Rhythm of Three (Rule of Three) by Kelly Jamieson Read Free Book Online Page B

and said, “No shit. Seriously?”
    “You’re the only one we’re telling right now,” Kassidy said, leaning forward. “This is all new to us too. I wanted you to know. After we talked that night, you knew most of it anyway.”
    “You’re still not telling Mom and Dad.”
    “No.” Their eyes met. “We talked about it and we will tell them, but Hailey…I would never tell them about you.”
    “I know.” Hailey pressed her lips together. “I won’t tell them about you either. But…I have to admit…it really is two different things.”
    “Uh… yeah .” Kassidy wasn’t sure which would be more shocking for their parents, but it was definitely different. “We’re going to have to tell them…at some point. We thought we’d let them get to know Dag better, accept that he’s living with us, and then when we break the news that we’re all in a poly relationship, hopefully they’ll already love him.”
    “Huh. That’s optimistic.”
    Kassidy bit her lip. “You think so?”
    “They are going to be shocked, Kass, no matter what. Especially because it’s you. If it were me…they’d just roll their eyes.”
    Kassidy sat back in her chair and sipped her coffee. “We need to talk about that.”
    “About what?”
    “About why that is. Why you can get away with all kinds of stuff, but if I do it they’ll be shocked.”
    “Kassidy. You’re the good one. You’ve always been the good one.”
    Kassidy gazed at her sister. “Can we not talk like that?”
    Hailey frowned. “Like what?”
    “Like…using labels. Like me being the ‘good one’ and you the ‘bad girl’. That doesn’t help anything. And let’s not talk about all the ways I’ve felt wronged by you, or you by me. Let’s not list our grievances. That’s not going to help. I…I want things to change between us.”
    Hailey stared at her, holding her own cup of coffee aloft. She blinked. “Oookay. But…” she dropped her gaze, “…I’m not sure I know how to do that.”
    Kassidy sucked briefly on her bottom lip. “The thing I realized when we talked that night is that we don’t know how things look through each other’s eyes, or how things feel for each other. You said you were jealous of me because I had Chris and he loved me. But I always felt like you mocked us because we were boring.”
    Hailey opened her mouth to say something and Kassidy held up a hand. “Just let me finish. That was how it came across to me, even if that wasn’t your intention. I’m just sharing that. And I always felt jealous of you, with your wild and carefree lifestyle, all the guys you attracted so easily.”
    Hailey’s eyes widened.
    Kassidy took a breath. This was hard. Making yourself so vulnerable to someone who could hurt you. Scary.
    “I know you felt you couldn’t compete with me for Mom and Dad’s attention, because I got good marks and won awards. So you went the other way and tried to be bad, but…I felt the same. I couldn’t attract boys like you did. I didn’t get invited to all the parties like you did, so I stayed home and studied. But sometimes I hated staying home and studying on a Saturday night.”
    Hailey’s eyes softened. “I see what you’re saying.”
    Kassidy nodded. Her insides tightened but she wanted to do this. “Dag told me that you can choose your friends, and choose who to love. And that’s true. If you have a friend who makes you feel inadequate, you can dump them. But you can’t just dump your family. You’re always going to be there—Christmas, Thanksgiving, anniversaries—I want to be friends with you, Hailey. You’re my sister. So let’s try to make it better.”
    After a short pause, Hailey said, “Okay.”
    Kassidy sucked in a breath through her nose, not sure where to go next. “So. There are things I admire about you. Like I said, the way you attract guys, the way it’s so easy for you to flirt and have fun with them. I actually admire the fact that you’re happy doing the job you do—the