Page 95 of Puppy Christmas

Step right up, folks. Come see the woman with the heart of a lizard. See how it keeps beating long after she’s been trampled underfoot.

Before she knew what was happening, her sisters were on top of her again. This time, Dawn pressed a hand on her shoulder and pushed so hard that Lila had no choice but to sink to a seated position on her bed. Sophie planted herself in front of her and crossed her arms, providing a physical barrier so Lila couldn’t stand again.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Sophie warned. “You’re sitting right there until I say you can leave.”

“You aren’t the least bit premenstrual,” Dawn added. “You know very well that we’ve been on the same cycle since we were teenagers. If I want you to sit there and eat pie, you’ll sit there and eat every slice I bring you.”

Lila stared up in wonder at her sisters, who’d taken on such a fierce appearance that it was like looking up into a pair of twin volcanos. “But I don’t want pie,” she said feebly.

He sisters laughed again, but it sounded much less ominous this time around.

“Do you have any idea how many times you’ve force-fed me comfort food?” Dawn demanded. “There was that entire spell in my early twenties when I couldn’t look at a cake without going into sugar shock.”

“And you used to bring me hot-water bottles even when it was like a hundred degrees outside,” Sophie added. “I still don’t understand what they were supposed to do. Sweat the sadness out of me?”

“It’s well documented that applications of heat can be very soothing…” Lila began, but it was no use.

“Is this where you tell me that three thousand calories of buttercream frosting contain mood-enhancing endorphins?” Dawn laughed. “My trainer at the gym used to make me do hours of squats to work them off.Hours.”

“You should have told me you didn’t want cake,” Lila said, feeling hot and stiff with embarrassment. How was she only hearing about this now? “I thought I was helping.”

“Lil, you know I love you, but you can be the biggest blockhead sometimes.” Dawn sank down on the bed next to her. “Of course you were helping.”

“But you said—”

“It wasn’t about the cake, stupid.” Dawn wrapped her arm around Lila’s shoulders and squeezed. “It was aboutyou. It’s always been about you. There hasn’t been a single Vasquez crisis that you haven’t overseen—and without a word of complaint or judgment. I don’t think I know how to get through a breakup without you there to hold my hand.”

“Or the opposite of a breakup,” Sophie said. “You’re one of the main reasons Harrison and I are together today, you know. I still remember how amazing you were when I broke just about every professional protocol in place to get through to him.”

Lila’s warm flush of mortification didn’t abate any, though it was taking on a different tone. “I didn’t do anything during your Harrison case,” she protested.

“I know. That’s what I mean. You could have very easily swooped in and taken over—and rightfully so—but you didn’t. You realized I needed to do it on my own and stood back to let me. There aren’t many sisters who would do that. Especially since our business was on the line.”

“You take good care of us, Lil,” Dawn added softly. “You always have.”

Sophie took Lila’s hand and held it in her own. “Always,” she agreed, somewhat mistily. Lila knew, without her saying so, that she was thinking far beyond their romantic woes to those years of her hospitalization. “But you never, ever let us pay you back—not in any way that counts. That’s why we look at each other like that, why we’re always sneaking glances at each other. It’s not because we think you’re ridiculous. It’s because we’re hoping that finally,finally, you need one of us the way we need you.”

“But…” Lila allowed her words to trail off, thinking back on all the times she’d seen that look and felt her blood boil. It always seemed to appear just when she was feeling the most vulnerable, when she wasn’t sure of her footing or how to proceed.

In other words, exactly when she’d needed her sisters most. She just hadn’t been willing to admit it.

Until now.

“Of course I need you guys,” she said, her voice thick. “I’ve always needed you. You’re my sisters.”

She was suffocated under yet another wave of sisterly affection. Like the pile of puppies, it was warm and exuberant and comforting—and with a lot fewer tongues in her face. She might have allowed herself to indulge in it, too, if not for the plastic sword that suddenly poked her back. With a yelp, she jumped up from the bed. Dawn and Sophie showed every sign of fearing for her intellect her again, so she pulled the sword out and tossed it onto the bed.

“I was stabbed,” she said by way of explanation. She fingered the sore spot on her back and found that the plastic left a scrape behind. “And I don’t think I’m going to give it back to Byron until Helen knows how sharp this thing is. How is this safe for children to play with?”

Sophie giggled and flicked Dawn on the arm. “See? I told you she’d be just as good with children as she is at everything else.”

“I’m not really surprised,” Dawn agreed. “After taking care of us for all these years, how could she be anything else?”

Lila found herself staring at her sisters through damp eyes, surprise holding her in place. “Wait… You guys thought I’d be good with kids? This whole time? You weren’t afraid that I’d make Emily cry?”

Sophie’s wide-eyed incredulity spoke much louder than her next words, which were plenty vehement on their own. “Are you serious? You dressed up like a princess every day for a month, Lil.”

Not to be outdone, Dawn added, “You made me spin plates at a tea party. Before noon. On a weekday.”