Free Hitting the Right Note by Rhonda Bowen

decide to talk to you when you get home, because I’m thinking, maybe she’s afraid to introduce me to him because she thinks I won’t like him, thinks I’ll be too judgmental,” Sydney says. “Except you don’t come home, JJ. All night.”
    JJ sank into the loveseat close to the entrance and closed her eyes. She knew exactly what her sister was thinking. And really, she couldn’t blame her. If the tables were turned, she would think the same thing.
    â€œI’m not sleeping with him, Sydney,” JJ said quietly, her eyes still closed.
    Sydney shook her head. “You know, maybe if this was a year ago, even six months ago, I would believe you. But this woman, sitting here in front of me—the one coming in at all hours, hanging out with strange men I’ve never met, lying about where she’s been—I don’t know who she is, and I don’t know what to believe. I used to be so proud of you, JJ. You were my rock. The one I could count on to pull me back from the edge when I went too far. But now, now I don’t even know who you are.”
    JJ’s eyes burned as her sister’s words slashed at her heart.
    â€œI am exactly who I always was,” JJ said defensively. “Except now, I’ve decided to have a life of my own instead of living in the shadow of my sisters’ lives.”
    â€œAnd this life of your own that you’re having, are you proud of it? ’Cause maybe the fact that you have to sneak around to have it should tell you something.”
    â€œI am not sneaking around!”
    â€œSo why do I have to find out about this by accident, JJ?” Sydney asked. “Is this the guy you were with in Alberta? Have you been sleeping with him since then?”
    â€œAre you even listening to me?” JJ almost screamed. “I am not sleeping with him! And even if I was, is this the way you would treat me? What kind of hypocrisy is that? Lissandra spends her life doing whatever she wants with whomever she wants and you don’t bat an eye, but you’re all geared up to stone me over this one guy? This is exactly why I never brought Rayshawn around. I knew you would be like this.”
    â€œThat’s not fair,” Sydney shot back. “You never gave me a chance to have an opinion because you hid all of it from me. And why was that? If you’re not having sex with him and you’re not sneaking around, what are you so ashamed of? He doesn’t look twenty years older than you. Is he married? Have kids? Unbeliever?”
    JJ’s gaze tripped away as her sister stumbled onto the truth. Sydney stepped closer, peering at JJ.
    â€œThat’s it, isn’t it?” Sydney said. She shook her head. “What are you doing? This is not who you are. I know you. Your faith is the most important thing to you. How can you be with someone who doesn’t share that? The two of you can’t possibly be on the same page.”
    â€œYou don’t know anything about me and Rayshawn,” JJ said, looking up. “He understands me, sees me. I can be who I want to be with him, and it’s okay. And he believes in me.”
    â€œI believe in you, JJ.”
    â€œNot like that,” JJ said, shaking her head. “You believe in me because you’re my sister and you’re supposed to. But it’s more than that with him. He sees what I could be, sometimes more clearly than I can. And he cares about me, Sydney. Really cares about me. I’ve waited so long for that. For someone to choose to love me. Do you have any idea what it feels like to wait for that? To do all the right things and walk the line everyone says you should, only to watch that happen for everyone around you and not see it come your way?”
    â€œYes, I do,” Sydney said. “It wasn’t too long ago that I was exactly where you were. And then Hayden came. And I knew he was who God meant for me. But this relationship, JJ,