The Perfect Sister (Sister #7) Read online

  “If you must know, I have a slight bug and I didn’t want to miss Christmas with my family, so I came anyway. Some things, however, did not settle well.”

  He stepped back. “I’m sorry, but is this perfect-Ally speak for why you were coughing up chunks?”

  She rolled her eyes. He made everything sound so undignified and gross. “Why do you persist in joining our family get-togethers?”

  “My family too, Ally-cat.”

  He easily flipped between “Ally-cat” and “sunshine” and every time, both names set her teeth on edge, which was, no doubt, why he did it. She had known Nate for almost four years, unfortunately. She first met him when he came to a family dinner, one of their family member’s birthdays, on the arm of their Aunt Vickie. She was in her late thirties at the time and Nate was only eighteen. He was sleeping with their aunt and obviously quite proud of it. That happened during Ally’s freshman year in college. The dynamics and implications of their arrangement completely freaked her out. It was so gross. But, even stranger, they quit their affair and Vickie started up with Nate’s father, Dane. She was married to Dane by Ally’s sophomore year. Nate started coming to the family get-togethers on a regular basis with his dad and new “stepmom.” It was the sickest family dynamics Ally ever observed. A father and son who both slept with the same woman? And the way they remained all amiable with each other was incomprehensible to Ally. Nate’s dad, Dane Stratton, acted completely at ease whenever his wife and son were interacting. Nate and Vickie’s encounters included a bit of mild but very obvious flirting; although Dane didn’t seem to care in the least.

  All of that set Ally’s teeth on edge. Then Nate started showing up at a large number of her classes, and she figured out they were majoring in the same subject. Taking the same college classes, he was constantly in the periphery of her life. Ally detested that and him. There was no sugarcoating how he got there and he knew it. How could she like or even respect a guy who slept with his own stepmother? Okay, so what if she wasn’t his stepmother at the time? He still acted way too forward with Vickie.

  But his latest special mission seemed to be bugging Ally. He went to great lengths to irritate and bother her. She didn’t imagine it. He actually tried to enter her sphere of friends just so he could irritate her with his snide remarks. She detested most of their interactions.

  “They are not your family; they are mine. You are simply an irrelevant, add-on tag-along who flirts with your own stepmother. It’s gross. And I, for one, don’t need to witness it, especially at Christmas.”

  Nate rubbed his hands together and stepped closer to Ally. She held her ground, grinding her teeth, and he moved closer still with a knowing smile. He often invaded her personal space, since he had no respect for her. “You sound a little jealous, Ally-cat. I swear, you must spend most of your time trying to sharpen those claws just to get to me.”

  Ally pushed his shoulder so he had to step back as she rolled her eyes with exaggerated annoyance. “As if I’d give you a moment of thought if I didn’t absolutely have to.”

  She was halfway to the door when he asked, “So how did your geology test go?”

  Stopping dead, her hand was still in mid-air as she reached for the door handle. She instantly dropped it to her side. That class. That class she got the B+ in. How did he know? She was sure in that moment he knew she bombed it and just wanted to torture her by rubbing it in. Nate didn’t inquired how her classes were previously. In truth, he didn’t care how her classes were.

  “Fine.” She kept her voice even and turned her back to him.

  “I thought it was a killer. But I’m sure you aced it, right? You always do.”

  Yes, she always did. Always. Her brain nearly short-circuited at his mockery. He knew. There was no other reason. If she lied, he’d obviously call her out, and that was most likely what he hoped she’d do. “I didn’t. I didn’t ace it.” She kept her voice low and casual like it was only a mild disappointment to her. It was just one of those things that sucked, but not enough to make a girl want to hurt herself.

  “Are you kidding me? You didn’t?”

  She held her back erect, and stretched her neck a vertebra higher, raising her chin up. He simply could not know how it really affected her. He just wanted to rib her about it like he did every other area of her life. But she wasn’t sure right now she could handle his abrasive personality.

  “Whatever, Nate, as if you didn’t know. It’s just a grade. You don’t need to be such an ass about it. Why don’t you go talk to someone who might remotely want you to?”

