A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [95]
“Ash, did you ever feel as though your own life didn’t fit you anymore?”
Ashley squeezed Melissa’s shoulders. “Before Jack, I did,” she replied quietly. “I had everything I’d ever thought I wanted—you and Olivia and Brad, this house, my own business, all of it. But I finally had to face facts after Jack turned up again. Something was definitely missing, and that something was a man to love and be loved by.” She paused, sighed happily, and kissed the top of Katie’s head. “A man I could make babies with. Share dreams with. Even argue with.”
Melissa sighed, too, but it wasn’t out of contentment. She felt confused, as though she’d reached some kind of crossroads and didn’t know which way to turn. “We’re so different,” she reflected, “despite being twins. You’ve always been old-fashioned, baking pies and wearing aprons with ruffles on them, seemingly glad to stay right here in Stone Creek until the end of your days, while I always wanted to take on the world, prove I could hold my own against the best of them.”
Ashley smiled, but her eyes were serious, and full of tender concern. “Maybe we’re not so different as you’d like to believe,” she said. One corner of her mouth quirked mischievously, which meant there was a zinger coming, for sure. “You’ll probably never be a decent cook,” she went on, “but I think you’d really like to have a home and a husband and some kids.”
“I have a home,” Melissa said, thinking of her tidy, mortgage-free cottage.
“You have a house,” Ashley corrected her gently. “That isn’t the same thing at all.”
“Ashley O’Ballivan McKenzie,” Melissa challenged good-naturedly, “are you saying a woman can’t live happily ever after without a man in her bed and a gold band on her finger?”
“Of course not. Lots of women thrive on being single. Men, too. But that’s them and this is you, Mel. Olivia and Meg and I have been worrying about you for a long time—since you and Dan called it quits, especially. You put on a good show, sister mine, but we—your nearest and dearest—are not so easily deceived.”
“All right, so I get lonely sometimes,” Melissa retorted. “Who doesn’t?”
“I don’t,” Ashley said. “And I don’t think Olivia and Meg do, either.” She paused again, looking thoughtful. “In my opinion, you’ve gotten so used to being lonely that you think it’s normal to feel that way.”
Melissa huffed out a sigh, ready for the conversation to be over. Ashley’s comments struck a little too close to the bone. “What would you suggest I do?” she asked, going against her own decision to change the subject. “Shall I just cut some poor, unsuspecting guy out of the herd, throw him down on the ground and hog-tie him?” She pretended to ponder the plan. “He’d have to be a pretty slow runner, of course.”
Ashley gave a soft hoot of laughter at that. The woman twinkled all over, like a tree bedecked with fairy lights. Was it even legal to be that happy?
“Do you know what your problem is, Melissa?” Ashley challenged, with a note of smugness in her tone.
“A twin sister with a penchant for minding my business instead of her own?” Melissa teased.
Ashley stopped smiling then, and the fairy lights dimmed a little. “Your whole life is geared to wins and losses. No gray areas for you—and you really don’t like to lose. When your relationship with Dan went under, you saw it as a personal defeat. After that, you were scared to try again.”
“Nonsense,” Melissa said, but her tone was decidedly hesitant.
“I was always the old-fashioned type,” Ashley maintained gently. “And you were always competitive. Because you weren’t the one to put an end to the whole thing, instead of Dan, you counted it as a rejection.”
Melissa’s throat tightened, and she swallowed, but it didn’t help. She didn’t have the words to contradict Ashley, or the conviction, either.
On some level, the breakup with Dan had left her with the idea that love worked for other people, but not for her.
Still holding Katie, Ashley stood, bent to kiss the top of Melissa’s head.