Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

solidarity. Abigail took her place beside Hannah and felt the warmth of her sisters’ hands over hers.
    “I think I’m too old for the floor,” Sarah said. “We need mats.”
    “I have noticed you aging, Sarah,” Joley agreed. “Especially since you became engaged. Too funny, if you ask me. Sarah, turning into a yeswoman.”
    Sarah threw her wadded-up napkin at Joley. “I am so not a yeswoman. You can just take that back before I decide to thump you.”
    Joley feigned a bored yawn. “It’s not going to happen because you’re just as anxious as I am to hear all about Aleksandr the Russian hottie with the sexy voice.”
    Abigail blushed. “Okay,” she conceded. “He does have a sexy voice. Totally sexy.”
    “And he sings, too,” Joley added. “He has a beautiful voice. He used to sing her to sleep with a lullaby.”
    She grinned wickedly. “Well, after , you know.”
    Abigail’s blush deepened. “I didn’t tell you that!”

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    “You didn’t have to tell me that.”
    Hannah raised her hands in the air and made intricate patterns in the air. “I could use some cookies fresh out of the oven. Anyone else?”
    Abigail leaned over and nudged her shoulder with her chin. “You always eat cookies when we have a family conference. How do you stay so thin? I make two of you.”
    “Jonas once said I’m a wire hanger the designers drape their clothes on,” Hannah confessed. There was a note of hurt in her voice. “He’s such a jerk sometimes. Then he was mad at me because toads followed him around croaking. He claimed it sounded like they were saying ‘liar, liar,’ which by the way, could happen to Aleksandr if you needed to let him know you aren’t going to take any of his nonsense.”
    Abigail rubbed Hannah’s back gently. “Jonas deserves toads following him around, especially if he hung out with Sylvia. Who is he dating now?”
    “Someone with a figure,” Hannah said. “Her bones won’t jab him every time he holds her.” She caught the plate of cookies as it started to float by.
    A collective gasp went up. “He didn’t say that to you!”
    “Oh, he said it all right. He saw the magazine with the designer dresses from Italy. You know the ones without much in the back and very little in the front? He has to make some snide comment every single time I go out on a job. There was one picture of me with an Italian male model in a particularly sexy pose and Jonas was extraordinarily nasty about it. He was lucky it was only toads serenading him all night.”
    Hannah passed the plate of chocolate chip cookies around to her sisters. “Did Aleksandr say mean things to you, Abbey?”
    “Aleksandr has never made any personal comment to me to make me feel less than beautiful. Just the opposite.” Abigail bit down on the warm chocolate and let it melt in her mouth while she thought about Aleksandr Volstov. “He made me feel beautiful every moment I was with him. He always acted like he couldn’t see another woman.” She smiled around the mouthful of cookie. “He did tell me I had a bad temper once, though.”
    “Well, you do,” Joley said. When Abigail glared at her she shrugged. “You do. You know you do. Not as bad as mine, but you have one.”
    “Men are just so bossy,” Abigail said. “It’s annoying sometimes.”
    “Sometimes?” Joley’s eyebrow shot up. “It’s annoying all the time. I don’t know how any of you put up with it. Seriously, Kate, Sarah, you both should think long and hard before you commit to this marriage thing. Men just like to take over.” She caught up three cookies and placed the plate in the center of the seven sisters. “Aleksandr is absolutely the bossy type.”
    “You don’t have to tell me,” Abigail admitted. “He definitely doesn’t lack for confidence.”
    “What does he lack?” Sarah asked, her voice gentle.
    Abigail took a deep breath and let it out. “Maybe I’m the one lacking, I don’t honestly know, or maybe I expected a knight in shining armor. I told him about everything. Us. All of our gifts, the bad, the good, and everything that came with having talent. I told him how difficult it can be and how exhilarating. And I Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    told him how you all had wonderful gifts that seemed so useful and yet mine only did damage. I think he was skeptical at first, but he has a tremendous