Falling for his Step-Sister by Alie Garnett

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Six weeks later,and so much had changed. Buzz was back to being employed, if you could call it that since it was a petty job from Kaine and his Marketing Director/sister-in-law, Bex Carter. It was going better than she had thought it would. So far, she had made seven press releases, and all had been run in the paper she had nearly begged to get something printed at for over a year.

It should have made her feel ecstatic, but she couldn’t bring herself to be happy. It was just a reminder that she couldn’t do it by herself.

Sera had moved out and surprisingly stayed out, though Emma had moved back in five times. Each time, her dad had moved her back in with them—no lecture at all. The transition had been rough on them all, it seemed. Harper and Maby were staying at their new homes more and more. Over the last week, neither had stayed at the house overnight.

On a positive note, Agatha hadn’t spent one night away from the house. So far, she hadn’t found a new job, and nobody was telling her she needed one. Buzz thought that she was just as freaked out about the situation of there only being three of them living in the house as she was. They didn’t talk about it, though, because that would be admitting something.

Lucy had quit working with Harper completely since the wedding. Not slow and gradual, but abruptly. Harper was now hiring more people to help her, not relying on family at all. That included another chef and four wait staff. Lucy and Harper were not talking about it; in fact, they weren’t talking about anything anymore. Their once-close friendship had ended, and without the big blow-up Buzz had always thought would end it. Just a puff, and it was gone.

That meant the entire household had changed. There was almost no laughing, and barely anyone talked. Life had changed.

Or maybe nothing had changed, just how Buzz saw it. Her ambition and drive for life were gone. She had fallen in love for the first time in her life, and it had been with the wrong person, the wrong man.

A knock on the door made her groan. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, she didn’t want a lecture, and she didn’t want company.

“What?” she barked in anger.

Instead of an answer, Harper poked her head in the door and looked at her. “Want to talk?”

“No.” She closed her eyes and regretted staying in Harper’s room. She should have moved to the master weeks ago, but that would require ambition, and her’s was gone. Instead, Lucy had moved in and was never going to leave now.

“Too bad.” Harper barged into the room and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over Buzz and blowing on her face until she opened her eyes in annoyance. “Talk to Harps about it, Buzzy.”

“Just leave me be.” Buzz pushed her way from her.

“It’s either talk or kick you out of my room.”

“Does Kaine know about your attachment to this room? Shouldn’t you be attached to his bedroom?”

“Oh, he knows of my attachment to his room and him, but he knows why I keep this one. We talk about stuff.” Harper shrugged.

“No, you do not.”

“Well, we do now. I’ve let him in, and now he knows way too much. Hell, he can even predict what I’m going to say sometimes. It’s annoying as hell.” She scrunched up her face at the admission.

“He shared a womb with Mom. Isn’t that weird for you?” Buzz tried another tactic that was sure to piss off the blonde and send her away.

“I expected better from you, now that you’ve dipped into that same pool—and liked it,” Harper rambled and then stopped and touched Buzz’s chin with her finger. “Loved it and him.”

“Don’t remind me. I have to get over him and get on with my life.”

“How’s work? Bex won’t say,” Harper said.

Buzz didn’t know if it was because Harper wouldn’t ask or because Bex really wouldn’t tell her. The two had gotten off on the wrong foot and had yet to become more than enemies, even if they were married to siblings. Everyone else got along with both of them equally.

“Good, it’s a job. I think I’m doing well at it. Bex is fun to work with; she really knows her stuff, even if she only just started as the director. Yesterday, Arabella brought in the twins. They’re adorable,” Buzz gushed.

“They are. Can you believe I have three nieces and nephews? Harper shook her head at the thought.

“Do you think Maby and Cliff or Mom and Harrison will start first?” Buzz wondered out loud.

Harper winked and said, “Sera is actively working on it, so I say them. But Maby has surprised me on enough occasions, so I wouldn’t put it past her.” Then she added, “Have you heard from Lou or Frankie?”

