Sisters by Choice (Blackberry Island #4)(51)

He paused. “Sophie, I know you mean well, but you have to think before you act. You’re not doing Heather or anyone else any favors when you give them a job they can’t handle. It’s not going to end well for anyone, and everyone ends up feeling stupid. How’s it going with your hunt for a sales manager?”

“I’m still looking.”

“Until you get one hired, I’ll put together some basic sales reports. Then we can talk numbers and targets. Anything else?”

She shook her head. Elliot rose and walked out of her office.

She stared after him, doing her best to stay in control. Part of her wanted to go after him and point out that it was her company and she could do what she wanted, only she wasn’t sure that was the smart solution. Elliot hadn’t been mean. He’d been blunt. Even more significant, she had a feeling he wasn’t wrong—about any of it. Or her.

  Pillows flew across the bedroom.

“Na-uh,” JJ yelled. “Take it back.”

“I won’t,” Grant shouted back. “You were talking to a girl. I saw you. You turned all red. JJ has a girlfriend!”

The last sentence was delivered in a singsong tone. Kristine, standing in the hallway, unashamedly eavesdropping, knew it was time to intervene. Or at least offer a distraction. Bedtime was only an hour away, and letting emotions get out of hand would mean a difficult night for all of them.

She walked into the bedroom just as a pillow flew toward the door. She caught it and smiled at her children.

“I’m happy to know you’re not too old for a pillow fight,” she said as if she didn’t know there was more going on.

“Mom, JJ was talking to a girl,” Grant began.

JJ started for his brother. Kristine grabbed him by the back of his collar and brought him to a halt.

“I believe we all talk to girls,” she said calmly. “And boys. Sometimes I talk to my cookies when I’m baking them. Communication is always a plus. Now, who’s ready for some reading? I believe we were about to start book three and we all know that’s my favorite.”

She and the boys were reading the Harry Potter series. They’d seen the movies and she’d read the books to them before, but she was trying something new. Starting with the first book, each of her sons read a chapter aloud at bedtime. Grant was finally reading well enough to join in and she wanted to make reading a positive experience for all of them. Jaxsen wasn’t much of a reader, so he never participated.

Not a huge surprise, she thought, picking up Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Jaxsen rarely did anything he didn’t like.

She felt herself heading down a familiar mental path and managed to put on the brakes. While the boys scrambled to brush their teeth and put on pj’s, she walked into the master bedroom and got on the bed. She sat up against the headboard, the book in her lap.

She and Jaxsen were in a better place and she should be happy about that. The fact that she’d let the whole virgin thing go was the main reason, but she’d known she needed her emotional energy to focus on what she wanted to do with the bakery.

She was working hard on her business plan, figuring out a schedule for when she would work and had even talked to her mother-in-law about whether or not she could help a little more with the boys.

Every now and then she thought about the brief kiss with Bruno. No doubt it fell firmly in the “things not to do” category, but she couldn’t regret it. The brief contact had given her mental clarity when it came to exactly what she wanted from her life, and a different man wasn’t it. Not even one with a private jet. She wanted her husband and her boys, and she wanted her own cookie dream. Surely that wasn’t too much to ask.

“I’m ready,” Grant yelled, running into the room and launching himself onto the bed. He scrambled close and snuggled against her.

Tommy and JJ joined them, Tommy leaning against her other side while JJ stretched across the foot of the bed.

Contentment filled her. This was right, she thought. This was what made her happy. And it was only going to get better.

“I think it’s my turn,” she said, opening the book.

“It is,” Tommy told her and yawned. “I like it best when you read to us.”

“Me, too,” Grant said. JJ nodded.

“Thank you. I like listening to all of you, so it’s good we take turns. All right. New adventure for our boy, Harry.” She turned to the first page and began to read.

  Spring in the Pacific Northwest could be cold and dreary but every now and then, there was a perfect day. Sunday afternoon Heather sat on the beach down by the park, enjoying the sun and the seventy-degree temperatures. The peninsula across the water stood out in sharp relief against the deep blue sky. Waves lapped at the shore. There were tourists, but not enough to get in the way.

Gina lay on her side, baby Noah propped up against her. The little boy was moving his bright yellow truck back and forth on the large beach blanket, making spluttering noises and crashing it into a big green rabbit. Daphne, back from the University of Washington for the weekend, was stretched out on a towel. She had on shorts and a bikini top and swore she could feel herself getting a tan.

“I don’t think you can actually get a tan until like May,” Gina told her. “We’re too far north.”

“I don’t care what science tells us,” Daphne said with a laugh. “I’m going to will it to happen.”