“Thank you, but… only the second most-wonderful? I must be slipping.”
“No, you’ve been one-upped.”
“Oh? By whom?”
“You’re lookin’ at her.” I sat back and put my arm around Christy, who looked up at me in surprise.
Dad burst out laughing. “That’s my boy!”
Leah and Mark arrived about an hour later. He carried two brown paper grocery bags into the kitchen and set them on the counter.
“Great to see you, Mark.” We shook hands.
“You too, man.” He pulled me into a hug. “You look great, as usual.
Merry Christmas.”
“You too. Merry Christmas. Hey, Leah. How’s it going?”
“Good. Don’t I get a hug too?” She glanced at Christy. “Do you mind?”
“No, not at all.”
Leah gave me a sisterly hug and then stepped back. Any other time she probably would’ve kept her arm around my waist.
“I know you’ve met,” I said to her and Christy, “but I don’t seem to do a good job of introducing people.”
“In your defense,” Leah said, “you were a bit distracted last time.”
Christy nodded.
“Right. So, Christy Carmichael, meet Leah Coulter. Leah, Christy.”
The girls shook hands.
“It’s nice to meet you again,” Leah said with a personable smile. “Erin’s told me so much about you.”
“For real this time,” Erin chimed in.
“Nice to meet you too,” Christy said. “Again. And I’m sorry I was so rude last time.”
“To be honest, I was so upset that I barely remember,” Leah said. “I do remember you storming out of the room, though.”
“It wasn’t personal. I… wasn’t very happy at the time.” She shot me a quick glance, but Leah caught it and smiled.
“Lemme guess,” she said, “it had to do with Paul.”
“Sort of, but not really,” Christy admitted. “It had more to do with me…
um… not getting… I mean…” She finally gave up. “You explain it, Paul.
You’re better with words.”
“She had a crush on me,” I said, “and I was clueless.”
“Gee,” Erin said, “imagine that.”
I ignored her and continued, “Worse, I was a jerk about it. Well, that and other things.”
“I totally understand,” Leah said to Christy. “He’s a big goof sometimes, isn’t he?”
“A total dweeb,” Erin agreed.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Christy said with a smile as she thrust her arm
through mine. “I think he’s coming around nicely.”
Leah’s own smile shifted to me. “She’s wonderful, Paul. And…” She paused to consider her next words before she looked at Christy. “Erin says you know about Paul and Gina. Recently, I mean. So—”
Christy stiffened with sudden wariness.
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Leah promised. “It’s just that she wanted me to tell you something.”
“Okay,” Christy said neutrally.
“She said she loves Paul dearly, but she heard something in his voice when he was talking about you. She said she can’t compete with that, and she hopes you’re very happy together.”
Christy blinked in surprise.
“She’s serious,” Leah said. “I know her better than anyone, and she really wants you to be happy.”
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, she did make me swear to threaten you if you hurt him. She says she has a ‘posse of chicas’ who’ll do anything she wants. So,” she finished with a grin, “you’ve been warned.” Then she gave me a faux-stern glare.
“She told me to tell you not to screw this up like you did with her.”
“Doing my best not to,” I said.
“Good.” Leah smiled at Christy again. “She said she’d like to meet you sometime, but only if you want to. She totally understands if you don’t.”
“No,” Christy said immediately, “I’d like that.” She glanced at me. “If it’s okay with you.”
“What do you think?” I asked Leah.
“Honestly? I think she means it. I dunno what you said to her, but you know how she is.” She explained to Christy, “She’s my sister, so we fight sometimes, but she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She isn’t scheming or vindictive or anything like that.” She added a reproachful look and said,
“Not like some people Paul dated.”
“Kendall wasn’t that bad,” I grumbled.
“Yes, she was!” “She was terrible!” Leah and Erin cried at the same time.
“You were the only one who didn’t see it,” Erin added. “She was a total
—”
“Hey! Kendall’s a complicated person,” I said. “Some good, some bad, like anyone else, me included. And she’s still a human being. How would you like it if I talked about you that way? Huh? So lay off Kendall. Yeah, she
has her faults, but she’s still a good person. You don’t have to be friends with her, but that doesn’t mean you can cut her down either.”
“He’s right,” Mark said. “I don’t even know this Kendall, but you shouldn’t talk that way about anyone.”
“I’m sorry,” Leah said contritely.
“Yeah, me too,” Erin added.
Mark gave me a supportive look and then completely defused the tension.
He held out a hand to Christy and said, “Mark Douglas. Nice to meet you.
Leah and Erin have told me a little about you, but I’m dying to hear more. So, you’re from California?”
She shot me a half-bewildered look but then turned back to Mark. “Not originally,” she said. “We moved there when I was a baby. I was born in Virginia.”
Mark chatted easily with Christy as he unpacked bottles and four-packs of wine coolers from the grocery bags. Erin went to fetch shot glasses from the wet bar, so I moved closer to Leah and lowered my voice.
“Thanks for making Christy feel welcome,” I said.
“My pleasure. Gina says hello, by the way.”
“Say hello back.” I paused to make sure Christy was paying attention to Mark before I asked, “Did she really say those things?”
“She did. I swear to God. She wants to see you too, but only if Christy knows.”
I nodded.
Leah glanced at me and studied my face. “You’re really happy with her, aren’t you?”
“I am,” I said simply.
“Well… I knew it had to happen sooner or later. She sounds wonderful.
Erin is totally in love.” She rolled her eyes. “You know how she is. She’ll be thirty before she settles down.”
“She has high standards.”
“No kidding. But she’s happy enough for now, especially since I’m willing to share Mark. Happy at home too, now that she and your mom are getting along better.”
“How about you? You and your mom doing okay?”
“We are. She still drops comments about me becoming a doctor, but she knows I’m serious about journalism. Besides, she has Kara and Gina. Two out of three isn’t bad, right?”
“Three out of three,” I said firmly. “Three awesome daughters: smart, beautiful, and determined.”
“You’re biased.”
“True. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
Her eyes crinkled with affection. Then they relaxed and she studied Christy for several heartbeats. “How much does she know? About us?”
“You and me? Or the group secret?”
“Both.”
“She knows we’ve slept together. And she notices a lot more than I give her credit for, so I’ll probably be answering some questions tonight. As far as the other thing… she doesn’t have a clue.”
Leah arched a dark eyebrow. “Do you really think you can make it work?
With her? If she’s not… one of us?”
“Believe it or not, I think she’ll come around. Wren thinks so too.”
Leah nodded speculatively.
“We’re taking things slow, though. One baby step at a time.”
Erin returned and saw that we were talking, so she joined the others and added another distraction in case Christy turned our way.