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  “What do you mean, find us a room? You find your own room.” Ivy glared at her. “Well, I’m not paying for you to have a room too. You’ll have to sleep in the car if you don’t have the money for it.”

  Ivy stood up and Meghan took a step back. She hated that her sister was so much taller than her. Thinner and in better shape too. Meghan would have killed for a body like Ivy’s, but she’d never tell her that. She liked having her sister envious of her.

  “I didn’t want to come on this trip at all. You told me that it was urgent that you get to the coast, a matter of life and death. Now, nearly two hundred miles into this, you tell me that you needed to be on the beach someplace that would give you a natural tan. You will pay for me a room, or I’ll take the next flight home and leave you here. Now do it.”

  Meghan started to tell her to try it, but was afraid that she would do just as she said. Just lately, Ivy had gotten all up in her grill about things. She fussed at her about unpaid bills and how her apartment wasn’t clean enough. Meghan was depressed, and when she was depressed, all she wanted to do was eat and sleep. Not necessarily a good combination, but she had been doing it that way since she’d gotten her heart broken by Timmy Coates when she’d been seven. He’d told her that he didn’t like her hair, and that was it for him.

  Unlike Ivy, Meghan’s hair was pin straight and brown. Not any nice color like honey or even tan, but a nondescript brown. Ivy’s hair was fire engine red, and as curly as if she’d just had a perm the day before. She didn’t wear makeup either, just went into the stores and mall without so much as a bit of lip color on her face.

  Meghan wouldn’t go anywhere without fixing her face and hair. It was why Ivy would get so frustrated with her, she was always late and vain. She knew this about herself, but she had no desire to change herself. Someday, she knew, it would get her a husband, and she’d be as happy as she’d ever been.

  If her parents’ marriage was any indication of how marital bliss was, she was going to be sadly disappointed. They had married young, had her and then Ivy, then divorced each other. Now they both had been married again a total of six times between them. And her and Ivy had so many half, step, and whatever else could be thrown in the pot as siblings. They rarely saw them or their parents anymore. Probably due to them being so broke all the time.

  Meghan had money. Not a great deal of it like Ivy did, but she had enough to do what she wanted. Her ambition was to have been a doctor someday. But her first time in one of the classes where she had to do math, she’d dropped out. It had been like that her whole life. Dropping out of things. She supposed that was what made Ivy upset with her.

  Ivy did well at whatever she set her mind to. Of course, she did become a doctor, and was very good at it. And right now, she was on her month off which she took every year to get her home in order. Which she owned as well. Meghan thought that she could really hate her sister.

  But she didn’t. She loved her so much that she ached with it at times. And now she had upset her again by being selfish. She went to call the town’s only place to stay, and was given two rooms at a discount. Apparently it was off season for them, and they were glad to have the guests. Then she went to find Ivy.

  She was down on the floor giving CPR to the mechanic. Meghan rushed to her side to find out what she could do to help her. Ivy told her to call nine-one-one, and to tell them that a doctor was on site.

  Meghan made the call and tried to calm her pounding heart when she was told that an ambulance was on the way and that there was a doctor coming as well. An Evan Whitfield was their local doctor when he was in town. All she knew to tell them was the name of the mechanic shop, and they knew just where they were.

  Ivy never stopped what she was doing, even though Meghan knew she had to be exhausted. She was just watching her. And when the sirens started to blare closer to them, she asked her sister if she needed anything.

  “No. I have it.” She was panting hard, and there was a strain to her shoulders and back. She could see the bunched-up muscles with every compression that she did. And when the doctor from the ambulance came into the garage, he moved to take over without missing a single beat. It was as well planned at it looked. Ivy leaned back on her ass and told the doctor what she’d encountered when she came to talk to him.

  “He was on his knees, just falling over when I saw him. He told me that he was having heart pains all day.” Dr. Whitfield told them that he was a candidate for a heart valve, but wouldn’t do it because of the cost. “I see that a great deal where I work as well. I suppose dying to these people isn’t as bad.”

  “That’s about the right of it.” They traded off again while the medics came into the room with all their equipment. “You’re a physician?”

