Page 48 of Wild Bliss

“She raised you to be scared,” Elisa pointed out. “Shewanted you to take care of her. She knew I would leave, but she thought shecould keep you around to be her caretaker. So she taught you to be afraid.”

Sabrina’s gut tightened even thinking about her mom. “And tonot trust my own instincts. To not believe anything good could happen to me.And when you got cancer after she died, I felt like she was right.”

“It was bad timing,” her sister said quietly.

“No. It was great timing because it was caught early andyou’re safe and healthy today. That’s what I figured out. Mom only looked atthe bad things that happened and not how we could make it better, learnsomething, grow from how we handle the tough times. She constantly turned in onherself.” Sabrina had been to a therapist when Elisa had first been diagnosedand she’d known her time as caretaker wasn’t over yet. She’d nursed her mom andthen sister, and talking about how she felt had helped open her eyes. Sheunderstood why she’d done the things she’d done in the past. “Our grandparentsweren’t warm and loving. She didn’t have any siblings. She was alone and shelearned to be that way, learned to think bad things happened because theuniverse wanted them to happen to her. It’s an odd form of control. A way tomake things all about herself so she never had to worry about anyone else.”

Elisa’s head shook. “If the universe is out to get her,what’s she really going to do about it? That’s not control. It’s anunwillingness to put in any effort to change.”

“Sometimes change isn’t possible. I like to think Mom’saffair with Mel was her trying to change.” Meeting Mel had been a revelation.She would never have imagined her mother with a man so kind. “He’s so unlikethe men she was normally attracted to, and I’m not talking about the alienstuff. Mel is kind and caring. He’s thoughtful.”

“And he scared her. She wasn’t used to having someone openlycare about her and she didn’t trust it, and then she was pregnant,” Elisaadmitted.

“You know she once told me she never wanted kids.” It hadbeen a late-night revelation a few months after her mother’s initial diagnosis.

Elisa huffed. “Great thing to tell your kid.”

Sabrina shrugged. “She’d had a couple.In vino veritas.The point is, she had you and then she had me. She never loved my bio dad butshe went out of her way to be with him. I wonder if there wasn’t an act of hopein that.”

“In dating a dude she didn’t love and having a child withhim when she knew it wouldn’t work out?” Elisa asked, brow rising.

Her sister didn’t connect emotional dots well. “In givingyou what she never had. A sister.”

Elisa stopped, her jaw tightening. “You think she had you sowe would have each other?”

It might have been the kindest thing her mother had everdone. “I think it’s possible. I like to think it’s the one hopeful thing shedid. We were left with very little, and then you got the diagnosis and wedidn’t break. Why didn’t you break?”

A faint stain pinkened her sister’s cheeks, a sure sign shewas getting emotional. “Because I couldn’t let you down.”

Sabrina’s answer was the same. “I didn’t break because Icouldn’t let you down either. So here’s where we make the choice. You alreadydid. You chose not to let the past hold you back. You chose to embraceeverything you found here in Bliss. No matter what happens in the future. I’mdoing the same. I’m embracing this new family you brought me into with so muchgratitude. I can’t tell you what it felt like to have Dad pick me up.”

Even though it had sucked to leave Wyatt and Sawyer early,knowing Dad cared enough to come get her had warmed her heart.

“Because no one ever did it for you before,” Elisa said witha sigh. “Because Mom would have told you to suck it up, but Dad would neverleave you alone if he had the choice.”

“And I’m not his biological child.” Yet he’d accepted her soeasily. Far more easily than either of her bio parents.

“I don’t think that means much here,” Elisa pointed out.“What I’ve found is Bliss is a place where people go when they need somethingdifferent. Where blood isn’t the only way to make a family. Where we can be whowe are, and as long as we’re kind we’ll be accepted.”

It was why she loved it here. “Yes. It’s kind of likeparadise, though sometimes the locals don’t understand what a good thing theyhave.”

A laugh huffed from her sister. “We’re back to Sawyer.”

Yep. They were back to Sawyer. “I understand so many thingsabout him, but not this. Why does he think people don’t like him? I guess thebetter question is do people like him?”

Elisa thought before she answered. “From what I’ve beentold, Nate didn’t understand the reasons he was in the MC before. Nate used tobe a DEA agent, and he spent years embedded in an outlaw MC. It was rough onhim, so when he found out Sawyer was a former member of one of the worst clubshe had to deal with, Nate wasn’t exactly friendly.”

Sawyer did seem hesitant around law enforcement. Wyatt oddlydidn’t. “And now?”

“Now, he’s had a couple of years to calm down, and Sawyer’shelped on some cases,” her sister explained. “He also helped out one of theformer deputies, Marie’s son, Logan. He got into trouble a few years back. Ithink it was serious, and Sawyer came through for him. Nate won’t talk aboutthe specifics, but he thinks Sawyer is a solid guy now. And Nate thinks Wyattis a goofball who had zero business being in an MC in the first place.”

“He didn’t have a choice.” Sabrina wondered how he’dsurvived a couple of those years. He told her he’d been initiated at eighteen,and it had gone downhill from there.

“We all know that.” Elisa sat back, crossing one leg overthe other and regarding her sister seriously. “But you should know the pastcomes back and bites us in the ass when we least expect it. Be ready for it,and know you have a family around you. We’ll be there for you no matter what.”

Which was why this could work. “I know, and it’s why I’mfollowing my instincts.”

“Is your instinct to take no from Sawyer?” Elisa asked.

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