P erci had almost missed what that ass Nate said to her. Something about her dress being a bit too short. Of course it was--it was Phoebe’s and they’d had to hem it up an inch or so a year ago when her sister had snagged it on something at church. They didn’t exactly have closets full of clothes. Especially dressy clothes. What they had, they’d shared between the four of them for years now .
Perci had actually been feeling pretty good about how she looked tonight. Tylers might not have much, but they tried to take care of what they had. Not like him. The hat on his head probably cost more than her dress and Pan’s combined .
He would never understand that, though. She’d seen how he had looked around Jasper’s Place. It wasn’t exactly a high-class establishment. But her family liked it .
Perci told herself not to care what Nate the Great thought about any of it, but it was hard. Had the man ever struggled for anything in his life? Had any of the Mastersons? Did they have a clue what it was like to worry about where the money to feed their family was going to come from ?
So many nights she and her sisters had sat in the attic, which had masqueraded as Pan’s room though it was far too small for that, worrying about where the money for food was going to come from. The last two years had been some of the hardest of her life. Things had been easier when her mother had been alive--for one thing they didn’t have the medical bills they had now .
Things were going to get easier. Someday. Joel had already asked her what had happened the night her mother died, and had promised her he’d find the answers. The possibility for an insurance settlement had been mentioned .
Perci was afraid to hope, though. Hope was a good way to get yourself smacked in the head by life, after all .
Her eyes landed on her twin. They hadn’t been in the building five minutes and Pip already had that look on her face that said she was hitting panic mode .
Pip thought the rest of the family didn’t know that she still feared practically everything to do with people. But Perci knew. How could she not? Pip was so damned scared .
Perci started to step toward her sister, to protect like she always had .
Someone else was there first .
Matt stepped up to Pip’s side--he hadn’t been that far away from her sister at all--and took Pip’s hand in his. Separated her sister from the room, putting his big body between Pip and the crowd. Protecting her .
Pip looked up at him with an expression on her face that Perci had never seen there before .
It gave her a weird feeling in her gut. Like Pip almost didn’t need her to protect her any longer .
She’d been protecting Pip pretty much their entire lives. The idea that some guy was there now unsettled her .
She knew it was crazy, but she’d never thought even once since they’d lost their mother and their world changed that there would possibly be a guy or two show up to unbalance their world again .
She should have. Her sisters were beautiful, wonderful, kind, loving women who deserved men to love them for exactly who they were. Phoebe had found that first, with Joel. So out of the blue, so quickly, so high-stakes that everything could have been lost .
Now here was his brother, barely able to look away from Pip .
With Phoebe and Pan both out at the Masterson place now, it was just Perci and Pip at home. Doing the things that they’d always done, plus more .
If Pip and Matt got serious, what would happen next? Would her sister leave , too ?
Perci could deal, though, if it meant Pip ended up as happy as Phoebe, couldn’t she? Her family happy was all Perci really wanted in the world. Especially Pip .
She watched the two for a long time and contemplated what she had to do to help her sister be happy. The way Pip deserved. The way Pip hadn’t been in a very long time .
Whether Perci wanted to accept it or not, the only choice she had was to step back and let things happen between Matt and Pip the way they happened .