Most of the time she even agreed with them but not when they criticized her library.
“Bailey and I think we need a break, all three of us,” Nikki was saying. “Chad’s on board and Ricky doesn’t count.”
Ricky was her longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend who pretty much let her do anything she wanted and was always waiting when she returned. That she took advantage of the easygoing man never crossed Nikki’s mind.
Carrie beeped a book and added a worn copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder to the cart. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s plan a winter getaway to somewhere warm and wet. A Christmas gift to ourselves. What do you think of Hawaii?”
“Christmas is still months from now.” She beeped another book.
“Plans, darling. Plans.” Which in Nikki’s world meant planning her wardrobe.
“Hawaii sounds beautiful,” Carrie said hesitantly. “But it’s a long way from here with water in between.”
“That’s the whole point. Water, beaches, shirtless men, getting a tan in the dead of winter.” Nikki circled a finger in the air. “Water’s not a problem. You can swim.”
“Not hundreds of miles across the ocean.”
“Don’t start with that. Flying is safer than riding in a car.”
“Crashing isn’t.”
“We won’t crash. I promise. So what do you say?”
“You know how I hate flying.” Carrie’s pulse got all rickety at the mere mention of stepping on a plane. She’d flown once. Once. And thrown up twice, an experience she never wanted to repeat. “Besides, I don’t think I can take the time off.”
Nikki snorted so loudly, Carrie had to shush her.
“You probably have a hundred years of vacation time coming.”
Tawny whisked past, pausing long enough to say, “Go, Carrie. I’ll cover.”
“Eavesdropper,” Carrie groused.
Tawny tilted a shoulder and grinned.
Nikki’s lips curved in triumph. “There you go. No excuses. The three of us will have such fun. You might even meet a hunky Hawaiian who’ll teach you to surf.”
“Sharks eat people who surf.”
Nikki pursed her lips and got serious. “What’s the deal, Carrie? You don’t want to hang out with your big sisters for a week of fun in the sun?”
Carrie dropped her head back.
“I love the idea of the three of us doing more things together.” She touched her sister’s hand. “Really, Nik. I just...” Hated the idea of hanging over an ocean for hours in a plane held up only by invisible air. Hated the unknown and unexpected, where men lied and people assumed things that weren’t true and left you with a hole in your heart.
She preferred her predictable world of Dewey decimals and alphabetical order.
“I’m saving for a house. A trip to Hawaii is not in my budget.”
“Oh.” Nikki looked deflated. For once, the whirlwind sister had no argument. “I didn’t know you were planning to buy a house.”
That’s because she’d only this moment decided to start saving. Maybe it was time to move forward and stop looking back and dreaming of something that was never going to happen. She was a career woman now. She had a stable, steady income. She certainly wasn’t going anywhere else. Not even Hawaii.
To ease the disappointment on her sister’s face, she said gently, “You and Bailey go. I’ll help Chad with their kids while you’re gone.”
Nikki pouted pink lips. “The whole sister bond thing. Come on, Carrie. Nearly four years have passed since—”
Carrie pointed a finger, expression stern. “Do not go there, Nikki.”
“Then get over it. No one even remembers anymore.”
“You do.”
Nikki huffed. “I wouldn’t if you’d move on and get a life.”
“I am over it. I have moved on. That’s why I’m saving for a house.”
Hers wasn’t Nikki’s or Bailey’s idea of a life, but Carrie had learned to be content. She’d accepted the fact, thanks in large part to “the incident,” that she was as ordinary and uninteresting as a slice of plain white bread. And she was okay with that. Most of the time.
“Go to Hawaii,” she said. “Get a great tan, see a real volcano and a rain forest.” All the reasons Carrie would love to visit Hawaii. “You can Skype me from Waikiki Beach with a hunky Hawaiian on your arm and say, ‘I told you so.’”
Nikki’s eyes squinted in suspicion. “You’re a coward, Carrie Leanne. You’re scared to death to get out of this town and do something. You’re terrified of making the same mistake—”
Carrie quickly interrupted. “Remember when we went to Graceland? That was fun.”
“Out of Tennessee, Carrie.” Nikki rolled her well-mascaraed eyes. “You’re going to spend the rest of your life stuck in this library if you don’t branch out a little. Really, Carrie, don’t you want to meet people?”
“I meet people every day.”
“I meant people as in the single male variety, not the shut-ins and bookworms and computer geeks you meet through the library.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry. But did you see those shoes Maggie had on?”
“No, I didn’t. And you shouldn’t be so shallow as to judge a woman by her shoes.” Carrie fought the urge to glance at her own discount store flats. “Don’t you have a boutique to run?”
Nikki flipped a nonchalant hand. “Bailey’s in the shop today. She can handle the customers.”
Carrie’s two older sisters co-owned the Sassy Sisters Boutique. Nikki coordinated the fashion end while Bailey managed the business details and kept spendthrift Nikki firmly in check. Theirs was the perfect partnership and one they’d tried to interest Carrie in, another case of the oddball sister who couldn’t quite fit.
The week had barely begun and already she’d had too many reminders of how drab and pathetic she was. Like a sharp knife in the throat, she’d never forget the moment she’d accepted the truth. No one needed to remind her ever again.
Yet she knew they would.
“Then you’ll excuse me,” Carrie said. “I have work, even if you don’t.”
“You’re overwhelmed with customers.” Nikki’s index finger bobbed up and down
