Free Sisters in Love (Snow Sisters, Book One: Love in Bloom Series #1) by Melissa Foster Page B

Fest,” Kaylie said with a serious
tone.
    “You’re no help. I gotta get ready for my
next client. Call ya later?”
    “She’d have a great time,” Kaylie urged.
    “Gotta go. Love you.”

Chapter
Twelve
    Two nights later, Blake sat at Sally’s
kitchen table, fidgeting with his keys, a full cup of coffee in
front of him. Sally had aged ten years in the few days since Dave’s
death. She sat with her hands wrapped around a steaming mug, a
thick, white cardigan pulled tight across her thin body. She
reached up and brushed a strand of her white- blond hair from her
forehead. She wore no makeup. On anyone else, her pale skin might
have looked weak or worn-out. But even in her state of loss, Sally
looked regal. Blake remembered all of the times he’d jokingly
called her Dave’s trophy wife, and now he felt bad for making
fun.
    “Thanks for taking Rusty to basketball. He
fought me on it. He doesn’t want to go, but I think it’s important
to go on with our lives as best we can. I don’t want Rusty to lose
his friends because of his father’s death. It’s too easy to fall
into depression at his age.” She looked up with sad, robin’s-egg
blue eyes. “He’s already got all that teenage angst going on.”
    “It’s not a problem. I have nothing better to
do,” Blake said, and at this point, he really didn’t have anything
better to do. He’d promised himself he would refrain from his
womanizing. “If you’re sure he’s ready.”
    Sally nodded. “To some degree, Rusty needs
this outlet. He and Dave had an argument right before…the
accident.”
    Blake remembered the bits and pieces of
Dave’s last phone call on the slopes. He’d assumed all parents
dealt with the ups and downs of hormone-filled teenagers, but that
being the last conversation Rusty had with his father was too much
for anyone, much less a teen to shoulder. “Then I’m happy to do
it.”
    Sally stood and put her mug in the sink, her
back to Blake. She wrapped her arms around her body, and Blake
watched her shoulders go up and down with a deep inhalation. When
she turned around, her eyes were serious, her lips set in a
straight line. “Blake,” she said, then squinted, as if thinking
about what she was about to say.
    “Yeah?”
    Rusty came into the kitchen wearing
sweatpants and a black, hooded sweatshirt. His blond hair, just a
shade darker than Sally’s, was long and straight, the way guys wore
their hair in the seventies. His face was drawn and tired.
“Ready?”
    Sally shook her head in Blake’s direction.
“Nothing.” She went to Rusty, standing eye to eye to with her son.
“Try and have fun, okay? Blake’s ready, and I’ll be here when you
get home.”
    Rusty turned away.
    “I love you, Russ.” Sally’s voice was almost
a plea rather than a statement. She wrapped her arms around her
middle as Blake stood to leave with Rusty. “Thanks, Blake. Call me
if you need me.”
     
    Blake didn’t know much about teens, and he
was certain his experience of losing a parent was probably
different from Rusty’s. Sally adored him, and Dave had created a
world that seemed to revolve around him, while Blake had a mother
who’d abandoned him and a father who was always working. Blake
couldn’t imagine that his mother’s abandonment was too similar to
Dave's death. He was afraid to assume that it might fuel the same
type of resentment, but he had to say something. Once again, Blake
wished he were more adept at handling the things in life that
required emotions.
    “I’m real sorry about your dad, Rusty,” Blake
said as they drove toward the high school.
    Rusty stared out the passenger window, his
hands stuffed in his sweatshirt pockets. He didn’t respond.
    Okay, dad is off-limits . “So, what
position do you play?” he asked.
    Rusty turned toward him. His square jaw
looked identical to Dave’s, but he’d clenched it so tight that it
looked out of place on his youthful face. Sally’s blue eyes looked
back at him—pained and