Mama put her hand over her heart and sighed, then took the book and immediately opened it. The first page was of course an image of Mama Kerri. It was a candid shot of her dancing in the yard. I remember exactly when it was taken too. Mama Kerri had just turned fifty. Tab would have been just hitting twenty. That had been a great party because we were all mostly old enough to enjoy it. I was around eighteen, and Addison, the youngest, was seventeen. Mama Kerri wore a bright yellow dress with flowers and vines running all over it. She was spinning around, her hair aloft, and the dress was flowing with the breeze.
I ran my finger over the image as Mama Kerri stared at it. “She was extremely talented. I wish she’d known that,” I confided.
Mama nodded. “I tried to tell her. Get her to enter photo competitions but she said her images were for her and her alone. To capture the good she had in her life, because it was too easy to focus on the bad.” She sighed, turned the page, and traced an image of Tabitha’s pixie-like features. There was no smile there. Tabitha had never been known for her smiles, but there was awe and wonder in her eyes as Mama Kerri had hugged her from behind and smiled into the camera that Tab must have been holding up.
“You know, she once told me every beautiful picture she took she felt as though she’d covered up a negative moment in her life with something positive. I guess the only things she truly saw as positives were us.”
I nodded.
Mama Kerri stood up and looked around the now empty room. The bed had a few small boxes on top but that was it.
“I’ll check on the girls, but I think we’re done here. I’ll meet the charity on Monday to ensure they pick up everything and I’ll leave the key with the manager.”
With my mother and sister Gen in tow, we entered the living space. About twenty boxes were stacked up against the long kitchen wall. The rest of us had one box each with a few mementos and keepsakes.
I laid my photo book inside the box where I’d put a few pieces of clothing and jewelry that reminded me of Tab as well as the framed picture she’d taken of the woman and child.
In a little over two hours and we’d packed up our sister’s entire life.
Two hours was all it had taken.
I couldn’t say a weight was lifted off my chest or my grief suddenly disappeared, because it didn’t. What I did know was that after spending time there, seeing the photobooks she’d made of each of us, was that Tabby loved deep. Far deeper than we could have imagined. She didn’t always know how to share it or even how to say it most of the time, but she sure as hell showed it.
Through these priceless books.
Though her sacrifice.
One by one, each sister walked out of the door until Addison and I were the last ones standing. The others already making their way back down the stairs to their cars.
Addison took my hand and we looked around the empty space. It didn’t feel like Tabitha had ever lived there in the first place.
Probably because she hadn’t.
Tabitha’s true home wasn’t a place.
It was us.
Soul Sisters forever.
And that’s how it would always be.
One month later…
Jonah pulled up in front of A+ Construction, got out of his car, and sauntered to the front door. I watched all that sexiness in a black suit with a crisp white dress shirt open the door. He’d already removed his tie, which was something I found fascinating because he told me it was the first thing he did when he got in the car after work each day. Apparently, it was his way of mentally shutting off work. Me, I just really appreciated the generous expanse of supremely yummy olive skin that showed through the two buttons he’d undone.
He had his aviators on, and his dark hair was slicked back and to the side in a trendy but hunky hairstyle I loved on him. My man was the epitome of a hot FBI guy.
“Um, I think you’ve got a little bit of drool there at the corner of your mouth,” Luca teased and chuckled. We’d been going over the company’s outstanding invoices.
I nudged his shoulder hard and he side stepped playfully as Jonah approached. “Shut up! I can gawk at my man all day long. Look at him!” I gestured with the file I had in my hand toward Jonah.
He pulled off his aviators and grinned. “Gawk away, baby.”
Luca groaned and lifted his hands. “I’m going to go back to my desk. Just remember, these walls are glass. No hanky panky out in the open.”
My mouth dropped open and if he hadn’t escaped, I would have smacked his chest with the file. “Can you believe that? Suggesting I’d get freaky at work. Pah-leese.” I narrowed my gaze and watched Luca head back to his office until I was hauled into the arms of my favorite guy.
He tucked his head against my neck and kissed my neck. “I’d get freaky with you in a heartbeat. Glass windows be damned.” He grabbed my bum and ground against me.
I let my head fall back and laughed at his shenanigans. “Cool it, buddy. We can hit Ryan’s place and have a little fun of our own. But what are you doing here? I thought you were picking me up at Kerrighan House to have dinner.”
He smiled and looped his arms around my waist. “I have a surprise I want to share with you. Are you done here?”
I glanced at the clock and noticed it was five-fifteen in the evening. “Heck, yeah. Let me grab my purse and tell the guys I’m out.”
Jonah pecked me on the lips and then left me alone to go through my shutting down the office routine. Even if people stayed, I still made sure that the doors were locked, everything with personal information about clients was locked away, and any staff that were hourly left on time. Jonah busied himself shooting the breeze with his dad and brother.
Over the last month a lot had changed. Jonah and Luca had made amends and the Fontaine clan were back to having dinners every Thursday together. His parents were ecstatic and gave me all the credit.
After we’d cleared out Tabby’s house, I started that very next week working at A+ Construction. I’d been there three weeks now and it felt as though I was in the perfect place for me. I had only a month more to work on my coursework and I’d be done. Marco and Luca were thrilled with my skills and the rest of the staff had been giving them a thumbs up about my performance so far. All in all, it was awesome. I’d never been happier at a job and I couldn’t wait to learn more and work my magic wherever I could.
Since I was too freaked out to go in my old apartment, and I wanted absolutely none of my sisters or Mama Kerri in that place, Jonah, Luca, his dad, and his mom went and packed up everything that was salvageable. It wasn’t a lot, but at least I didn’t have to buy a new wardrobe, books, CDs, and replace some of the special items I’d saved over the years from my family. The furniture was all gone, and I couldn’t have cared less. What they could save was currently all boxed up and in Jonah’s storage unit where he kept the few things he’d taken from his time with Helen.
We still slept at Mama Kerri’s most nights. The first two times we tried to sleep at Ryan’s I ended up waking up Jonah and making him take me to Mama Kerri’s so I could check on Addison. I didn’t need to crawl into bed with her in order to sleep anymore, but the need to physically see her alive was still wearing on me. Jonah, Mama Kerri, and Sonia were openly worried about this coping mechanism so last week I started therapy. I’d only had one session so far, but I told the therapist what was happening and how it was a bit disrupting and she told me it was perfectly normal. She also gave me tips on how to slowly minimize the issue. The first was not getting into bed with her. Which was why I was now able to just peek in, see that she was breathing, and feel more comfortable. According to her, this would take time because my brain had created some connection to the trauma with Addison in a way that manifested itself in this need to see her alive.