Page 96 of Theirs for the Holidays

Isabelle smiles, leaning against the fridge casually. “Everything is going according to plan for once. But I’m not here to talk about the wedding right now.”

“You’re… not?”

“Do you think that’s all I want to talk about, Violet?”

I shrug a shoulder, going back to shaping out my dough before the butter gets too warm. “No, but I mean… it’s a big thing, so it makes sense to talk about it a lot. There are a lot of moving pieces, and I know you guys are putting together something special.”

That seems to appease her, and she nods along. “We are. But no, I’m here to see you, actually. I feel like we haven’t talked in a long time.”

“Talked about what?”

“Your life. I’ve been so busy, I feel like I’ve missed so much.”

“There’s not that much going on with me,” I tell her.

She makes a scoffing noise. “Violet, you have three boyfriends from out of nowhere. Clearly we all missed something.”

Right. Of course. Of course it’s about the three of them and not about how things are going at the bakery or anything else to do with me. My relationship status is all anyone in my family cares to think about when it comes to me. I guess it’s a step up from them focusing on my weight, but it’s still annoying.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” I say. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Still, I feel like a bad sister for not knowing the finer details of how you managed to get all three of them. So… spill.”

“There’s not that much to say,” I insist, keeping my eyes on the counter as I shape the scones. “It sort of just… happened. I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I want you to say more than that,” Isabelle replies, sounding impatient. “These things don’t ‘just happen’ without there being some lead up. Especially with three guys all at once. Was it all at once or did you get one and then the other and then other?”

“I…” I cover my moment of not knowing what to say by pulling out a sheet tray so I can start putting the scones that are ready to cool down on it. “It happened so fast, you know?”

The thing is, I know my sister. She’s not going to leave this alone, so I have to say something.

I take a breath and start talking. “I had reached out to Rhett first because I hadn’t seen him in a while, but I didn’t get a response from him. He doesn’t really do social media all that often, so he didn’t see it. Then I saw an article about Lennox’s company online and it made me want to check in and see how things were going. He answered, and we chatted back and forth for a while. I asked him how Sawyer and Rhett were doing, and he told me that they weren’t really on the best terms lately, so I had to reach out to them individually.”

“They did seem chilly toward each other at dinner,” Isabelle admits. “They haven’t been speaking?”

“Not really.”

“But they were fine with all dating the same woman? Doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would work out if they were in the middle of some kind of rivalry.”

“It’s not about rivalry,” I tell her. “You know their mom died, right?”

“Yeah, and?”

“And it fucked things up between them for a while. It’s their business, so I won’t go into it.”

“Whatever. It still doesn’t explain how they’re just okay all dating you. Or how you got all three of them on the hook in the first place.”

It hits me then that Isabelle isn’t asking me this stuff because she wants to know. She’s not even asking because she’s salty that all the attention isn’t on her for once. She’s asking because she doesn’t believe it’s real. She’s trying to poke holes in the story so she can be the sister with the most successful and interesting relationship again.

And that’s so like her. She can’t just let me be happy. Isabelle has to come and try to prove that there’s no way I have what I say I have because in her mind, she can’t imagine a world where this kind of thing happens to me.

The worst part is that she’s right. It’s not like any of this was real to start with, and even though the four of us have taken a big step, that doesn’t make it all real.

But I have to tell her something, or it all blows up in my face.

“They all knew I was talking to all of them,” I tell her. “I made sure of that, so there wouldn’t be any issues. And it was all just friendly catching up at first, so it wasn’t a big deal. They asked about the bakery, and I told them about what was going on in my life.”

“And when did it go from being friendly to being more than that?” she asks.