“Louisa calls every so often. Never Frankie. But they’re together and doing okay. Louisa might try school again in the fall. Not in literature this time, but marketing. I told her to come back here for it since Judith is gone, and we have a bedroom. We could teach her to be a Lovely. From what she tells me, Frankie already is one, though Frankie is a computer nerd, so she’s a little different from us.”

“What does she say about Judith?” Harper asked.

“Nothing, and I don’t ask. She’s going through a lot right now, and probing her about Judith won’t help that. Hurting her to make me feel better just doesn’t feel right,” Buzz admitted. She longed to know things, but the younger girl wasn’t ready to be asked yet. Maybe in time.

“What do you want to know?”

“Just stuff.”

“Like what?” Harper pulled her feet under her, getting comfortable.

“Like, why did she leave? I don’t remember her leaving. Did she say goodbye? Did she take one last look at us before she left? In my heart, I always thought she didn’t want to go but was forced to. That there were things beyond her control that made her leave us behind—for our safety or something. Like a movie.” Buzz smiled at the thought, except after meeting the woman, she knew that it was just selfishness that made her leave.

“I think she just got what she wanted and walked away. A month before she left, she got her doctorate. I remember Dad celebrating it; we had a cake and everything,” Harper said. All these years, she had known, but Buzz had never asked, afraid of the answer. “I think she used Dad for a free education. She was here for around ten years, just about the right amount of time for it. I don’t know if Dad realized.

“I had always thought that if we ran into each other, she would hug me and tell me why she left, then apologize for what she did to me and to everyone. But when she knew it was me, she told me to leave. She didn’t care that it was me and wanted me out of her life again.” It had hurt at the time, and it still stung.

“She didn’t say goodbye; she just walked out the door and never came home. She didn’t love anyone, Buzzy. Not even Lou got her real love. She just used her to get what she wanted. George had money, and Judith wanted that. I don’t even know if Louisa is his. Seems convenient that she got pregnant,” Harper mused.

“You don’t know that. You’re just making it up.”

“I am, but it’s the only way I can explain why she stayed. If there hadn’t been money, she would have walked away from Louisa years ago. It seemed after she found George, she wasn’t able to shake Frankie. I wonder if she ever thought to drop her off here. We would have taken her in. I mean, it’s not like we were all Bradford’s anyway,” Harper stated as she shrugged.

“Who’s not Dad’s?” Buzz asked, sitting up. It was something nobody ever brought up, but it was always there.

“Agatha for sure,” Harper said, and then tapped her fingers on Buzz’s stomach for a while, like she was thinking. “And others maybe.”

“Me, right? You don’t think I am Dad’s?” Buzz demanded in anger, swatting her hand away from her stomach. Why would it be obvious that she wasn’t Bradford’s? Red hair was a recessive gene that would show up anywhere, anywhere!

Harper got defensive right away. “I did not say that. I said others. Others could be anyone.”

“You?” she questioned her oldest sister.

Harper used her “know it all” voice to explain. “Well, I am the first born, historically called the one that was surely his.”

“Historically, my ass. Maybe he just took you in when Mom came. Ever think about that? That he married her, knowing that you were not his and decided to raise you anyway?” Buzz pointed out.

“Um, no. That’s not true.” Harper shook her head in denial.

“No, no, this makes sense. You’re named after an adult fiction writer, then Lucy a youth, and Maby is a youth illustrator, then me, another youth,” She pointed to herself. “And Agatha is back to adult. Pattern says you and Agatha are the ones not his.”

“Except he was not a children’s lit professor; he was adult, making Agatha and me the sure bets.” Harper pointed out with a smugness only she could pull off during this discussion.

“Except you pointed out Agatha was not, so your theory is flawed,” Buzz argued.

“What theory?” Agatha asked from the door. “The one that involves me.”

“Nothing, Agatha. I just said you are not,” Harper hissed at her sister, causing Agatha to come further into the room.

“Paternity, who can claim Dad,” Buzz said, and Harper slapped Buzz’s hip.

