Rainy Day Sisters Read Online Free Page B

and then hefted the pile of ironed sheets to take upstairs. She couldn’t hear anything from Lucy’s room; she was probably asleep.
    As she made the three guest bedrooms up with the freshly starched and ironed sheets, tucking in the hospital corners and snapping them tight, she told herself that maybe being with Lucy now would close a little bit of the distance they’d had in their relationship. Maybe during these four months they’d actually get to know each other.
    The trouble was, Juliet acknowledged as she headed back downstairs, she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

3

    Lucy
    ALEX KINCAID, LUCY THOUGHT, looked
nothing
like she’d expected him to. Forget balding or bushy eyebrows or a nasal drip. The man was amazingly and irritatingly sexy.
    It seemed an entirely inappropriate word to attribute to a head teacher, of a primary school no less, but it popped into her head just the same. Dark brown hair cut very short. Navy eyes with thick lashes. And a body that even in a conservative suit looked toned and muscular and, well,
hot
.
    Alex Kincaid’s good looks were an unexpected perk. She could use a little distraction, not just from everything she’d left in Boston, but from this new life in Hartley-by-the-Sea she was trying hard to like. It wasn’t easy. In the eighteen hours since she’d shown up at Tarn House, Juliet hadn’t warmed to her in the slightest.
    Lucy hadn’t expected some kind of
homecoming
, of course, but she’d thought Juliet would be at least a little happy to see her. She’d assumed her sister’s invitation meant that Juliet actually wanted her here. And all right, yes, perhaps she’d imagined her sister running her deep bubble baths and pampering her a bit. Was that so wrong? Her life had just been destroyed. She could do with a tiny bit of coddling, the odd glass of wine pressed into her hands, assurances that she was here to relax, to be restored.
    If anything, Juliet seemed to resent her presence. After sleeping for three hours yesterday afternoon, Lucy had stumbled downstairs to find her dinner of beef stew left in the warming oven of the Aga, with a note on the table asking her to put her plate in the dishwasher when she was done. Juliet had gone to walk the dogs.
    Lucy had eaten alone in the kitchen, feeling once more like a scolded child, the house quiet and creaky all around her. The wind rattled the windowpanes and sent drops of water spattering on the glass, a sound that felt unfriendly. The sun was just starting to set at eight o’clock, but Lucy could barely see its weak rays from behind the heavy gray clouds. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt quite so alone.
    She’d told herself to stop being so melodramatic, and turned on a lamp by the deep window seat that overlooked the gloomy pasture. She felt a little better then, and she made sure to rinse her plate and put it in the dishwasher as Juliet had instructed.
    Then she’d heard Juliet come in, her quick, purposeful step, and she’d appeared in the kitchen doorway, hands on her hips.
    â€œDid you get enough to eat?”
    â€œYes, thank you—”
    Juliet had nodded and turned away before Lucy could stumble through any more thank-yous. She’d turned off the lamp Lucy had just switched on and then fished a
tiny
piece of beef from the kitchen drain and pointedly deposited it in the bin. Lucy had bitten her lip to keep from apologizing.
    An hour later Juliet had knocked on Lucy’s bedroom door and handed her a sheet of paper, the rota she’d mentioned earlier. Lucy scanned it and saw she was down to make dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and clean the upstairs bathroom once a week.
    â€œI’ll take you over to the school tomorrow morning,” she said with one of those brisk nods Lucy was starting to dislike. “Introduce you to Alex Kincaid.” She’d glanced at Lucy’s purple tights, her mouth tightening.