The Dare. Cara Summers
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month ago, she and her sisters had gathered here at the Blue Pepper to celebrate their twenty-sixth birthday, and Natalie had dropped a little bombshell into their lives.
After not seeing or hearing from Harry Gibbs for sixteen years, they’d each received a letter from him—a letter that had been held in trust by their father’s attorney for six years after Harry had died. They’d only been twenty when they’d lost both parents within months of each other.
Even now, it was hard for Rory to let herself think about her father without feeling a few pangs of pain and resentment. She couldn’t quite forgive him for walking out on them when they were ten. Neither could her sisters. Shortly after he’d left, they’d stopped calling him Dad and started referring to him as Harry.
Coming up short behind a solid wall of people who’d gathered to watch the salsa band, Rory edged her way along, looking for an opening. Just the thought of opening that letter had the nerves dancing in her stomach. Natalie had opened her letter a month ago, and the advice Harry had given her—to trust in her talents and risk everything to get what she wanted—had changed Natalie’s life. Not only had her older sister decided to say yes to the adventure of a lifetime, but she’d also found love. Since Natalie had found Chance Mitchell, she’d positively glowed.
But then Natalie had always had a lot of talents to trust in. Rory couldn’t imagine what Harry would say to her. Wiping damp hands on her jeans, she gave up on finding an opening in the wall of people. Instead, she ducked her head, twisted to the side and muscled her way through the crowd. After spotting her sisters, she shot across the dance floor, and finally dropped into a chair between them. Martinis were waiting, along with a platter of the Blue Pepper’s famous finger food. Rory reached for a stuffed mushroom and popped it into her mouth. Then she said around it, “Thanks for coming.”
“You don’t have to do this if you’re not ready,” Natalie said.
Sierra tapped the blue note card on the table in front of her. “We only agreed that you would be the one to go second. You can take all the time you want.”
Rory swallowed and drew in a deep breath. “I’ve waited long enough.” Slipping the letter out of her pocket, she set it on the table. “I need Harry’s advice.” There. She’d said it, and the words eased some of the flutters in her stomach.
“What’s up?” Natalie asked.
Rory glanced at Natalie. Of course, her perceptive older sister would know that something besides the letter was bothering her. She drew in a deep breath.
“I’ve finally chosen a career.”
Natalie smiled gently. “I understand why you feel like it’s important you make a decision, but you don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself, you know, Rory,” Natalie said.
Rory glanced down at the white envelope with her name scrawled across it. Yes, she did. Her conversation with her boss that morning clinched it. She was sick and tired of the self-doubts that had plagued her all her life. “You guys were born knowing what you wanted to do. I’ve changed jobs six times in four years. That must be some kind of a Guinness record.”
“Who says everyone has to be like Sierra or me?” Natalie asked.
“And who says that we’ll stay at our jobs forever?” Sierra peered at her over the rims of her glasses. “Research shows that most people in our age group will have to change their career paths three or four times in the course of their lifetimes. You’ll be much more prepared for those changes than either Natalie or I will.”
She could always depend on her sisters for unflagging support, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d never felt the kind of confidence that they’d always felt about their career choices. Bottom line—she was tired of being the “muddled in the middle” sister.
Her gaze dropped to the envelope again. “I can’t help thinking that if I’d only been as focused on a specific career as you both were, Harry could have come home sooner. I bet Mom was worried that I would have taken up after Dad if he’d become part of our lives again.”
Natalie took one of her hands and Sierra the other. “You can’t blame yourself for a decision that our parents made. And if you want to blame someone for the fact that Harry went away, blame me. I’m the one who inherited his knack for cracking safes. I’ll bet that’s what freaked Mom out.”
Sierra squeezed Rory’s hand. “Children always feel a certain amount of guilt when they’re abandoned by a parent.”
Rory stared at her. “You, too? What could you possibly feel guilty about?”
Sierra smiled wanly. “I was always sick. I figured that the reason Mom didn’t want to go with him was because of me.”
“No,” Rory protested.
“Not true,” Natalie said at the same time.
Then Natalie straightened her shoulders. “I think we have to come to an agreement. We aren’t to blame for what they did. And we certainly aren’t to blame that Harry died before he could come back and deliver his advice in person.” She raised her martini. “Let’s say goodbye to guilt.”
Rory and Sierra raised their glasses, and then they all sipped their drinks.
“Easier said than done.” Rory set down her glass.
“It’s a good first step,” Sierra said.
“Here goes.” Rory picked up the letter from her father. After opening the flap, she pulled out a single sheet of paper.
To Rory, my darling daredevil,
Your mother and I were both twenty-six when you girls came into our lives, and we agreed that you can open this letter on your twenty-sixth birthday in the event that I’m not there to talk to you in person.
Remember when you were little and I used to warn you that you could only trust in your luck so far? Well, I was dead wrong to tell you that. That was what your mother always told me. She was afraid that some day I’d take one risk too many, and because you were always so impetuous, she worried about you, too. I hope that you will listen to me now. Trust in your luck all the way—and be willing to push it. And never be afraid to take risks. You can do anything you want if you dare to take a shot at it. Most important of all—don’t be afraid to stay in the game.
If I’d followed that advice, I would never have left you and your sisters. I will always regret that I didn’t dare to stay in the game.
Love,
Harry
Rory forgot to breathe as she reread the words. Had he really thought of her as his darling daredevil? The thought had her heart swelling a bit. She drew in a deep breath and let it out. “Well.”
“Look at the pictures,” Sierra urged.
Rory pulled three photos out of the envelope. There’d been three in Natalie’s letter, too. Moisture pricked her eyes again as she noted that one picture had been taken at one of the races she’d run in high school, and another was at her senior prom. The third was one of her on horseback jumping a fence.
Memories stirred in her mind. When she was little, Harry had encouraged her to ride. He’d seen to it that she’d had lessons, and he’d never failed to be there on the sidelines, telling her that she could do anything she dared to do.
She’d forgotten all about that. Perhaps she really had inherited a daredevil trait from him. Studying the picture more closely, she pinned down the time to her freshman year in college. The equestrian team had won a blue ribbon at the state finals that year, and the meet had taken place less than a year before Harry’s fatal accident.
He’d been there, just as he’d been at every other important event in their lives. An old familiar ache settled around her heart. “I miss him.”
“Me, too.” Natalie sighed.
“Ditto,” Sierra added.
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