He smiled, remembering their awkward encounter earlier that morning, Rylie’s cheeks flushing with embarrassment from falling in the spilled garbage. She was the innocent in all this drama with Carlie, yet he’d treated her badly. He hadn’t thought about how Rylie’d felt when he dropped their friendship. She’d suffered for her sister’s actions. But Rylie was a sweet person and deserved to be treated better.
People who didn’t know her well might think she was prickly, since sarcasm was a frequent means of communication. But he enjoyed their verbal spars, especially knowing the tender heart she protected with her sharp words. From the way she’d talked that morning, he assumed she was single, though surely she must’ve been married at some point. Guys would have to be blind not to see how beautiful and smart she was. He supposed her serious expression might scare some men away. She needed a man with gumption.
His mind ran through a short list of prospects, single men he worked with. He quickly discarded the idea—none of them were good enough for Rylie.
He and Rylie had been really good friends at one point, born of a mutual interest in computer engineering. In fact, when they’d first met, he’d considered dating her. But then he’d met her sister. Carlie was his opposite in every way—extroverted, funny, bubbly, never serious about anything. She melted his cares away with every burst of laughter. With Carlie around, he'd totally disregarded his bone cancer and the fact that it could come out of remission at any moment, this time not to take a limb, but to claim his life. Carlie’s sunny attitude had made him feel immortal. And when she left, the sun went with her.
He adjusted his stride as the trail started a downward incline.
Why had Carlie showed up in his life at such a critical time? It couldn’t be a coincidence. Was it possible this was a sign from God? Was it possible he and Carlie might pick up where they left off?
His forehead formed beads of sweat that had nothing to do with his physical exertion.
He had to put Carlie out of his mind. No time for distractions. Nothing else mattered right now. Not the pending deal with Personics Corporation. Not his relationship with Carlie. Only finding a way to bring Gabriel to the States before it was too late.
By the time Rylie had taken her shower and put a load of laundry in the wash, Carlie had emerged from her bedroom and stretched out in her usual place on the couch, still wearing her PJs.
“There’s nothing good on TV,” Carlie said, punching the button on the remote at a such a rapid pace the changing images and bursts of sound made Rylie’s head hurt. Though maybe she shouldn’t blame that on Carlie. It might’ve already been hurting from her incident with Jarrett. Just her luck, when she finally saw him again for the first time in nine years, she was on her hands and knees in a pile of putrid garbage. How unfair that Carlie would get advance warning, so she would look great when she saw him at the party tonight.
Who am I kidding? Carlie always looks great, no advance warning needed.
“Why don’t you have dark circles under your eyes?” Rylie slammed her hands onto her hips and glared down at her sister.
“Huh?” Carlie turned off the TV and sat up. “What are you talking about?”
“We’re twins! Why do you have a perfect complexion, and I look like an actor in Zombie Apocalypse?”
“Probably because I take better care of myself than you do. You’re perpetually dehydrated. How much water did you drink yesterday?”
“Water is yucky.” Rylie curled her lip in distaste. “Anyway, I can’t be too dehydrated. A few minutes ago I was sweating buckets.”
“How can you be so smart and ignore such important things about your health?” Carlie stood and ambled toward the kitchen.
“I exercise, and my diet is fairly healthy.” Rylie followed behind her.
“Healthy?” Carlie laughed as she opened the cabinet and retrieved a glass. “I’m sorry, but zucchini bread doesn’t count as eating vegetables. And you can’t substitute oatmeal cookies for whole grains, either.”
“Okay, I could probably eat a little better, but I don’t really have time to cook.”
“Puh-leeeze!” Carlie rolled her eyes. “Your diet is awful, and you don’t get enough sleep. And who knows when you took your last vacation?”
“I’ve been working and saving so I could afford a place like this. And now I have to work to pay the mortgage and the utilities. I can’t splurge on a vacation.”
What she didn’t say was that her sister had never held a regular job in her whole life, so she wouldn’t understand.
“It won’t do any good to have a beautiful house if you don’t live long enough to enjoy it.” Carlie filled the glass with water from the tap and handed it to Rylie. “Drink. If I don’t accomplish anything else while I’m here, I’m going to get you hydrated and teach you how to take care of your skin.”
“I don’t have time to spend an hour putting goop on my face every night.” Rylie accepted the glass, grimacing as she swallowed. She really didn’t like the taste of water. “Speaking of goop, if you’re going to stay here, you have to start helping out. Starting with taking out the garbage when it’s full and separating the trash from the recycling.”
“You keep them in separate places?” Carlie lifted the lid on the empty trash can. “This is the only garbage I’ve seen.”
“That’s because the recycling bins are in the garage. You have to rinse out your cans and glass and plastic and put them in the bins. They don’t go in the garbage.”
“You mean every time you eat something you carry the recycling all the way out to the garage?”
Her jaw dropped as if Rylie had suggested she walk to the moon and back several times an hour.
“The garage door is twenty feet away.” Rylie smirked at her sister. “Maybe walking out there and back could be your daily exercise.”
“Fine.” Carlie lifted her chin. “I’ll help with the recycling if you’ll try my skin-care regimen. Which only takes five or ten minutes, by the way, not an hour.”
“Maybe.”
Carlie’s eyes raked up and down her form, her brows bunched in disapproval. “Honestly, you need a complete makeover. You never wear anything but jeans and athletic shorts.”
“And what’s wrong with that? I’m not trying to impress anyone.”
“Exactly.” Carlie’s narrowed gaze caught hers and held it in a silent reminder of last night’s conversation.
“Yes, I was just complaining that I would never get married and have babies, but that’s not the point.”
Carlie crossed her arms, drumming her fingers, an I’m-waiting-for-you-to-admit-I’m-right expression on her face.
Rylie groaned and stomped her foot. “Fine, I’ll let you make me over sometime if you’ll start helping with all the chores. That means cleaning, laundry, yard work. Everything.”
“For that, you have to let me dress you every day.”
