“Hi, Rika.” The exchange was stiff and chilly. Darby attempted to warm it. “You look great.”
She did. Her reddish hair was cut in a midlength shag with bangs. She looked like an influencer ready for a shoot in her designer jeans and shirt. Erika had always been cute, but since getting the job as a production assistant in LA, she’d gone from cute to polished. Maybe part of her new look was simply confidence. She was doing what she’d always wanted to.
But she was minus the boyfriend she’d had last time she and Darby had been home together. Ugh.
“Thanks,” Erika said.
Okay, this wasn’t simply standoffish chilly. It was a deep freeze. Who could blame her?
For all appearances, though, it was a happy family dinnerthat evening once Dad came home from work, with some joking back and forth between him and Cole and compliments for Erika and Mom on the pie.
Then came the questions Darby was uncomfortable trying to answer. Like, what had happened to the hotshot copywriter position?
“I thought it was supposed to be such a great job,” Erika jabbed.
It should have been—working for a big-name clothing manufacturer headquartered in NYC. Talk about a dream job.
“It was,” Darby said. “My boss... “Hatedme. Was a jerk. She reined in her anger, knowing the bulk of it needed to be turned on herself. “It just didn’t work out.”
“What are you going to do now?” her father wanted to know.
“I’m not sure.”
“You should come home for good,” Mom said. “You’re too far away out there on the East Coast. Family should be together.”
Darby stole a look at her sister. Erika was concentrating on finishing her pie, in no hurry to second that motion.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Darby said.
At least not that far in the future. She knew what she needed to do while she was home, though, and she had a tough job ahead of her.
After dinner Mom shooed the three siblings out the door. “Go have a good time. But don’t stay out too late. We have things to do tomorrow.”
Yes, cookie baking and tree decorating. And Sunday would be the big neighborhood open house. Oh, goody.
“Let’s go over to Bruno’s,” Cole suggested.
A favorite hangout of the town’s millennials and Gen Zers, Bruno’s offered mile-high burgers and the world’s best onion rings, along with drinks and pool tables. It was Eagledale’s answer to Match.com and the last place Darby wanted to go. She was bound to run into someone she didn’t want to see.
Cole offered to drive. Any excuse to spend time with his beloved, the truck.
“I’m going to stay home,” Erika said once they reached the front hall.
“Come on, don’t be a lemon,” Cole coaxed, slinging an arm around her. Clueless.
She frowned and wiggled out from under him. “You guys have fun.”
“We will. Your loss,” he said. “Come on, Darb.”
When it came to choosing time with her brother and risking a chance encounter with someone she didn’t want to see, or an evening at home with her sister, who was probably already contemplating smothering her with a pillow, Darby opted for going out with her bro.
“Look at this snow,” he said. “They’re expecting four inches at Snoqualmie. Good snowboarding. We should go.”
At least her brother wanted to spend time with her. “Good idea,” she said.
Bruno’s was the same as it had always been—rustic, noisy, and packed with people. The heady aroma of old-fashionedgreasy pub food was almost enough to make Darby forget she’d already eaten.
“Looks like there’s a free table,” Cole said, pointing to one of three pool tables lined up on the far side of the room. “Grab it and I’ll get the drinks.”
