Frankie went still, her sandwich in her hands, just hovering in front of her. Happy, sad, or just shocked, Harper couldn’t quite read her.
“Either of them in jail?” Harper asked. Probably not a nice thing to say but the sugar had kicked in and she was well past caring. This was still the woman who’d made the bad decisions that had resulted in their lives being upturned.
“No,” Shar said sharply. “Tabitha is a stay-at-home mom. She has a daughter and twin boys. She’s very active in their schools.” She lifted her chin slightly. “Her husband is an airline mechanic.”
“And your son?” Harper asked.
“Trevor is a plumber. He does very well for himself. His wife is a dental hygienist. They have one boy, Hunter. Great baseball player. Might even go pro.” Shar looked pleased with herself. Or maybe it was pride in her children. Herotherchildren.
They all sounded nice enough. And normal enough. Harper still had no real desire to meet them. She felt disconnected from it all. Like it was happening to someone else. Like it wasn’t really about her or Frankie.
“My kids have cousins,” Frankie said suddenly. She placed her sandwich back on her plate, wiped her hands on her napkin, and nudged Harper. “How about that? We have siblings and my kids have cousins.”
Harper nodded. “Yep.” She understood Frankie’s enthusiasm. Somewhat. But she definitely didn’t share it.
She put her quarter of the sandwich down on the paper placemat and took another bite of the pie. The ice cream was melting, so she might as well eat it. And it was infinitely more interesting than what was happening at the table.
“Don’t you think that’s cool?” Frankie asked.
“I think it’s something.” Harper shrugged. She really didn’t want to rain on Frankie’s parade, but she wasn’t good at lying. There was no point in that anyway. “If your kids are interested, then I think it’s great for them.”
“Don’t you want to meet our siblings?”
Harper held her tongue. She hadn’t wanted to meet their mother and Frankie knew that. She tempered her words with as much neutrality as she could. “Maybe someday but this is a lot for me to take in. I need some time.”
“Sure,” Shar said quickly. “I can understand that. You both probably need some time. There’s no rush.”
That seemed like an odd response. Something niggled at Harper’s thoughts. A sense of reluctance on Shar’s part? Harper looked at her, trying to read her. “Did you tell them about us? Do they know?”
“That I was coming here to meet you? Or that I had other children?”
“Either,” Harper said, holding Shar’s gaze.
Shar looked away, returning to her sandwich. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish all of this.”
The change of subject seemed to be a pretty clear answer. Harper sucked in air. “You didn’t tell them, did you? They have no idea, do they?”
Shar pursed her lips. “I thought I should see how this meeting went first. It’s a lot to explain to someone that they have family they never knew about. Tabitha and Trevor have great lives. I didn’t want to—”
“Upset them?” Harper’s anger was back. “Or did you really just not want to tell them about your shady past?”
“Harper,” Frankie said quietly.
Harper shook her head. “Wow. This is…” She swallowed, trying to keep her voice down and her anger under control. The café was a nice place. The owners didn’t deserve a scene. She glanced at Frankie.
Tears trickled down her face.
Harper grabbed her sister’s hand. Nothing else mattered except that Frankie was okay. But she wasn’t. She was obviously hurting. Obviously upset that this woman hadn’t cared enough about them to talk about them to their siblings. “Hey, I’m right here. We’re just fine. We have each other. Always.”
Frankie sniffed and gave a little nod before looking at Shar. Frankie’s eyes held a lot of pain. “How could you not tell them about us? Didn’t we matter to you?”
“Of course you mattered to me. I just didn’t think—I don’t know, it was hard, and—I meant to.” Shar frowned. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
“No, I guess we don’t. And neither do they.” Harper raised her hand and got the server’s attention. The woman came over right away. “Can we get some to-go boxes and the check? One check for us, one for her.” She pointed at Shar.
The server gave them a nod. “I’ll be right back.”
She was quick, returning shortly. She dropped off the boxes, put both checks on the table. Harper pulled her credit card out and handed it to the server. She picked up Harper’s check and took her credit card and went to run it.
