've been through, you're going to act like this?”

Nicole ignored her and walked up the stairs.

Claire didn't know what to do. It was way too soon for Nicole to return to work. But how was she supposed to stop her? Nicole wanted to prove a point. Claire already knew how stubborn her sister could be.

“This is going to be a disaster,” she muttered.

“At least let me drive you,” she said fifteen minutes later as Nicole walked to the single-car garage behind her house.

“No.”

“You shouldn't do this. You're still recovering.”

Nicole ignored her and punched in the code that raised the garage door. She got into her small SUV and started the engine.

“You are the most stubborn, annoying person I know,” Claire yelled, then returned to her car. Fine, if Nicole was going to be a complete idiot, Claire wasn't going to stop her, but she could stay close to make sure nothing bad happened.

Nicole pulled out of the garage and started down the street. Claire followed her all the way to the bakery and was relieved when they arrived.

One crisis averted and who knows how many hovering in their future.

Nicole parked and ignored Claire who pulled up next to her. They walked into the rear of the bakery, with Claire trailing behind. That gave her the perfect view of all the employees rushing over to hug Nicole.

“It's been too long,” Maggie said. “I've missed you. Is it okay that you're up and here so soon? You'll take it easy, right?”

“You look good,” Sid told her. “I'm glad you're back. It's not the same without you.”

Phil gave her a big hug, then stepped back looking worried. “Was that too much? Did I hurt you?”

Nicole grinned at them. “It's wonderful. I've missed you guys. It's been awful, trapped at the house. I thought I'd go crazy.”

Claire felt herself getting mad, which was easier to deal with than the hurt inside. She'd been there to help take care of Nicole. Didn't that count? Was her company so boring that it hadn't been able to make up for the scintillating chitchat about cupcakes and bagels?

They all talked for a few minutes, with Claire feeling as if she was standing on the outside, looking in at a place where she didn't belong.

Nicole glanced at her. “You can go now.”

Something bubbled up inside Claire. Something hot and angry, that made her willing to be stubborn and difficult.

“I don't think so,” she said calmly. “We're going to get this settled, once and for all.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “Whatever. We can talk in my office.”

“We can talk right here,” Claire told her.

Everyone scattered.

“Is humiliating me your goal?” Nicole asked. “Because you're doing a hell of a job.”

“You know exactly what my goal is, however much you try to avoid it. I want us to be sisters again.”

Nicole's gaze narrowed. “Sisters don't betray each other.”

“Sure they do. Sisters do everything everyone else does. It's the nature of close relationships.”

“You're an expert now?”

“More than I was. You're pissed off because I bailed Jesse out of jail without talking to you first. Fine. You didn't talk to me about putting her in jail in the first place.”

“It wasn't your business.”

“She's my sister.”

“She stole from me.”

“You're still punishing her for Drew. You couldn't do anything about that, so you're looking for another way to get back at her.”

“Why the hell not?” Nicole demanded. “Should I be happy about what they did together? Should it fill me with pride? She screwed up everything.”

Claire got it. She finally got what was going on with Nicole.

“You're the victim,” she said slowly, filling in the details as she talked. “I can't believe it. You're so tough on the surface, but underneath, you're blaming everyone else for what's going wrong. It's true you were left with all kinds of crap here, but you did an amazing job. You took care of everything. But that's not enough. I don't know if you can't accept your part, or if you're not getting enough support or what.”

“Stop it!” Nicole yelled. “Don't you dare think you can get inside my head. I don't need any amateur psychology from a poor little princess who doesn't know how to function in the real world.”

“At least I'm trying to make things better. I'm not running around, blaming everyone else.”

“No, you're sneaking around, hiding from your manager because you're not willing to face her like a grown-up.”

That shot hurt, Claire thought, but refused to acknowledge the zing.

“I did run,” she admitted, “but I also faced her. I keep showing up with you, time after time. You keep trying to get rid of me. Who's the one with the problem? Want to blame me for that? Or maybe Drew. I think a lot of this is his fault. It sure can't be yours.”

Nicole glared at her for several heartbeats, then turned. “I don't need this or you. Get out. Just go away. I don't want to see you again.”

She started to walk past Claire. Claire wasn't going to let her just end the conversation. She grabbed her arm. “Not so fast.”

Nicole tried to pull free. Claire wasn't going to let go. They each moved toward the large vat of dough. A second too late, Claire saw the puddle of what looked like oil on the cement floor.

They stepped in it at the same time and both went sliding. Claire released her sister, but it was too late. They went down, hard on the floor.