  “Yes.”

  Ivy glanced at her, and Meghan knew that she wasn’t to say what sort of doctor her sister was. Heart replacement was her specialty, but she did all kinds of heart operations. She was a renowned surgeon that everyone knew about.

  Once the medics took over, both doctors stood back while things were being taken care of. Mr. Williams, it seemed, was going to be in big trouble if he refused the surgery again, and Evan, as he told them both to call him, said he was going to have to do some fast talking to his wife before the gentleman woke up.

  Less than two hours later, not only was Ivy scrubbing in with the good doctor, but Meghan sat with the very nice wife of Evan. Ivy was less than happy about the situation. Not that she blamed her. Ivy had recently had some trouble at home that was haunting her.

  “Your sister is a good doctor then?” Meghan, proud to be talking about her sister, told her who she was. “I’m not sure if I know the name, but then I usually avoid doctors when I can. Except for Evan, I’m pretty much out of the loop. And before I forget to tell you, Evan told me to tell you that you and your sister are more than welcome to stay with us until your car is fixed. Mr. Williams might be down for a bit.”

  “We have a place at the B&B.” The woman nodded and got up, saying she was going to get herself something to eat, and Meghan joined her when asked. “I’m afraid that Ivy isn’t going to be any happier about this trip than she was before. I sort of tricked her into coming with me. I just needed to get away. And while I’d like to say that she did as well, she won’t see it that way.”

  “Evan knows your sister. Or at least of her. She lost a patient recently.” Meghan wondered how she knew that, but didn’t ask. “I’m sorry that she’s having a hard time of it. Evan goes into a funk when he loses one too.”

  “Do you know how long this surgery will last? I’m exhausted, and I’d like to go back to the place we’re staying.” Dylan asked her about her sister. “She knows where it is, and she’ll need to take a run afterwards. It blows off the adrenalin after she comes out of the operating room. She might not even come back until the wee hours of the morning.”

  “I can drop you off then.”

  Thanking her, Meghan gathered her things and the little bit that Ivy had, and followed the woman to the car. She seemed upset about something, and Meghan was too tired to figure it out. As soon as she was in her room after letting the owner know that Ivy would be in later, she was glad for the big bed.

  It was six thirty in the morning when Ivy woke her. Trying to make her slow down on what she was saying finally had her snapping at her again. When she was finally awake, she looked at Ivy and immediately felt bad for yelling at her, and asked what had happened.

  “My house is gone.” That made no sense to her, and she asked her what she was talking about. “Someone broke into it sometime yesterday and burned it to the ground. There is nothing left. I lost everything I own.”

  “Oh Ivy, I’m so sorry. What can I do to help you?” She told her nothing, she was sorry for waking her. “No, that’s all right. I’m sorry that I’ve been such a bitch to you. What did they say caused it?”

  Instead of answering her, she handed her the paper. The fax paper had been crumbled up and stained a little, but s
he could read it well enough. It was a note from the man who had burned her house down; he’d sent it to the police station over three hours ago.

  “Dr. Ivy Walton, see how it is to lose everything in your life. I’m not finished with you yet. Signed, David Cooper.”

  “I have nothing to go back to now. I have my job, of course, but I’ve been dissatisfied with that for some time. I’m thinking that once you get to your coast, I’ll stick around there. No point in going home again when I have nothing there.” Meghan told her that she couldn’t do that, she’d miss her. “I’ll have a phone, Meghan. This is what I need to do. To start fresh. Hopefully since he signed his handiwork, he’ll be caught. After this, he’s in a lot of trouble, I would suppose. But I’m not going back.”

  When she left her in favor of her own room, Meghan wondered what she was to do now. This trip, while starting out for her own selfish reasons, had really turned into something to help Ivy. And now she was going to leave her. Well, Meghan wasn’t going to allow that to happen. She needed her sister. Meghan would figure out something, and this time follow through on it. Ivy wasn’t leaving her.

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  Kathi Barton , winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio with her husband Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband who is an artist and potter.

  Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi online and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. [email protected].

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