Page 102 of Finding Fate

Annie pretended not to hear.

“Annie?” She tried again.

Still nothing.

“Annie!”

“What?!” her sister cried, turning around to give Isabel a furious look that couldn’t fully hide the hurt she was feeling.

“We need to talk.”

“When I’m done,” she responded coldly and returned to her scrubbing.

Isabel didn’t argue. She deserved it. Besides, she had chores to do before their mother came home as well. She went downstairs and opened the closet across from the laundry room, rolling the vacuum cleaner out into the living room to plug the cord into the one socket that she knew would let the machine reach all of the open, carpeted area downstairs.

While she worked, she thought about why they were cleaning. Her grandparents, her father’s parents that she rarely got the chance to see, were coming for an early Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. She wondered what they would say when they saw her. Or did they already know? Could her mother have told them already?

“Probably,”she thought. It wasn’t like her mom to not let the family in on things. Heck, even her aunt, uncle, and cousins over in west Texas probably knew about it. But why shouldn’t they? They were family, Destiny’s family.

Her mom’s mom, Granny Pope, she saw a lot more often and had taken the news pretty well. More of a free spirit, she was even excited to be a great-grandma soon. Isabel hoped Grandma and Grandpa Dearly had reacted, or would react, at least close to that.

In a way, she felt like if she disappointed them, that would mean she let her father down, too. Or if they could accept it well, then that meant her father would have. Like their reactions were somehow tied to what Patrick Dearly thought and felt. It was silly, she knew, but she couldn’t help it.

She was done vacuuming the downstairs before she knew it and had even finished the upstairs hall and Tyler’s bedroom that he’d cleaned yesterday before Annie was done with the bathrooms. All she had left when her sister came looking for her was their bedroom, which was fine with her. She wanted to pick it up a little before she did that room anyway.

“I’m done,” Annie said to her as they met in the open upstairs hall.

“Let’s sit down,” Isabel said, rolling the vacuum into their room so that it would be there when she was ready for it.

Annie walked across their bedroom and straddled their desk chair, biting her lip impatiently, not wanting to sit on her bed since she was covered in sweat and cleaners. Isabel took a seat on the edge of her bed. They were only a few feet apart, but the iciness Annie emitted made it seem like a much further distance.

“Well, talk,” she said when Isabel didn’t speak right away.

She winced. Annie wasn’t usually so intolerant with her patches of silence. “I screwed up.”

Annie snorted. “No kidding.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I hope so.”

“I am.”

“Good. You really hurt me.”

Isabel sighed. “I’d love to say I didn’t mean to, but I did.”

“At least you’re honest.”

“You’d know if I wasn’t.”

“Yeah,” Annie agreed. She was still upset, but her tone was less harsh now.

“I think you should know why I did it.”

“You made it pretty clear when you sent Emma that text earlier.”

She shook her head. “No, that was my excuse, but that wasn’t why.”

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