Page 25 of Nothing Heals Me Like You Do

“I’m seeing my family today,” Sienna said, although she’d only be going over to her mother and Eddy’s house for dinner much later.

“Good.” As though Sienna had just asked her to leave, Justine rose from her chair. “I want to go by the shelter on my way home to check on Ashleigh.” She hadn’t mentioned the shelter in the hour or so since they woke. “She’s in a bad way.” Just like that, the vibe changed. Justine’s thoughts had drifted back to the one thing that mattered to her most.

“Okay.” Perhaps Sienna’s sigh was a bit too obnoxious. “Don’t let me keep you then.”

“Hey.” Justine reached for her hand and tugged at it. “As I said before, you’re really something, Sienna Bright. Really, really something.”

“I guess I’ll see you on set when we start shooting.” They had a week of rehearsals first. Sienna intertwined her fingers with Justine’s despite the shift in mood.

“Alexis might volunteer at the shelter next week to prepare for the role. Is that something you’d be interested in?” Justine asked.

“To do what exactly?” Sienna looked into Justine’s bright-blue gaze, already knowing she’d say yes, regardless of what she’d have to do.

“Basically to just hang out with the residents for a bit. I think it would make a lot of people’s day. So you wouldn’t have to do all that much. Just be there, really.”

“Will you be there?” Sienna grinned.

“I’m pretty much always there.”

“Then I’ll see you at the Rainbow Shelter.” Sienna kissed Justine goodbye—for now.

“Cover your ears, sweetie.” Sienna put her hands over her niece’s ears. “I have to tell your mom something.”

The girl shook herself free. “Why can’t I hear what you have to say to Mom?”

Granted, Sienna hadn’t been very smart about this.

“Do you hear that, pumpkin?” Taissa pointed a finger at her ear. “That’s Grandpa calling you. He needs your help in the kitchen.”

“Okay.” Zara was only six and Sienna didn’t know if that meant she believed the fiction her mother had just invented, but it did mean she sped off to supposedly help Eddy, who loved nothing more than having his grandkids in the kitchen with him—just as he’d enjoyed Sienna and Taissa’s company when they were kids.

“What’s up?” Sienna’s sister asked, a smile already playing on her lips.

“You know that movie I’m about to start shooting?” They were sitting in the backyard of their mother and stepdad’s house, the pool shimmering in front of them.

“Gimme Shelter, about Justine Blackburn, directed by Nora Levine’s girlfriend Mimi St James.”

Of course, Taissa knew—there wasn’t much she didn’t know about her sister’s life.

“I might have, um, slept with the movie’s subject.” Sienna scratched an imaginary itch on her nose.

“No way.” Taissa narrowed her eyes. “You?Youslept with Justine Blackburn?” She made it sound as though Sienna had just told her she’d slept with some mediocre cishet man.

“Twice. One of those times last night, in fact.” Sienna drank from the wine her mother poured generously whenever the family was together.

“Isn’t she, like, in her sixties or something?” That was what Taissa was focusing on? Although Sienna could hardly hold it against her sister.

“She’s fifty-four, Tai.”

“Oh, well, excuse me, then.”

“The first time was okay. I mean, it was hot and unexpected and great, but last night was… it was different. It was still hella hot, but it was more than that. For me, at least.” Sienna knew it was best not to kid herself about last night meaning something more than just sex to Justine. “It had a tenderness to it that surprised me. It was intimacy more than sex, I guess.”

“You felt something?” Taissa asked.

“Yeah,” Sienna admitted, also to herself.

“Are you seeing her again? Not just for the movie, but as a thing between you?” Taissa tapped a finger against her chin, as though pondering the ramifications.

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