LITMIR.BIZ

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the massive mattress.

      “Good thing we planned this intervention then.” Tess signaled a waitress over.

      Her eyes filled with concern, Nikki leaned toward Erin while Tess ordered drinks for all of them. “Sweetie, I know you’ve been a little unhappy lately, but there’s no reason for such drastic action. You can’t swear off men. You’re a McClellan. You’ll put Aunt Sophie in her grave, not to mention what Maggie will say when she hears about it.”

      “This has nothing to do with Aunt Sophie or our mother,” Erin said. “I don’t expect the two of you to understand.”

      Tess sank onto one of the pillows. “I get it. You jumped into the love arena and got hurt, so you’re hesitant to get back in there. Completely understandable, but it’ll all work out. This kind of thing happens all the time. Even to us. Right, Nikki?”

      Nikki nodded. “But we worked through it and so can you, Erin.”

      “I hate to disappoint the two of you, but there isn’t anyone for me to work things through with. And there isn’t going to be.” Erin’s gaze drifted over the cluster of men standing a few feet away, waiting for the smallest encouragement.

      “It doesn’t have to be like that,” Nikki said. “All we wanted was to let you know that we think you’re making a mistake. Maybe this isn’t the right time or place for you to find a great guy. Maybe you’ll find him in a nice restaurant or maybe one of these days he’ll waltz through your shop door. The point is that you should never give up. It’ll be worth it, and in time you’ll laugh about swearing off men.”

      Maybe one of these days he’ll waltz through your shop door.

      Nikki’s words sent goose bumps running up Erin’s arms. Hadn’t a great guy walked through her door earlier that day? And what had she done? She’d sent him on his way. “It wouldn’t matter.”

      “What do you mean?” Tess asked.

      The memory of Jack Langston’s intent gaze warmed Erin. When he had looked at her today, it had been as if he had really seen her in a way no one ever had. He’d been like some otherworldly phantom with his sudden appearance.

      She let her gaze drift again over the hopefuls: one built like a linebacker, with vivid green eyes; one as toned and buff as any bodybuilder, an intelligence in his eyes that might have intrigued her in the past; and one with a bright smile hinting at a playfulness that might have appealed to her at another time.

      A time before meeting Jack.

      “I don’t know how to explain,” she finally said.

      Nikki squeezed her hand. “Try, hon. Is it about the gift?”

      She should just tell them. But how could she say she rejected the gift and all it stood for without making them feel she rejected them? She’d been hard-pressed to spend time with her sisters lately. She couldn’t shake her disappointment that they’d fallen in with their mother’s ways.

      Finally she said. “It doesn’t matter. I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but I really don’t want a man in my life right now.”

      Nikki nodded. “Well, we had to try. Maybe you just need a little time.”

      Time. Would that make any difference? If only she hadn’t had to turn Jack away. He’d been interested in more than a feng shui consultation. Her empathic nature might not be as well developed as either of her sisters’, but she could tell that much.

      “Okay, so if you’re not going to dance with any of the men here, the least we can do is enjoy our drinks.” Tess passed them umbrella-topped glasses. She lifted her glass high. “To love and finding it in unexpected places.”

      “To love.” Nikki clinked her glass first to Tess’s, then Erin’s.

      Erin nodded, then took a tentative sip, a sense of loss filling her. To love? How had Typhoid Mary fared in that arena?

      “HI, THOMAS, IS AUNT SOPHIE here?” Erin peered past her longtime family friend the following afternoon as she stood in the open door of her aunt’s house.

      She hadn’t had any appointments that morning and had finished packing her apartment. Her new home was ready. The movers would arrive in the morning.

      “She and your mother are in Fort Lauderdale at a seminar.”

      “Oh.” Disappointment filled her. If this was anything like previous healing seminars they’d been to, it would keep them tied up for the rest of the day. “I just thought I’d visit.”

      “What am I, chopped liver?”

      “I would love to visit with you.” She laughed in spite of herself.

      Thomas had always been able to lighten her mood. Too bad Maggie hadn’t ever hooked up with him. He’d have made a better father to Erin and her sisters than any of the men who had drifted in and out of her mother’s life.

      His smile warmed her as he led her back to the brightly lit kitchen. He motioned her to the table and headed for the coffeepot. “I was just taking a break.”

      “What are you working on?”

      “Stopped by to finish some lighting in Maggie’s new studio. It helps her…the light is…getting to be a problem.”

      Her throat tightened. She still struggled with accepting the fact that her mother was slowly going blind. “So how is she?”

      “She’s a trooper, that’s for sure.”

      “Maybe I shouldn’t have come. I don’t want to interrupt your work.”

      He placed a cup of coffee in front of her and sat down across from her with his own. “Nonsense. Take a break with me. You didn’t come here to talk about Maggie.”

      Guilt swamped her. “I do want to talk about her. I’m concerned about her, Thomas.”

      “She knows that, but she doesn’t want you to be. She’s adamant that we all keep the status quo. She’s even continuing to paint. We’ve set up her studio so she can find everything by feel when the time comes. The other day she tried a practice run with a blindfold.”

      Erin’s stomach twisted at the thought of Maggie painting blindfolded. “She can’t be serious about continuing with her painting. Not after…”

      “She is.” He shrugged. “At least for now. I think it’s important to support her in whatever she’s doing to deal with this.”

      “But it seems so…hopeless.”

      “Not to your mother, and the last thing she needs from any of us is discouragement.” He poured sugar into his cup. “The best thing you can do for her is to not show her how worried you are.”

      She nodded.

      “So?” He leaned toward her. “I live close enough that I know you girls show up on your aunt’s doorstep when you have some trouble to chew over with her.”

      “Compared to Maggie, how can I complain?”

      “I’m all ears.”

      “I’m having a little trouble with all this. You know, the healing stuff, the McClellan gift.”

      “You mean the sexual healing.”

      Heat tinged her cheeks. “Is it wrong for me to want to have a normal life? To not feel that I need to have a man around?”

      “I’ve heard some of this—about your plan to move off on your own and give up men. They’re all in an uproar, aren’t they?”

      “I knew when I told Nikki and Tess that I was moving word would spread.”

      “You didn’t need that big place all to yourself. Makes sense. When’s the big day?”

      “Tomorrow. I don’t have much. It

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