Relieved no one was examining her failure closely, Rebecca clasped her hands together. “Once my kitchen is up and running, I’m planning a dinner party no one will forget. Rack of lamb or...something in one oven. Chocolate soufflé in another.” Double ovens. It would be heaven, a luxurious, over-the-top heaven she could never have afforded without the lottery win. She could almost picture her mother’s dismay.
“You need to get out more,” Jen muttered. “No one should get that excited over a kitchen remodel.”
“We could all go out to eat so you don’t have to work so hard. Daniel and Steph would love some Tex-Mex before they fly to Lima. Can you imagine? A whole year before they’ll be back.” Sarah shook her head. “And Steph’s been so busy in Austin, I’ve barely seen her.”
Rebecca didn’t want to spend any time thinking about her brother and Stephanie being so far away for so long. Their work for HealthyAmericas, a program that matched doctors to underserved communities in Central and South America, was so important, but she loved having everyone close. Flying to Lima herself for a visit would take more bravery than she had and a prescription for really strong drugs.
At some point, she was going to have to see about getting both.
“But I love my new kitchen.” Rebecca frowned. “I want to use it.” For all the guilt she was experiencing over spending some of her new fortune on such a selfish project, she looked forward to using the new kitchen every single chance she got. The guilt could be overcome with the smell of baking bread. Probably.
Sarah and Jen shook their heads. Between them, they could barely boil an egg. What did they know of the joy of brand-new appliances?
At least they could poke fun at her without arguing with each other. “I’ll be a little less rich thanks to the big donation they’re taking to HealthyAmericas. Steph should be cooking me dinner.”
Jen wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Nobody wants that.”
“Think this dinner is actually about something else, like a big announcement?” Sarah asked and fluttered her eyelashes.
Rebecca snapped her head around so fast a sharp pain landed at the base of her skull. “Announcement? Like what?” An engagement? Stephanie and Daniel had known each other forever and Stephanie had been half in love with him all that time, but it had only been a few months since Stephanie blackmailed her way in to a trip to the Andes to see his work in exchange for a big donation. Surely they weren’t that close.
Were they?
Rebecca shuffled through the junk in her tote to find her phone. With one quick punch, she had Stephanie on the line. “Are you and Daniel getting ready to make an announcement?”
Stephanie cleared her throat. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
Confused about whether she should be relieved or disappointed, Rebecca said, “But you guys are good, right?” They seemed so in love. That had to be true.
“What is going on with you? Of course we’re fine. Your brother is currently pricing an X-ray machine and happier than a pig in mud. I’m planning my first newsletter. We’ve got a website up. I’ll email you the address. No worries, Bex. We’re great. Any announcement...well, you’ll be the first person I tell. I promise.” Stephanie laughed. “Your brother just turned a nice shade of pink. We’ve only been ‘us’ in Texas. Daniel still expects me to wither up and die when we go back to Peru. Little does he know, I have plans. Big plans. Opening that office in Lima, setting up networks of doctors serving in the remote areas of the Andes...I’m going to be too busy for any withering.” She was silent for a long minute. Rebecca wondered if there was some silent communication going on. “He’s got questions, but me, I have the answers.”
Rebecca eased back, aware of the tension in her shoulders. Daniel had made a terrible decision and had gone around the Holly Heights hospital’s rules to help a patient. His big head had caused him to say things there was no coming back from so he’d retreated. All the way to South America.
On this visit, he seemed happy. Fulfilled. Like he’d found the work he was meant for.
She didn’t want him to blow a good thing with her best friend by being stupidly noble. Thank goodness Stephanie had things under control. She’d always been the brave one in the group.
Jen was a soft center covered by a hard shell. She’d fought for everything she had and used that fierceness to protect her friends and family whenever necessary.
The three of them had been friends long enough that they might as well be related.
They’d recently reconnected with Sarah and folded her into the group as easily as cream into coffee, and she was proving to be a savvy businesswoman.
Rebecca was the one who encouraged others, except for Cole—the one guy who’d caused her to collapse with the trembles—and dreamed of double ovens.
How depressing.
Get a grip. All of this is happening because of you.
“Well, okay. I’ll get back to planning a dinner worthy of my two favorite do-gooders.”
“Bread. Lots of bread,” Stephanie said right before she hung up.
Relieved and sad at the reminder that they’d be leaving soon, Rebecca dropped the phone back in her tote. Everyone was moving or growing or changing. Stephanie had gone to Peru because of her. Sarah had a chance to save her shelter because of Rebecca. Even Jen had discovered the love of her life, a pit bull named Hope, in a roundabout way because of Rebecca. She’d stumbled with Cole Ferguson, but the fact that Sarah had been able to step up and do the right thing only showed the power of Rebecca’s good influence.
Right?
“No announcement, but they’re fine. On that note, I’m off to see my beautiful kitchen,” Rebecca said and pasted on a happy smile. Sarah and Jen were bickering on the way down the hall to the outdoor pens. Sarah and Jen at Paws for Love, Stephanie and Daniel in Lima, everyone had work they had to get to.
Except for her.
“That’s because my kids are scheduled for counseling sessions already, and I’ve been prepping my best students for a full year for all their college entrance exams and forms.” Rebecca dropped her tote on the hot passenger seat and slid in behind the wheel. “I’m prepared. I’ve been working.”
Her own defense didn’t do much to lighten the guilty load as she pulled into her tiny driveway. Bill Hayney was already unloading a beautiful refrigerator.
Today she was going to celebrate her renovated kitchen.
No one was criticizing her. Figuring out why she was so defensive should go at the top of her to-do list.
* * *
THE SOUND OF giggling girls on Friday afternoon reminded Cole that it was quitting time. The best thing about starting at the crack of dawn was being able to leave before school got out and the volunteers arrived. Over the past week, he’d settled into an easy routine at Paws for Love, one that limited most of his contact with actual people.
The Texas heat was bad enough to make a man daydream about avalanches and blizzards, but he was doing a good job.
“Here. Drink this.” Shelly handed him a tall glass of ice water, the condensation rolling down the sides in the most perfect way. “You worry me.”
“I’m tough,” Cole grumbled before he tipped the glass and drained it. The sharp cold brought on a brain freeze that was a tiny price to pay for the sweet burn of cold all the way down. He should have taken a break sooner.
As he flopped down in the shade next to the bench Shelly was seated on, he glanced over his shoulder to shoot her a thankful smile, but it died on his lips when he saw Rebecca and two teenage girls staring out the window. All three immediately disappeared and he wondered how