Claire crashed into the cement butt first. The jolt of impact made her teeth ache. She sat there for a second before rolling onto her knees, then starting to stand.

As she did, she turned her head. Nicole lay on her side. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving.

 

N
ICOLE REFUSED
to open her eyes. She didn't want to know where she was, even though it was impossible to ignore the medics working on her. Words like
transport
and
hospital
made her wince.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes and saw two guys bent over her.

“You're back,” one of them said. “Do you know where you are?”

Wished that she didn't. “On the floor in my bakery. I know the day of the week and who's president, if you need that information.”

“You didn't hit your head, then.”

“Not on purpose.”

There were two agonizing points of pain. Her incision and her knee.

“She had surgery a few weeks ago,” Claire said from somewhere out of Nicole's range of vision. “She shouldn't have been here at all. It's all my fault.”

There were tears in her voice, and anguish.

“We were arguing. She tried to walk away and I wouldn't let her. She slipped on the oil.”

“Relax,” one of the medics told her. “Your sister will be fine. The incision didn't tear, at least not on the outside. They'll check her out internally at the hospital. Her knee's pretty messed up, but that's not fatal.”

He looked back at Nicole. “Ready to take a ride?”

“Not really.”

“I was only asking to be polite.”

They got her on a gurney. As she moved, pain shot through her leg. It was sharp enough to take her breath away. An IV dripped into her arm. She felt as if she'd been run over.

Once they were moving toward the ambulance, Claire rushed over and took her hand.

For once, she looked as bad as Nicole felt. She was crying and not in a pretty way. Her eyes were red, her mouth swollen.

“I'm sorry,” she said over and over again. “I'm sorry. I didn't want anything bad to happen. I just hate that you're mad at me. I love you. You're my sister. I don't want you to die.”

It was all a little dramatic, but kind of nice, in an over-the-top way. Nicole couldn't remember the last time anyone had fussed over her. No, wait. She could. When she'd come home from the hospital and Claire had been waiting to take care of her. Claire, who led with her heart and not her head. Claire, who was holding her hand as if she was never going to let go.

“I'm not going to die,” Nicole told her. “And I don't hate you. You just really piss me off, sometimes.”

“I know. You're not easy yourself.”

“Not being easy is my best quality.”

They loaded her into the ambulance. Claire waved. “I'll drive right behind them. I'll be with you no matter what.”

Words that should have made Nicole want to run to the hills, but oddly, they didn't. They actually made her feel kind of warm and fuzzy inside. Which made her wonder what those medics had put in her IV.

 

W
YATT PUT HIS ARM
around Claire. “Nicole is going to be fine.”

“You keep saying that,” Claire said with a sniff. “No offense, but I want to hear that from a paid professional. Then I'll believe it.”

“She was awake and talking.” He was worried about Nicole, as well, but Claire seemed on the verge of losing it.

“What if she's bleeding internally?”

“What if she's not?”

Claire leaned against him. “Sure, use logic when I'm in a weakened condition. That's hardly fair.”

He wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her close. “I do what I can.”

She felt good in his arms. Under other circumstances, he would have been thinking about that and maybe getting her back into bed. But these weren't other circumstances and they had to talk about what happened.

“I can't believe they're going to have to operate on her knee and that she's going to have another recovery,” Claire said into his shirt. “It's so unfair. It should have been me.”

“You both fell. She got her knee busted up. It was an accident.”

“I know. I just wish—” she sighed “—that we weren't fighting.”

He really wanted to be supportive. That's what a decent guy would do. Support during this crisis. He wouldn't be thinking about his own stuff and wanting to discuss it.

Even so, he found himself saying, “We have to talk about what happened.”

She looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with concern. “What are you talking about?”

“Us. Being together.”

“Oh. I'm fine with that.”

She was so damn calm. “I'm not. You should have told me you were a virgin.”

She smiled. “Oh, Wyatt, don't worry. It was great. I was too embarrassed to tell you. I probably should have mentioned it, but I didn't and everything worked out. You were very gentle.” She drew her eyebrows together. “Is that what you're getting at or do you mean something else? Are you saying you wouldn't have made love with me if you'd known?”

They were alone in the waiting room, but privacy didn't make the conversation easier. “I don't know.”

She leaned back. “Then I made the right decision.”

“By taking away my choice?”

“I don't know if I should laugh or hit you with a chair,” she told him. “You're saying I violated your rights or something?”

This is why men and women should never have emotional conversations, he thought grimly. “There are consequences that should have been anticipated.”