  “Hey, Ally, I didn’t know. Honest. I know a few other people complained that it was hard too. I didn’t dream it would be hard for you though. Nothing ever seems difficult for you. I’m sorry. Really.”

  She didn’t turn around. “Whatever. Next time you find a door locked, why don’t you respect it and try knocking?”

  The house was crawling with her entire family, from her grandparents to her cousins. Her sister was there with her new boyfriend, Tristan. The shocking knowledge that her sister had a boyfriend still hadn’t totally registered with Ally. She usually ignored any guy her sister was with. If her sister chose them, they could only be terrible losers, players or drug addicts. That was how her sister’s taste remained for years.

  Then one day, she showed up with Tristan Aderly. It was a shock to Ally when she met the man. Having just turned thirty, he seemed to have a well-paying, corporate job, and was actually quite decent to her sister. For two years, Ally watched Kylie while she made out with guys, sometimes several guys at a time… all while she was drunk or high, but usually, both, at the college parties. Ally only attended the parties to keep an eye on her wild, often self-destructive sister. Ally socialized and drank and had boyfriends on and off throughout all of high school and college. But she couldn’t understand Kylie’s need to sleep around so often or with such wild and crazy abandon. Ally feared her sister would end up pregnant or the victim of some nasty venereal disease. She listened to the comments about her sister, and fought the urge to stick her finger down her throat. She hated hearing Kylie being diminished by gossip and terrible slurs. It only beat down her sister’s already fragile personality.

  On the other hand, Ally wasn’t fragile, or soft-spoken or shy. She was balls-to-the-walls with anyone she caught dissing her sister, or any girl really. Ally hated hypocrisy.

  But things were getting much better since Tristan had entered Kylie’s life just two months ago. He was so unlike Kylie’s previous types that Ally was secretly convinced it wasn’t even worth wasting her valuable time to meet him. Not even for two days did Ally think it would stick. But when she met him, she saw the oddest damn thing: he was crazy about Kylie, and she was about him. It was obvious in the way they interacted, looked at each other, and the constant body contact they exhibited without much thought or awareness they were doing it. Tristan was not someone Ally had ever pictured Kylie choosing. It shamed Ally to admit it, but when she met Tristan, her initial, impulsive thought was that Tristan belonged with her, not Kylie. There was nothing about Tristan at first glance that fitted Kylie. He was put together nicely, well-presented, well-spoken, stable, and seemed so normal. Kylie was none of those things. Even their looks didn’t match up. Tristan looked like he should have been Ally’s boyfriend. Ally always pictured herself ending up with an older guy just because she found all the guys her own age, like Nate, for instance, immature and stupid. Young guys were a total waste of time and space in her opinion. At best, they were good for college memories, but not for her real life. Once her real life started, she pictured someone older, established, and successful, who could be her intellectual equal… Someone like Tristan Aderly.

  But Tristan was interested in Kylie alone, her sister. It didn’t totally compute.

  Still, she enjoyed witnessing Kylie like she was now, smiling and chatting at a Christmas party while resting her hand in Tristan’s. She leaned her head back to casually prop it on his shoulder. He r
esponded by absently kissing her forehead as he chatted with their uncle Tony. So far, the entire family loved Tristan. He was charming and good at small talk, as well as very polite, well-informed, and capable of mingling with most types of personalities. It was just so odd that Kylie brought home a normal, successful guy. Cousin Olivia hooked up with a screwed-up drug dealer last year, and Ally hadn’t found anyone worth even bringing home to meet the family.

  ****

  Nate Stratton stared at the door after Ally walked out. What was that? This was the third time he’d seen her sneak off all stealth-like at one of these family gatherings and disappear. And always behind a locked bedroom or bathroom door. There was a perfectly clean and lovely guest bath on the first floor, the more obvious choice to use. The first time he noticed her disappearance, he chalked it up to embarrassment. The second was bad luck; or maybe she had stomach problems. But a third time? Something felt off with Ally and he couldn’t, not for the life of him, pinpoint exactly what.

