Her Sister's Fiancé

Kathie was so relieved she nearly cried right then and there.

“I can’t believe it!” Kim said over and over again. “I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”

Then Kim was almost crying, too.

“Really. Not ever. The longer you stayed away, the more worried I got. I didn’t think we’d all ever be together again, and I couldn’t stand that idea. I just couldn’t stand it!”

“I know,” Kathie said, her bottom lip trembling.

It had been the worst thing. The absolute worst, right after thinking they all must hate her for what she’d done to her beloved older sister. Thinking that they’d never be a family again, the way they always had been. That she’d be completely cut off from them, and that it was something she deserved…it had been horrible.

She feared she still deserved it, but couldn’t help but think it was so incredibly wonderful to be home, no matter what the circumstances.

“So, it’s all over, right?” Kim asked, nearly begging. “You’re back. To stay. Right?”

“I don’t know,” Kathie said, watching her sister’s face fall into disbelief.

She hadn’t thought about this—about how hard it would be on Kim to have her back and think everything would go back to normal, when all Kathie was doing was trying to fix the mess she’d made as best she could and then disappear again.

“What do you mean, you don’t know? This town is your home. This is where you belong!”

“I know. I just…I’ve never really lived anywhere else, except when I was at college,” Kathie tried. She’d never been the adventurous sort. She was the quiet one. Jax was the charmer. Kate, the smart one, and Kim the beauty. Kathie was the mouse. All she’d ever wanted was to feel safe, right here in Magnolia Falls, in the midst of her loving family, but she had to say something to try to explain herself. “I mean, there’s a whole world out there. You know that. You love to travel. There might be all sorts of places I’d love to live.”

Kim looked unconvinced. She looked hurt, and maybe even mad. Kim who was never mad at her.

“I have to try, you know?”

“No. I don’t know,” Kim complained. “Don’t you love us anymore? Don’t you miss us?”

“Of course, I do.”

“You’re supposed to be getting over everything,” Kim argued. “So that everything can get back to normal.”

“I want that,” Kathie insisted.

Oh, God, she wanted it.

She just didn’t think it was possible.

“It was awful when you left,” her sister said, sitting down on the sofa. “Terrible. It was the worst thing. Mom was gone, and then you were gone, and I just kept thinking, who’s going to disappear next? For months, everybody else kept saying you were bound to come home soon, that you wouldn’t be able to stay away. Not me. I kept thinking, who’s going to leave next?”

“Oh, Kimmie. I’m so sorry!”

One more thing to add to her list of sins against her family.

She took her sister into her arms and held on tight.

Kimmie had been a baby when their father died. She had no memories of him at all, just pictures and the stories they all told her about him. And she’d still been in college when their mother died. Because she was so young, Kathie and her brother and sister had tried harder for Kim than anyone else to make sure she felt safe and secure, a part of a strong, loving family.

But Kathie had just left, not even thinking of how her younger sister would feel about it. Kathie had thought she was trying to save the rest of them by leaving. But Kim just saw it as losing one more person in an ever-dwindling family circle.

Kathie had done even more damage than she thought.

Kim hardly spoke to her the rest of the night. She went to bed early, got up early and left. The school year still wasn’t over in Magnolia Falls, and Kim taught art at the elementary school.

Kathie hid in their apartment for three solid hours, then had to call herself all forms of the word coward just to get herself to go outside and risk seeing anyone she knew.

It was spring in Magnolia Falls, warm and sunny, very, very green, everything smelling fresh and new.

If only Kathie could have started all over again, just wound back the clock, what would she do?

Never fall for Joe. Never have some silly, schoolgirl crush in the first place or have it and get over it, completely, ages ago, like other girls did, so that no one would ever be hurt or ever have to know.

But she couldn’t do that.

Which meant she had to do the next best thing.

She had to fix this as best she could. Make people see that it wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t her sister’s. Move on with the plan, and then get away from here again, even if it killed her this time.

She’d taken the time to fix her hair, put on a bit of makeup and dress in her favorite jeans and a bright yellow top, trying to look as good as she could and not have anyone guess how terrible she felt, how scared, how ashamed, how sad.

She was going to march into the center of town, into the bank where Joe worked and go to lunch with him, in full sight of everyone there, on the street and in the Corner Café, a hotbed of gossip dead-center in town.

Time to get moving with the Joe-didn’t-dump-Kathie-and-Joe-isn’t-the-bad-guy plan.

Which meant she had to look happy to see him, and he had to look happy to see her. Kathie was afraid that might be a problem, so she pulled out her cell phone and called the bank, asking for him.

“May I say who’s calling?” the receptionist asked politely.

Kathie was pretty sure it was Stacy Morganstern, who used to be on the same peewee football cheerleading squad as Kim.

“Stacy? It’s Kathie.”

Stacy gasped. “Kathie Cassidy?”

“Yes.”

“You’re back in town? I hadn’t heard!”

“Just got in last night,” Kathie said. “How are you?”

“Well…fine. Just fine. How are you?”

“Great.”

“Where have you been? Everyone was so worried, and then no one knew, and—”

“Teaching. I was teaching. A temporary position in North Carolina, but it’s over now. Joe brought me home yesterday.”