If I Didn't Know Better (The Callaways #9)
Barbara Freethy
One
"I'm not running away," Mia Callaway said forcefully as she looked into her older sister Annie's disbelieving eyes. "I'm helping Mom. She can't clean out Aunt Carly's house with a broken foot, and I have some time on my hands, so I said I would do it."
"You're going to drive five hours down the coast tomorrow to Angel's Bay and spend the summer clearing out Aunt Carly's house, which could probably be on one of those shows about hoarders?" Annie Callaway asked doubtfully.
"It can't be that bad."
"Aunt Carly has been collecting junk for forty years."
"I doubt she would call souvenirs from her travels—junk," she said defensively.
"What happened to your job?" Annie asked. "You worked so hard to get that position at the museum. It was perfect for you. And what about Grayson? I thought he was the perfect guy."
Mia sighed. "He definitely turned out to be less than perfect. It's too long of a story to get into now."
They were standing on the sidewalk in front of her cousin Nicole's house, where a huge combined bridal/baby shower was about to begin. At least two dozen Callaway females were waiting inside, and she did not need that kind of attention on her now somewhat dismal life.
She opened the passenger door of her car and grabbed her two presents, then tipped her head toward the house where balloons adorned the porch railing. "The party is starting. We should go inside."
"We have a minute," Annie said, tucking a strand of her long, dark red hair behind her ear. Unlike Mia, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, Annie had inherited her mother's red hair and green eyes. Those eyes were now staring at her with stubborn determination.
Mia had thought she'd get the most pointed questions from her mother or her twin sister Kate, but her mom's fractured ankle and Kate's FBI training, had apparently kept their focus elsewhere. Annie, who, at twenty-nine, was three years older than Mia, rarely kept that up-to-date with her life. Nor did her three brothers who probably had no idea she'd lost her job or her boyfriend. But that was a good thing.
Being the baby in the family, she'd grown up under the protective eye of two parents and five siblings, and she was more than a little tired of being under their microscope, which was another good reason for going away.
"I'm not going inside until you tell me what is going on with you," Annie said, determination in her eyes. "I'm worried about you, Mia. Kate is the one I expect to go off on a whim or some crazy adventure, not you. You've always had your act together, a solid plan, a list of goals. So what is the deal?"
"There's nothing to worry about, Annie. Things didn't work out with Grayson, and I decided to leave the museum." She'd actually been asked to leave, but she didn't need to get into that. "I'll find another job, but I could use a break. I've been working nonstop for the last four years." Actually, she'd been working nonstop her entire life: buried in books, chasing goals, trying to be the smartest person on the planet, or at least her family, only to find out she'd been about as dumb as anyone could be.
"What did Grayson do?" Annie asked, a sharp, speculative gleam in her eyes. "And don’t say it was nothing."
"I don't want to talk about Grayson. This day is about Nicole and Maddie. Let's focus on making their party special."
Since her cousin Nicole was about to give birth in three weeks, and Maddie Heller was set to marry Mia's cousin Burke in a month, the family had decided to throw a combined bridal/baby shower. With so many Callaways celebrating so many happy events these days, it had become necessary to put some of them together.
"Fine, I won't press you anymore right now," Annie said. "But I'm still not sure going to Angel's Bay is a good idea. It's so far away. And what is there to do?"
"Clean out Aunt Carly's house."
"That doesn't sound too exciting. I still feel like you're running away from something, and I hope you know you can talk to me. I realize I haven't been the most attentive big sister, spending all my time at work, but I am here for you."
"I know that. Stop worrying. I loved visiting Aunt Carly in Angel's Bay. I can't wait to get back there. The beach is wild and beautiful. I love the shipwreck legend and the angel stories. Plus, I want to take care of Aunt Carly's house. She's the one who gave me my first set of paints. She told me stories that made me love art and history. I'm really going to miss her. We had a special bond."
"I'm going to miss her, too, not that she and I were as close as the two of you were, but she was always fun when she came to visit."
"Usually on her way back from a trip somewhere."
"Crazy Aunt Carly," Annie said with a smile. "She and Mom might have been sisters, but they were as different as night and day."
Mia nodded. Her mother was a hard-working nurse who'd married a firefighter and raised six kids. Her Aunt Carly had never married, although she'd had numerous lovers, as she liked to call them, and she'd traveled all around the world.
Carly had died a few weeks earlier when she was on a boat that capsized in the Indian Ocean. It was difficult to believe she would not come home with yet another great story to tell. But at least she had died having the time of her life. What more could anyone ask?