“You try staring at spreadsheets of numbers all day in a chair that kills your back and tell me how bad it is,” I grumble.Her eyes soften at the mention of Dad’s chair.
“What kind of bribe do you think we need to convince Baylor to finally come home?”she asks.
When Baylor finished her degree in accounting, she left our little town.She graduated from college a year after our parents died, and she wanted out.I fought with the need to beg her to stay, but she’s always been fiercely independent.Instead of begging her not to go, I did what a great big sister should do: I supported her.I miss her every single day—we all do—but she’s living her dream, working at some big accounting firm in New York.We see her a few times a year, and it’s not nearly enough.
“Call her and ask her.I’m desperate here,” I reply, only half teasing.I’d love for Baylor to come home and join us in working the family business, but this isn’t the life she wants.Part of me thinks she needed to escape the memories of our parents, and the other half knows she was always going to leave this little town of Magnolia Ridge.
Leighton reaches for her phone and dials Baylor, putting the call on speaker.“My favorite sister,” Baylor answers.
“Hey, brat!”I call out, and her laughter fills the room.
“My other favorite sister,” she coos.
“Uh-huh, and what about Courtlynn?You know we’re going to tell her about this,” I tease.
“You’re all my favorites.Now, what’s up?Are Grandma Ruby and Court okay?You never call at this time of day,” Baylor says, her voice turning serious.
“Everyone is fine—well, everyone but Ellison.”Leighton chuckles.
“What’s up, Ellie?”Baylor asks.
“My back hurts, and my eyes are crossed.”
“What?”she asks, confused.
“She’s complaining about the chair in her office that needed to be replaced at least a decade ago, and she hates doing the books.”Leighton fills in the blanks for her.“So, this is my desperate plea for you to come home and put her out of her misery.What will it take?Manis and pedis for life?Weekly massages?Name your price, dear sister.”
Baylor laughs, causing us to share a smile.“Ellison Moran, you’re amazing at what you do.Buy a new damn chair.We can keep that one, but your body needs to be comfortable when sitting for long stretches.It’s a business expense.”
“It’s not like we can’t afford it,” Leighton says softly.“Just buy the chair, Ellie.Push that one to the corner of the office, and call it a day.”
“I know,” I concede.“I will.I just hate doing anything that erases them.”
“You know that even Dad would have bought another chair by now.”
“Fine.I’ll buy a chair.Now, about these damn spreadsheets full of numbers.What are you going to do about those?”
“You know I don’t mind looking over them.Just send it all over.”
“This is one of those needs to be done on-site kind of jobs,” I tell her.“New York is too far away.”
“I love you, too, big sister,” she says, and I can hear the smile in her voice.
“Hey!”Leighton says.
“Aw, Lei, you know I love you, too.”
“Now, she tells me.”Leighton chuckles.
“How are things, Bay?How’s Todd?”Todd is her long-time boyfriend.She met him not long after she moved to New York, and they’ve been going strong ever since.He’s not the kind of man I pictured my sister ending up with, but he makes her happy.That’s all that I care about, even if he sticks out like a sore thumb the times he’s been here to visit.Let’s just say, the fancy-pants attorney and Magnolia Ridge are not exactly the best of friends.He’s uptight and glued to his phone, and the people of Magnolia Ridge are friendly busybodies.The two don’t exactly mesh well.
“Great,” she says, and the happiness oozes over the line.“Todd is working on a big case, so lots of long days, but he’s close to making partner, and that should slow down.”
Todd’s always working on a case, which is another check in the “not the man I thought my sister would end up with” column.Baylor is a free spirit.She’s friendly, outgoing, and doesn’t know a stranger.She’s a “you can take the girl out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the girl” kind of person.They’re opposites in every way.Sometimes I wonder if he’s not the man she thinks she needs for this new life, this new world she’s created for herself.One of these days, I’m going to dig up the courage to ask her.
“What’s this?I’m the only Moran girl working today, or what?”our youngest sister, Courtlynn, says, walking toward us.Her hair is pulled up in a knot on top of her head, and she has a laundry basket in her hands that looks as if it's filled with freshly washed cloth napkins.
“Hey, Court,” Baylor says through the phone.“These two are trying to bribe me to come home.”
