Unravel Me by Christie Ridgway

hesitated, then took a breath and rushed on. “I came inside because I want to talk to you about something.”
    “What?”
    Nikki glanced over her shoulder to where the others were gathered on the patio, then looked back, her expression serious. “I want you to be careful with Cassandra.”
    Juliet frowned. “Be careful with her how?”
    “Be careful with her feelings, with her dream.”
    “ ‘Her dream’?”
    Nikki pulled a stool away from the butcher-block island and dropped onto it. “Argh. I’m not good at this touchy-feely girl-talk stuff.”
    “What dream are you talking about?”
    “When you were a kid, did you sometimes make up wild fantasies for yourself? You know, like pretending you were really the progeny of a roguish pirate and a runaway princess?”
    Juliet thought of herself at thirteen, of how she’d met a dashing man in uniform and given her heart to him. She smiled. “I had a fancy or two.”
    Nikki’s voice lowered and she leaned toward Juliet. “Well, this is Cassandra’s fancy. The dream she’s had for as long as she can remember. Her mother had always told her she was donor-inseminated and that big old marshmallow heart of Cassandra’s has caused her to wonder her entire life about siblings that she could meet and make a family with.”
    “Nikki—”
    “Hear me out. I’m just asking that if you’re not interested in forging anything with us, if your curiosity is satisfied tonight and from now on you’ll only want to exchange the occasional Christmas card, that you’ll let our sister down easy.”
    “Nikki—”
    “Just be gentle, okay?” The blue and green eyes so like Juliet’s own held her gaze. “Be gentle with her heart. Like I said, it’s soft and it’s bigger than that ocean out there and she cares too much, too fast.”
    Juliet stared at the younger woman, her own heart feeling too big for her chest. If nothing else had swayed her to get to know these two, then that impassioned little speech would have done the trick. This is what sisters could give to each other, Juliet thought. Loyalty. Understanding. Caring.
    She wanted that, she decided. She wanted that bond with them.
    Nikki spoke once again, her voice hoarse. “Please.” It was easy to see she wasn’t used to asking anyone for anything. “Please be careful with Cassandra.”
    Smiling a little, Juliet tilted her head. “And not with you?”
    The youngest sister waved the concern away with a swipe of her hand. “I can take care of myself.”
    “Now where have I heard that before, cookie?” Jay was suddenly behind his fiancée, and his fingers sifted through the wavy tangle of her sun-streaked brown hair.
    At his touch, Nikki looked up with a glowing smile that caused Juliet’s chest to ache. Maybe it did something to Jay’s, too, because he bent down to press an affectionate, but prolonged kiss on the mouth of the woman he was engaged to marry.
    Juliet didn’t look away. It was so tender—and so telling. Another rustle of movement caused her gaze to shift. Noah filled the doorway and maybe the kiss affected him, too, because he was staring at Juliet’s lips. They tingled and her skin flushed, as she remembered their embrace the day before. Noah’s heat. The bite of his fingers and the thrust of his tongue.
    Jay’s mouth had lifted from Nikki’s now, but he was murmuring something to her. Oh, yes , Juliet thought. How tender and how telling.
    And the bittersweet truth that it told was this: As much as a relationship with her sisters might come to mean to her, she knew now it wouldn’t fill every empty space. It couldn’t meet every need in her life.
     
    Noah decided the evening was a success. Juliet’s vegetarian lasagna had been enjoyed by all—even Gabe, who was a strictly red meat man, appeared to like it—and after serving dessert, it was evident as they sat around the dining room table that Juliet was more relaxed and happy than he’d maybe ever seen her.
    That should have made him