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She felt Noah’s hand drop, as if she was as fiery to him as Cassandra’s lips were to Gabe. “My friend.”
“And no boy,” Cassandra added. Then she lifted her arms to gesture around the shop. “Welcome to Malibu & Ewe.”
An awkward silence descended over the trio. Juliet’s stomach jittered, her nerves reminding her she’d made a promise to be cautious. She was here on an exploratory mission only, she told herself—not to forge any formal ties.
Cassandra broke the silence. “Why don’t you come sit on the couches where we can talk more comfortably.”
The cushions were comfortable, and Juliet darted a glance at Noah as he took a seat beside her. His chiseled face and calm expression didn’t betray a clue to his thoughts, even as Cassandra crossed to a big basket and drew from it needles, yarn, and a half-started swatch that she held out to Juliet. “Do you, um, knit?”
Obviously Juliet wasn’t the only one feeling nervous, and that settled her a little. “Not for a long time,” she said, taking hold of the big needles and the soft wool. “I think I learned in Girl Scouts.”
“It’ll come back to you.” Cassandra plopped down on the couch across from her and grabbed another piece from the basket. “It’s calming.”
Her needles started clacking away, but she could stitch without looking at them. Her gaze met Juliet’s. “Whatever you need to say, to ask, I’m here. Ready.”
With that, Juliet plunged ahead. “You said you began some Internet research a few months ago,” she said. “Why did you start then, if you’ve known all your life about the artificial insemination?”
The corners of Cassandra’s mouth lifted. “Wait until you meet my mother.” Then she quickly went on. “That is, if you want to meet my mother someday.”
“She discouraged you from finding out more about your roots?”
“Not quite that. While I was growing up she was adamant that we didn’t need anyone but the two of us—mother and daughter.”
Juliet let her needles and yarn fall to her lap because she couldn’t focus on them and Cassandra at the same time. “She’s changed her mind?”
Cassandra shook her head. “She’s changed continents. A two-year backpacking trip around the world. I got to feeling a little lonely…so I started looking into who else I came from. Does that make sense?”
As a widow, a little lonely was something Juliet knew a lot about. She leaned forward. “I—”
“Why didn’t you make a phone call to Juliet?” It was Noah, his voice not suspicious, exactly, but not warm and friendly either. “Or you could have sent her a letter with a few Internet links so she could have pursued the information herself if she was interested.”
The flush deepened on Cassandra’s face. Her needles stilled. “I chickened out. I couldn’t make myself directly contact a stranger out of the blue. So I sent invitations to both Nikki and Juliet, hoping to entice them into the shop where I could get a look before making my approach. Underhanded, I’ll admit.”
Noah folded his arms over his chest. “How did Nikki take it?”
Cassandra looked away. “Not as calmly as Juliet—but that was partly because I delayed telling her until after we were becoming friends. That’s why Nikki and I told Juliet right away when she came into the shop. Before I told her about her parentage, Nikki had never suspected the truth—”
“If what you say is the truth,” Noah interjected.
Juliet put her hand on his arm. “Noah, seeing Nikki, do you really have doubts?”
He hesitated, then shook his head. “I see you in her,” he nodded at Cassandra, “as well.”
The other woman—God, she truly was Juliet’s sister!—released an audible breath. “I can show you what I found on the Internet. I’d be happy to let you see the steps I took and how I linked we three—and it’s only we three, by the way—to our father. Donor 1714.”
Donor 1714. That sounded so sterile, Juliet thought. So without feeling. But she’d had a father. And a mother. Both had loved her and she’d yet to figure out what she thought about them keeping this from her. “Like Nikki’s, my parents never hinted at anything unusual about my conception—other than they’d waited a long time for it.”
“Most families of that era didn’t talk openly about infertility. Many donor-inseminated kids don’t come to find out their biological beginnings until they’re into adulthood, like you and Nikki.”
Nikki. Nikki and Cassandra. Two women that she knew so very little about.