  It was so ironic the only people he ever heard being discussed by the family with concern were Olivia and Kylie. Not Ally. No one worried about her. There was only praise for how Ally was doing. There was so much worry about Olivia and the stupid, little shit she hooked up with who still managed to stay in the picture, that Derek Salazar. Gretchen and Tony practically adopted Derek—the drug dealer (as that was all he could ever be in Nate’s eyes)—and almost treated him like a kind of surrogate son. It seemed to be an almost hoped for fact that at some point in the near future Olivia and Derek might be something again.

  Then there was Kyle, who was usually troubled, and a scary mess of problems. She seemed so open about her life at school, but here? Here, she became so quiet and shy. Nate doubted her mother or her aunts could guess exactly what Kylie had been doing for the last few years. More power to her, thought Nate. A few years of being wild was a far healthier way to go than Ally’s strange quest for perfection. He bristled at living like they were already forty when they were only twenty-one and almost twenty-two years old.

  Ally had only one desire in her life, perfection. Perfect grades, perfect presentations, perfect daughter, niece, cousin, even girlfriend (when she had a boyfriend). Her boyfriends? God! All those snobbish assholes she usually attracted. Pretentious wannabes didn’t begin to cover the likes of them.

  In truth, Ally, herself, was pretentious. She was obsessed at being the smartest, most hardworking, best-dressed, and best-presented person in any room. She went to great lengths to achieve that; something Nate didn’t understand or agree with, especially because she was so young. Why no desire to make friends? Or date and have fun? Ally often went to parties and socialized but there was something different about her than other girls her age. Did she feel obligated to keep an eye on her sister? For there was no real fun or enjoyment in it all. Or at least, that was Nate’s take on her.

  For the last couple of years, Nate had made it his business to be wherever Ally was. He spent way too much of his time watching and observing her candidly.

  There was something almost scripted about Ally that even extended to the way she spoke. Always so politically correct and formal, she sounded like a lecturing professor when she said anything. She dressed in clothes that were too advanced in age style-wise; especially in contrast to where she was now. A college senior, she had buckets of potential inside her to go on and be great at whatever things she pursued, but Nate couldn’t see why she would be starting that now. Jeans, sneakers, shorts, tank tops and anything too casual or too youthful were not part of her wardrobe.

  Nate’s favorite pastime was nettling her. She was so easy to get going and he liked listening to her when she got wound up. He, for some reason, could totally wind her up. He thought he knew why: Vickie. Ally disliked Nate from the moment he was introduced to her family and all because of Vickie.

  At eighteen, in his freshman year of college, he met Vickie Lindstrom one night when she came into the fast food restaurant where he worked. It was sex and only sex from the very start. They slept together the first night and on and off again for a few months. It was fun. She was extremely hot and in good shape, even if she did have twenty years on him. She didn’t seem like it. The way she spoke and acted allowed her to blend in like any other girl his age. He attended a couple of her family get-togethers and met her sisters. Later, he met Vickie’s nieces and instantly recognized Ally McKinley. They already shared a couple of classes together but he had not spoken to her. She had recognized him too, but it was pure scorn on her end, right from the start, and all because of his controversial history with her aunt Vickie.

  Ah, Aunt Vickie. Nate still felt almost brotherly affection for her now. The sex had ceased long ago, and no longer mattered between them. He hadn’t thought about her in that way for a couple of years now. His dad met her one of the nights when she came over to their house to have sex with Nate. In the course of getting herself a snack and a drink, Vickie ran into his dad in the kitchen. After a half hour, Nate wandered out wearing only a pair of shorts he threw on before he went looking for Vickie. Vickie and his dad were laughing together, both standing on opposites sides of the counter, and Nate was in the doorway, evaluating them when he saw it. Something real and warm existed between them. A spark. But he didn’t think too much about it, and neither did they at that point.

  Nate and Vickie fizzled out, and he started dating a girl he met at a party after he didn’t hear from Vickie for over six months. But strangely enough, his father took a shine to her. As the story went, they ran into each other at a restaurant and started talking. But as Nate could well envision, Vickie started flirting with his dad until he was unable to resist her any longer.

