Susan Mallery
Sweet Talk
The first book in the Keyes Sisters series, 2008
To my agent, Annelise Robey. With heartfelt thanks for all the
support and hard work. You’re amazing and I adore working with
you. Here’s to all the success in the world…for both of us.
CHAPTER ONE
CLAIRE KEYES jumped to answer the phone when it rang, deciding an angry call from her manager was more appealing than sorting the pile of dirty clothes in the middle of her living room.
“Hello?”
“Hi. Um, Claire? It’s Jesse.”
Not her manager, Claire thought, relieved. “Jesse who?”
“Your sister.”
Claire kicked aside a blouse and sank onto the sofa. “Jesse?” she breathed. “It’s really you?”
“Uh-huh. Surprise.”
Surprise didn’t begin to describe it. Claire hadn’t seen her baby sister in years. Not since their father’s funeral when she’d tried to connect with all the family she had left only to be told that she wasn’t welcome, would never be welcome and that if she was hit by a bus, neither Jesse nor Nicole, Claire’s fraternal twin, would bother to call for help.
Claire still remembered being so stunned by the verbal attack that she’d actually stopped breathing. She’d felt as if she’d been beaten up and left on the side of the road. Jesse and Nicole were her family. How could they reject her like that?
Not knowing what else to do, she’d left town and never returned. That had been seven years ago.
“So,” Jesse said with a cheer that seemed forced. “How are you?”
Claire shook her head, trying to clear it, then glanced at the messy apartment. There were dirty clothes piled thigh-high in her living room, open suitcases by the piano, a stack of mail she couldn’t seem to face and a manager ready to skin her alive if that would get her to do what she wanted.