The Space Between Sisters Read Online Free Page A

said. “He’s been getting his ax out of his trunk so he can . . .” She used her hand to make a hacking motion at her neck.
    â€œVery funny,” Win said, and pushing through the kitchen’s swinging door she found Everett sitting, ax-less, on the living room couch.
    â€œHey,” he said, standing up. “I hope you don’t mind . . .”
    â€œThat you sat on my couch? No. I hope you don’t mind that you’ll be sleeping on it tonight,” Win said. There was a third bedroom at the cabin, one that their grandfather had turned into a study many years before, but Win knew, from experience, that the fold-out couch in it was almost comically painful to sleep on. Everett would do much better to bed down in the living room for the night. “Really, you’re welcome to stay,” she said, gesturing at the overstuffed couch. “Unless you decide to drive back, and I think it’s a little late for that, don’t you?”
    â€œProbably,” Everett agreed. “Especially since I don’t know these roads that well.” He pushed his light brown hair out of his light brown eyes. He looked both shy and sleepy at the same time.
    And Win, who soon discovered that Poppy and Everett hadn’t had dinner yet, started to make it for them while they unloaded the car. When the grilled cheese sandwiches were browning in the pan and the tomato soup was bubbling in the pot, she stuck her head out the kitchen door to check on their progress. Everett was carrying one of Poppy’s suitcases into the cabin, and looking at it, Win cringed reflexively. It was overpacked, bulging at the sides, and something—a bathrobe, she thought—was trailing out of it. Soon, she knew, that bathrobe would be flung, carelessly, over a piece of her furniture, most likely the living room couch. But just then, Win saw what Poppy was carrying into the cabin, and her jaw dropped.
    â€œPoppy, you didn’t bring him. You know I’m allergic to him,” she said, pointing at Sasquatch’s pet carrier.
    â€œOf course I bought him,” Poppy said, mystified. “What else was I supposed to do with him?”
    â€œLeave him with a friend?”
    â€œWin, I can’t leave him with someone else. You know that,” Poppy said, looking wounded.
    But Win was already heading back into the kitchen, and already convinced her eyes felt itchy.

CHAPTER 3
    W in, I don’t need this many towels,” Poppy protested, as her sister filled her arms with towels from the cabin’s linen closet later that night. “ Nobody needs this many towels.”
    â€œYou never know,” Win said, adding another bath towel, hand towel and washcloth to the stack. She was in full bed-and-breakfast mode now, Poppy saw, and she made a mental note to suggest this career to Win if her teaching job ever fell through.
    â€œNow, what else do you need?” Win asked.
    â€œ Nothing else. And stop treating me like I’m a guest. I’m your sister, remember?”
    â€œI remember,” Win said, giving the towels Poppy was holding a final pat and closing the closet door. “But what about your friend Everett?” she asked, lowering her voice, because they were in the hallway and Everett was no more than ten yards away from them, hunkered down on the living room couch she and Win had just made up for him. “Do you think he needs anything else?”
    â€œYou mean other than the thirty-six towels you’ve already given him?” Poppy asked.
    Win nodded.
    â€œNo, Win,” Poppy whispered. “We’ve already fed him and given him a place to sleep. He’s a man. He’s not that complicated. He doesn’t need anything else.”
    â€œAll right, well, then what about your feline friend?” Win asked, with what was probably an unconscious wrinkling of her nose.
    â€œSasquatch? Come see,” Poppy said, leading her down the hallway to the open door