Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [45]
“Do not tell me a lie, Parker. Your eyes tell me something different. You never did talk to your sisters, did you?”
“No. I was going to do that today. They didn’t want to come, Mattie. I guess that bothers me.”
“This is the first time you invited your sisters to their old home in many years. Why would you think they should be overjoyed to visit you now?”
“They have husbands and children. I thought, old times, memories, that sort of thing might appeal to them. They wouldn’t come for dinner, so I settled for lunch. They want to leave right afterward, which tells me I should have scuttled the whole idea the moment it entered my mind.”
“And that surprises you?”
“Doesn’t it surprise you, Mattie?”
“No. One always wants to know they can go home. This was your sisters’ home as well as yours. When you returned from the mainland it became your home. There is a piece of paper in the courthouse that says this is so. Your sisters have never come here uninvited. Your nieces and nephews know nothing of this beautiful place. Once you went surfing with them, Parker. Once.”
“There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to keep going back and forth to the Big Island. They have fathers. They have each other.”
“And you wonder why they don’t wish to join you for this little luncheon. I think you just answered your own question.”
“I guess what you’re trying to tell me is my sisters don’t like me very much.”
“That is an accurate assessment, Parker.”
“Do they resent me, Mattie?”
“Yes, Parker, they do.”
“Then why didn’t they say something? Why didn’t you say something?”
“It wasn’t my place.”
“The hell it wasn’t. You don’t have the least bit of trouble telling me anything else. Why couldn’t you tell me that?”
“That is family business. It is not my business. When was the last time you called any of your sisters just to say hello, how are you? I see. The answer is never.”
“I have to leave now to pick them up at the airport.”
“Where are the leis?”
“Leis?” Parker said, a stupid look on his face.
Exasperated, Mattie said, “Yes, leis for your sisters. It would be the nice thing to do. It is, after all, our custom.”
“They live here, Mattie. They aren’t coming from the mainland.”
Mattie’s shoulders stiffened. “You will wait right here, Parker, and you will not move,” she said sternly. She was back almost instantly with six breathtaking leis. “I made them a short while ago. You will place one around each sister’s neck and kiss her cheek. Do you understand me, Parker?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Be sure to tell them how pretty they are. They are, you know.”
“I know that,” Parker said, shuffling his feet. “Is there anything else, Mattie, that’s lacking in the manners department?”
“Ask George.”
They weren’t just pretty, they were beautiful. And they were his sisters. For a moment, Parker felt overwhelmed when they walked toward him. They waited expectantly as he draped a lei around each of them and then kissed them. “I’m glad you came,” he said sincerely. He waited for them to respond and when they didn’t, he ushered them through the airport and out to his waiting car.
They sat stiffly and primly, much the way Annie had sat back in the summer, when he’d driven her to the airport. This was not going to be an easy visit. The six of them responded when he spoke to them but volunteered nothing to the conversation. He was relieved when they reached the house. He stepped back when all six of them ran to Mattie and George, who welcomed them with open arms. There was nothing shy about them now. They chattered and giggled like little girls, the little sisters he remembered. He suddenly felt like an outsider when he heard Lela, the oldest say, “My God, this banyan tree is bigger than the house. I remember