  His dad had come to him, all formal-like with nerves, and sat Nate down soon after.

  Nate remembered the sweat breaking out on his palms out of fear. Was his dad sick? Why would his dad want to talk to him like this? Something big must’ve been up to make his dad so solemn that he would ask for a sit-down talk. The thought of something being wrong with his dad soon had Nate’s stomach cramping. All he had in the world was his dad. His mom died when he was fifteen of ovarian cancer, devastating both of them. His parents loved each other dearly until the day she died. His mom, Kallolee Stratton, was the polar opposite of Vickie. Kallolee, had a vibrant, well-respected career as an environmental lawyer. She only slowed down after she was diagnosed with cancer; and was just as good a mother and wife as she was a lawyer. There were only marginal, ordinary problems in the household that Nate grew up in. He liked to believe that was why he was, for his age, pretty together compared to a lot of his contemporaries. He didn’t think he was too screwed-up. He had sex, partied, and generally tried to have a good time while keeping everything under fairly ordinary and normal circumstances. He wasn’t promiscuous and didn’t sleep around to a ridiculous degree. He only drank or attended parties on the weekends. He was well-liked and well-respected, but no one who met him ever wondered what would happen to him after he graduated. All the fun he was having now was just part of his college picture and lifestyle.

  On the day his dad sat him down formally and began rubbing his hands together with obvious nerves, Nate fully prepared himself for the worst. Dane was his last family member. Both his parents were only children and his only grandmother was in a nursing home. She had not been close to Nate and old age hadn’t changed that. So really, there was no one for Nate but his dad. They were close to being best friends, without being inappropriate. His dad was exactly twenty years older than he. His parents had Nate while they were young, an accident they remained very open with Nate about. Kallolee was pregnant during their junior year in college together. They were both Peterson graduates too. Although they did not marry until after they both graduated, they lived together and raised Nate together from the start. There was no shame in Nate’s birth. He was loved dearly and he felt that with a confidence that never wavered. His parents both had more schooling and moved on to professional careers. Being only children
themselves, they agreed one child was enough. Nate wasn’t part of their original plan but from the moment they knew about him, he became the subject their plans were hinged on.

  His dad didn’t have the chance to party and be young and free of responsibility. So when he sat Nate down that day, he intended to ask Nate’s permission to go on a date with Vickie, knowing she was his ex-girlfriend. Nate was so stunned, he went from staring at the floor, nearly in tears, and so sure his dad was terminally ill and about to leave him all alone, to leaning back against the couch, and practically convulsing with laughter.

  No! Nate didn’t care. It was ridiculous to consider; especially after the fear of losing his dad pierced his heart.

  Dad started dating Vickie for fun. Everyone assumed he was chasing his lost youth. Nate would not deny his father some joy after Kallolee’s death gave him so much misery. It took his dad years to move on and even think about going on a date. The women he dated were usually women who reminded him of Kallolee, but could not really be her. None of them could satisfy Dane; however, he seemed to derive some satisfaction from Vickie.

  Nate and Dane talked at length about the relationship and with total honesty. Vickie was everything Kallolee was not, and Nate believed that was the draw. She acted young and flighty; and liked to have a lot of sex and fun. Vibrant and energetic, she was even pretty straightforward about her gold-digging. She liked Dane, and loved him even, Nate believed, but she also liked being taken care of. And at this point in his dad’s life, his dad enjoyed taking care of her.

  Some family friends shook their head at his dad’s folly. It seemed to be a general consensus that Dane picked a second wife that shamed his first. Vickie was invariably compared to the sophisticated, classy, successful, well-put-together pillar of the community that Kallolee had been. Vickie inevitably came up lacking. Most shocking to everyone who knew, Vickie had slept with his son. Oh, the scandal. The disgrace. Nate and Dane enjoyed it. After a lifetime of following all the rules and trying to be an example for his child to follow, Dane took off with Vickie and the hell with all the acquaintances around him who were shocked by his actions. They either blamed it on mid-life crisis or the grief of losing Kallolee. Some believed her death actually made him insane. Maybe it was a little of both, Dane and Nate agreed.