A Creed in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller Page A

mean it is.”
    Ashley sighed. “Try to stay calm,” she said, but she still sounded buoyantly optimistic, and why wouldn’t she? Ashley was happy. Completely in love with her husband, Jack, and thoroughly loved in return. The mother of beautiful Katie and expecting a second child in six months or so. “And since when are you superstitious enough to worry about tempting fate?”
    Maybe since always, Melissa thought.
    In many ways, their childhoods hadn’t been easy—their mother had left home for good when she and Ashley were small, and their father had been killed in a freak accident while herding cattle on Stone Creek Ranch, struck by lightning.
    After that, the four young O’Ballivans had been raised by their grandfather, Big John. While Big John had really stepped up, loving them with all his strong, kindly heart, of course there were issues. Weren’t there always issues?
    Did anybody make it to adulthood unscathed? Melissa didn’t think so.
    “Melissa?” Ashley said, when she’d been quiet too long.
    “I’m perfectly fine,” Melissa insisted. She bit her lower lip, peering into her fridge now, finding nothing that appealed to her. “But what do you want me to do if the vice squad raids your house on grounds of lewd conduct?”
    Ashley laughed.
    It was a sound Melissa knew well, and loved.
    As much a part of her as it was of her sister since, at some level, it sometimes seemed they were one and the same person.
    “What do I want you to do?” Ashley teased. “Well, you could maybe loosen up a little. Sign up for the croquet team or something.”
    “You are just too hilarious.”
    “Melissa?”
    “What?”
    “Thanks for calling. I love you, I’ll see you in a few days and goodbye.”
    Melissa made a face at the receiver and hung up.
    Hunger finally drove her to get back to her car, drive to the supermarket, and invest in a salad from the deli department, a carton of low-fat yogurt for breakfast and the new issue of Vanity Fair.
    She was on her way back to her car, shopping bag in hand, when she saw Andrea drive up. Spotting Melissa at the last moment, it seemed, the girl didn’t have time to hide her guilty expression.
    Melissa smiled cordially and waited until her assistant got out of her old car, slung her purse strap over one shoulder, and nodded a shy “Hello.”
    “Feeling better?” Melissa asked, keeping her voice sunny. “Cramps can be pretty terrible.”
    Andrea’s taste in clothing was questionable, and so was her memory for watering plants and things like that, but she was basically honest, and Melissa knew she was intelligent, too. If Andrea ever learned to believe in herself, there would be no stopping her.
    “I was faking,” the girl said miserably, her confession coming in a breathy little rush. “I didn’t really have cramps.”
    “No kidding?” Melissa chimed.
    Andrea didn’t catch the faint sarcasm in her boss’s tone. “I went to pick Byron up,” she said, looking down at the asphalt of the parking lot instead of directly at Melissa. “Byron Cahill, I mean.”
    “I see,” Melissa said, though she was genuinely surprised. She’d had no clue that Andrea and Byron were friends.
    With obvious effort, Andrea made herself meet Melissa’s eyes. Now, there was an obstinate set to the girl’s jaw as she waited for—what? Recriminations? A lecture? The verbal equivalent of a pink slip?
    “Byron’s mother was pretty worried when he didn’t get off the bus this afternoon,” Melissa said, feeling weary again. “She thought something bad must have happened.”
    Andrea nodded, and her shoulders dropped a little. “I know,” she said, small-voiced. “But everything’s all right now. I took Byron home, and his mom was there, and she’s making pizza. I just came up here to get some sodas and rent a couple of movies.” She had the good grace to blush. “Since it’s Friday night and everything.”
    “And everything,” Melissa said lightly.
    Andrea straightened her