Healing Haven - Book 2 in Haven Series [Complete]

15| Sisters

Back from the gym, Alyssa tossed down her gear, swiped a hand across her brow. Last night had been a study in torture with her tossing and turning and tangling up in bed sheets while thoughts of Ethan Davies mouth plagued her dreams. She couldn't recall the last time she'd ever been so affected or turned on. That searing, powerful kiss, however brief, had set fire to a part of her that chemo had all but obliterated.

Scratching behind Cleo's ears, Alyssa ripped off her sweaty clothes and leapt into a hot shower. During her grueling leg session, she'd replayed last night's events in her mind. Over and over, puzzling on what could have gone so terribly wrong to make him bolt like a criminal.

And when she'd spun that in circles that went nowhere, she switched over to another issue gnawing on her insides. Eva. More importantly, Ethan's point about Eva.

Even if the man was a first class idiot, he'd had a point. Too much had happened for either of them to be the same person. And for Alyssa to come here and expect to find Annelise in all her former glory was only setting herself up for disappointment. How could she think Eva could ever be that same person when Alyssa herself was so markedly changed?

To expect that of her sister, then to blow up in her face over it, had been wrong and childish. It was up to her to make amends. Eva was the only family she had left and Alyssa wasn't about to lose her. Not again.

Mind made up, after handling a couple of important phone calls, trusting that her sister would be awake this early on a Sunday, Alyssa pulled up outside Lavender Cottage.

Palms clammy, before she lost her nerve, she unlocked the door using the spare key Eva gave her last week while watching the girls. The dogs, hearing her entry, scrambled to the door with gleeful yips of greeting. Stooping to say hi, she brushed bellies and stroked heads.

The smell of coffee thickly scented the air along with the trickling of voices told Alyssa that Eva was up and she wasn't alone.

"Morning," she said, entering the living room. Jenelle and Eva sat on the couch, papers splayed between them and on the coffee table.

"Morning," Eva acknowledged. "You're up early."

Alyssa cleared her throat. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Not interrupting. We're just going over the plans. Marshall took the girls over to his moms for breakfast and Hailey had a sleepover with Samantha. Won't be back until noon."

"No, I came to see you. I wanted to...talk."

Taking that as her cue, Jenelle hastily rose, gathering paper. "I should go. We can go over this later."

"No, you should be here for this." Alyssa spoke up, stopping her retreat. "Or part of it, at least."

Lowering back to the couch, carefully, Jenelle glanced from one sister to the other. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Claiming the side chair closest to Eva, Alyssa dragged her hands over her thighs. Gathering her courage. "I wanted to apologize for the way I've behaved. And not just last night," she added, directing the latter part of her statement to Eva. "I haven't been myself since I got here, and I'm sorry. All this resentment and anger I didn't know I had inside of me sort of boiled over when I saw your neat, orderly life—all perfect and filled with so much love. To know I had been so effortlessly replaced where I had grieved every single day over losing you and those girls." Tears seared her eyes, thickened her voice.

"I missed you. So much. One day you were there and the next you were gone. When they took you away, I called the police station, tried to speak with the detectives and get answers, but they wouldn't tell me anything. Every week I pushed them. I didn't give up until the cancer. I battled it alone. There was no one there to help me pick up the pieces. To put me back together when I broke apart."