“Oh, that. That’s easy,” Agatha said and turned to leave.

“Stop and tell us then!” Harper jumped up, grabbed her, and pulled her back into the room.

“Only two of us can claim that they share a father,” Agatha stated with confidence. Like everyone should know the information.

Harper sat up straight and demanded, “Did Mom tell you that? How do you even know?”

Agatha smiled. “Because I have spent my life with you people. I know you better than you know yourself.”

“So, me and you then, Agatha? My theory stands. Sisters forever!” Harper shot her hands in the air, proclaiming victory.

Agatha laughed at her reaction and shook her head. “You think we share a father but not the identical twins?”

“So, nobody?” Buzz surmised, because the twins, of course, shared a father. Even Judith couldn’t break that rule.

“And nobody is Dad’s. He knew it the whole time, but Judith had something over him that made him accept every one of us. Not love us, but accept us. Then he walked away the moment he felt he could.”

“How do you even know?”

“Dad told me.” She shrugged, as if their dad had been all chatty about things.

“You are such a liar. I can’t even believe I believed you for even a second. You were eleven when he left. Why would he tell you anything?” Harper demanded of Agatha.

“Because I asked why none of us looked alike. He answered,” Agatha said and headed for the door. “If you want him as your daddy, he is. Because he’s as close as you will ever get to your actual one.”

With that, Agatha was out the door and stomping up the steps to her room, the heavy footfalls announcing to the house that she was not accepting company for the rest of the evening.

“Do you believe her?” Buzz asked.

“I don’t know. Probably. Then again, it doesn’t matter. Like she said, there isn’t going to be some guy who will actually want the job now.”

“Do you think he thinks about us as much as we think about him?” Buzz asked, sitting back on the bed, realizing how much time she had spent wondering about her birth parents over the years.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Harper turned to her.

“Do you think he would have been happier never knowing about his kid? That it was just something that tied him to a woman he hated and nothing else? Just a reminder of a bad time? One he couldn’t even bring himself to love?” Buzz whispered, a tear slipping from her eye as she curled into a ball on her bed.

“Buzzy, what are you talking about?” Harper sat back down.

“I’m pregnant, and I know the father hates me—hates me a lot. He’s going to hate the baby too, just like Dad did.” She wiped away the tears in anger.

“Or he could be waiting for you to make the first move because he’s as scared of rejection as you are. Baby Buzzy makes the perfect excuse to reach out.” Harper tapped Buzz’s stomach again.

“He isn’t. You didn’t see his eyes when he said I was just like Judith. He hates me, and he’s right. I am just like her.” Buzz buried her head in the pillow.

“You are if you never actually tell a man he is the daddy and give him the option of being a daddy. Because in twenty-some years, do you want your daughter to be having this same talk with someone about who her dad is and if he loved her or even wanted her? Or if her mom robbed her of that relationship for being scared?” Harper started to braid Buzz’s hair as she talked. It was something she used to do before Sera came to live with them.

“I’m not scared. I know the answer,” she admitted but didn’t move. If she moved, Harper would stop.

“Then do the right thing and tell him. If he doesn’t want the baby, have him put that on paper. Baby Buzz is going to want proof someday. After all, she is the daughter of a great reporter.” Harper’s fingers stopped braiding and pulled her hair until Buzz had to slap her hands away.

“You’re right. Legally, I have to give him an out.” Buzz nodded; she had to let him decide, let him be the one to reject his child. She couldn’t do that for him.

“Of course, I’m right; I’m Harper.” She slapped Buzz on the ass and walked from the room. Then poked her head back in and added, “I put some leftovers in the fridge for you swinging singles.”

With that, Harper was gone, and the house was silent again. Lucy was either out or quiet in her room. Agatha was in her room, but just as quiet.

Buzz headed down to the couch and TV to get away from the suddenly too quiet house. She was starting to dislike the house for its constant silence. She missed what it used to be like, even if she had no place to sleep. At least then, there was no silence.