Page 26 of Little Dolls

“Clara,” Naomi complained.

“Please.”

“Fine. But I still think this is a bad idea,” Naomi grumbled.

“Thank you!” She kissed her sister’s cheek.

“I don’t think that Jonathon Dawson is going to like you messing with his investigation,” Naomi warned.

Clara didn’t want to think about Jonathon right now. He was an added complication in her life that she didn’t need. Once she sorted out clearing Tommy’s name, then she could sit down and evaluate the pros and cons of dating Jonathon. “So?” she aimed for nonchalance but wasn't convinced she achieved it.

Her sister’s smirk confirmed she wasn't fooled by the faked indifference. “So you like him, don’t you?”

“I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Okay, fine. I may be physically attracted to him. So, what? You saw him, he’s good-looking, right?”

Naomi chuckled. “He’s not really my type. And I don’t think you're just attracted to him. It runs deeper than that. I saw the way you reacted when he came close to you. He calms you, comforts you—you must feel something for him.”

“I don’t know. Maybe you're right,” she admitted.

“Not maybe; you know I’m right. You know how you feel. Why are you fighting it?”

“I’m not,” she protested. “I just … I just… Okay,” Clara sighed. “You're right. For some reason, he makes me feel safe. I like that. I just don’t know if I'm at a place in my life right now where I’m looking for something serious.”

“Why not?”

“Why aren’t you?” she retorted.

“I like being alone,” Naomi said seriously.

“Well, so do I.”

Naomi was studying her. “It’s not the same, Clara, and you know it.”

“I worry about you sometimes, Naomi.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Clara,” Naomi said, visibly withdrawing inside herself, she hated to be the center of anyone’s scrutiny.

“Stop it. I'm allowed to worry about you. You're my sister. I love you. I want you to be happy. I don’t want what happened to stop you from being happy. You don’t have to be perfect all the time, Nay. It’s okay to fail sometimes.”

“I don’t need a shrink.” Naomi’s brown eyes had shuttered.

Clara hated when her sister did that. She understood her sister was afraid for anyone to think she couldn’t do something perfectly, but Naomi wasn't perfect—no one was—and the pressure Naomi put on herself was going to end up crushing her. “I’m not being a shrink; I'm being your sister.”

Naomi’s voice softened, “I know you are. I'm sorry. I don’t like to fail. I've failed enough people in my life. I don’t want to fail anyone else. So, Jonathon asked you out?”

Taking the admission as enough for now, Clara resisted the urge to remind her sister that she hadn’t failed anyone and instead allowed the conversation to veer back to herself. “Yes, he asked me out to dinner.”

“And you said no.”

“I said no.”

“Well, next time he asks, say yes.”

“Actually, he said he wasn't going to ask again. He said it's up to me. That if I changed my mind, I knew where to find him.”

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