Free Just The Way You Are by Barbara Freethy

you should have told her just like that?" Tessa protested.
    "She can hear you as well as me, you know." Alli turned back to Phoebe. "William will be back in a few minutes. He has barely left your side since you got here. He'll be so happy to see the roses in your cheeks."
    Tessa's stomach clenched at one of her grandmother's favorite refrains: Go outside and run around, put some roses in your cheeks. You don't need to wear blush to be pretty, you just need to live life.
    Tessa started shaking her head, feeling hot and cold, caught in the past, trapped in the present. "This isn't right. Grams shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be this sick."
    Alli stared at her in amazement. "She will get better, Tessa."
    "You don't know that."
    "I do know that. I won't let it be any other way." Alli looked down at Phoebe. "You know how stubborn I am. Well, you and I are going to work very hard to get you back on your feet as soon as possible. We have too many things coming up for you to be sick. There's the kite festival and the Fourth of July, your favorite day of the year, and we have clam chowder to make, and you promised Megan you'd show her how to needlepoint this summer, remember?"
    Tessa watched as Alli held Phoebe's gaze with her quiet confident words. Maybe Sam was right. Maybe Alli did act like an adult sometimes.
    After a few moments, Phoebe's eyes grew tired, and she drifted off to sleep once again. It was then that Tessa realized she and Alli were truly alone, no one to act as a buffer. How long had it been since there had been just the two of them in a room? What on earth would they say?
    Alli's eyes met hers and she saw the same conflicting emotions.
    "She'll probably sleep for a while," Alli said. "Youcan go if you want. I'll stay with her."
    "I can stay, too."
    "You must be tired."
    "No more tired than you."
    Alli opened her mouth, then closed it, looking down at Phoebe as if seeking some guidance. A minute later her gaze returned to Tessa. "Sam and I are separated, did he tell you that?"
    "Yes," Tessa said carefully, not sure she wanted to talk about Sam right now.
    "I'm sure you weren't surprised."
    "Actually, I was. I didn't think you'd ever let him go. You worked so hard to get him in the first place."
    Alli looked at her in amazement. "Me not let him go? You're the one with the steel grip on him."
    "I haven't seen Sam in years."
    "And that only makes you more interesting, more desirable. You're the one who got away, the one he should have had if only he hadn't made that one stupid mistake."
    Tessa felt her temper flare. It had been a hellish forty-eight hours, and the last thing she needed was this conversation. "For God's sake, Alli, you got Sam. You won. What more do you want from me?"
    "I don't want anything from you," Alli said. "I gave up counting on your support years ago."
    Tessa stared at her in disbelief. "Why are you mad at me? I'm the one who should be angry, not you. Why don't you just get over yourself?"
    "That's right. I forgot. You're perfect, and I haven't done anything right my whole life."
    "You do cause an amazing amount of trouble."
    "I made some mistakes," Alli admitted. Her voice remained low, controlled, but Tessa heard the pain and anger there. "Sleeping with Sam was a big one," Alli added, shocking Tessa with the unexpected honesty. "I saw my chance, and I took it. I was young and stupid and reckless and I wanted him. At the time, it didn't really appear that you cared one way or the other."
    Tessa joined her at the foot of the bed, her voice a sharp whisper. "I did care about Sam. I loved him."
    "So did I," Alli said.
    "Then why are you divorcing him?"
    "Because he's still in love with you. Don't you know that?" Alli said in a rush of words that burst from her lips like a dam that had broken. "Oh, God, why did I say that?"
    Alli walked away from Tessa to look out the small window. She barely took in the dark, dirty alley below, the trashbins, the laundry trucks. Her mind was repeating over and over