The Bakery Sisters Read Free Page A

was just blond. Claire’s was a dozen different shades and shiny.
    But nothing else was the same. Nicole was his friend, someone he’d known for years. A pretty enough woman, but regular looking. Claire dressed in off-white—from her too-long coat to the sweater and slacks she wore underneath. Her purse was beige, as were her boots. She looked like an ice princess…an evil one.
    â€œI’d like to see my sister,” Claire said firmly. “I know she’s in the hospital. But I’m not sure which one.”
    â€œNo way I’m going to tell you. I don’t know why you’re here, lady, but I can tell you Nicole doesn’t want to see you.”
    â€œThat’s not what I heard.”
    â€œFrom who?”
    â€œJesse. She said Nicole was going to need help after her surgery. She called me yesterday and I flew in this morning.” She raised her chin slightly. “I’m not going away, Mr. Knight, and you can’t make me. I will see my sister. If you choose not to give me the information, I’ll simply call every hospital in Seattle until I find her. Nicole is my family.”
    â€œSince when?” he muttered, recognizing the stubborn angle of her chin and the determination in her voice. The twins had that much in common.
    Why had Jesse done this? To make more trouble? Or had she been trying to fix a desperate situation? The truth was Nicole would need help and she was just difficult enough not to ask. He would do what he could, but he had a business to run and Amy to look after. Nicole wouldn’t want Drew around, assuming his good-for-nothing brother hadn’t run off somewhere to hide. Jesse was a worse choice. Which left exactly no one else.
    Why did he have to be making this decision? He swore under his breath. “Where are you staying?”
    â€œAt the house. Where else?”
    â€œFine. Stay there. Nicole will be home in a couple of days. You can take this up with her then.”
    â€œI’m not waiting two more days to see her.”
    Selfish, spoiled, egotistic, narcissistic. Wyatt remembered Nicole’s familiar list of complaints about her sister. Right now, every one of them made sense to him.
    â€œListen,” he said. “You can wait at the house or fly back to Paris or wherever it is you live.”
    â€œNew York,” she said quietly. “I live in New York.”
    â€œWhatever. My point is you’re not going to see Nicole until she’s had a couple of days to recover, even if that means I have to stand guard on her hospital room myself. You got that? She’s in enough hurt right now from the surgery without having to deal with a pain in the ass like you.”

CHAPTER TWO
    C LAIRE DEFLATED like a punctured balloon, leaving Wyatt feeling like the biggest asshole this side of the Rockies. He told himself it was just an act, that she was born to play people and had only gotten better at it as she’d gotten older. For someone who claimed to care so much for her sister, she’d never once shown up here in all the years he’d known Nicole. Not for birthdays or even her sister’s damn wedding. She’d missed Jesse’s high school graduation. She was good at playing the victim, that was all, and he wasn’t going to get sucked in to her game.
    Just when he thought she was going to turn around and go away, she straightened. Her shoulders went back, her chin came up and she looked him square in the eye. “My sister called me.”
    â€œSo you said.”
    â€œYou don’t believe me.”
    â€œI don’t care enough to think about it one way or the other.”
    She tilted her head so that her long, shimmering blond hair fell over one shoulder. “Nicole has a good friend in you. I hope she appreciates that.”
    So she’d moved on to sucking up. Probably an effective plan on anyone who wasn’t clued in to her style.
    â€œJesse called me,” she continued.