Always Mine *Cali and James*

big sister duties

Cali

Dallas brings the whole family out for a celebratory/going away dinner. Luckily, we had someone who was able to come out today and they checked the bakery. It passed inspection and I can begin baking whenever I want. I am officially in business, well almost. Grand opening first! I am so excited. Everyone tells me how happy they are for the new bakery and how it is about time. They were all sad when the first place burned down and I wasn't able to open up another place. Dad, of course, brags about his perfect daughters. He is so sweet. I love the way he gushes over all of us, not just his star child. The whole time, I miss James. I can't stop thinking about him. We have been texting back and forth, but he said they had a fire, and I haven't heard back since. My nerves have me thinking the worst. It is always like that though. Knowing that he, dad and Elias save people's lives by risking theirs scares the cr@p out of me. It is hard to take my mind off it, knowing they are fighting fires and can come out harmed or worse, dead. My anxiety goes through the roof every single time. Now, after the night we spent together, it makes it that much worse.

Ella is here today, so I have been able to stay busy with all of my nieces. I also decide to people watch everyone here. When I said Dallas brought the whole family out, what I meant was that she shut down the whole party room at my favorite steakhouse and she invited all of her band mates, Tyler's mom and stepdad, Adeline and her mom and sister Stephan, her son Logan. Virginia brought Beckham. Everyone is here except James, which is the only person I want here. I laugh internally. Looking around, I realize that although I love most of the people here, I only have James, and I seriously need to make new friends. Makes me feel so pathetic.

Tyler is sitting in the middle of Adeline and Dallas and I can't help but notice how, although he is in a relationship with Adeline, he turns to Dallas more. I watch him whisper things in her ear and they both laugh. They share their food and he has her drink refilled twice. Why is he doing all this for my sister when she is not with him? It just seems like second nature to them to be sweet with each other. Everything flows easily. For dessert, Dallas gets a chocolate cake and Adi gets cheesecake and Tyler gets a brownie cookie thing with ice cream on top. I get my favorite strawberry cake and I slowly take bite after bite, watching the drama unfold. Dallas feeds Tyler cake from her spoon. I notice how Tyler's mom watches them with a huge smile on her face. "Wow, you two share everything. Why don't you and Adeline share desserts? You are sitting here ignoring her while you feed Dallas. If we didn't know you all, we would think you two were in a relationship, not you and my daughter. This is unacceptable." Noreen, Adeline's mom says. I notice Dallas look down and I can tell she feels uncomfortable, Their band mates look uncomfortable. For the years that I have known them, they all act this way with each other, yes Dallas and Ty are even closer, but they are very sweet with each other. "Adeline doesn't like chocolate and I hate cheesecake. Dallas loves chocolate and so do I." is all Tyler says as he scoops a mouth full of ice cream into his mouth. After that, the vibe kind of shifts. I notice Adi's mom pushing her and Tyler together more and Dallas kind of checks out of any conversation she was having with him. She excuses herself to go to the restroom. Dad looks annoyed. I follow Dallas to make sure she is okay. "What was that about?" I ask her. "Adeline's mom has told her that me and Tyler are too close. I think this was just her putting us on blast in front of everyone, since Adi doesn't see anything wrong with it and tells us she doesn't mind our friendship. But it was embarrassing. I guess she wants her to stake her claim on Tyler and basically telling me to back off. One drunken night, Adi told me that her mom told her to make Tyler choose between our friendship or their relationship." Dallas confesses. This just seems so wrong and this lady is doing too much. We all grew up together and Dal and Ty have always been friends and making him choose sucks for my sister. Adi and her sister come into the restroom so we stop the conversation. "Dallas, sorry for mom, you know how she is" Adeline says. "Yeah, mom swears, you know she still lives in dinosaur era", Stephen says, and we all laugh. The sisters leave and I stay in the restroom calming my sister down. "Do you think Tyler and I are too close?" she asks me and I shrug. " I don't think asking me for advice is the way to go. James and I share everything as well." I say and she giggles. "true, how are you two?" she asks me and I shrug. I know what she is doing, taking, the attention away from herself. "Better than ever actually" I say and she smiles. "That's good." she tells me. "lets get out of here before someone notices we are gone," I tell her. We make our way back to the table. I will talk to her more about this later, in private.

I check my phone and still nothing from James. Dallas moved and sat across from where she was next to Tyler. She is now talking to Terrance, her band mate, and Virginia. Terrance seems to be a very handsy man. He keeps touching my sister. He finally places his arm over her shoulder. She snuggles into him and Tyler looks pissed off, like he is about to shoot fire and his head is going to explode, but everyone just talks and eventually, stories of our childhood are brought up. I listen to Tilly talk about my mud pies when I was little and how she believes that's how my love for baking started. "James was always your number one taste tester" she says and we all laugh. She talks about Dal and Ty and how she got Tyler that small drum set when he was 5 and how they annoyed the sh!t out of her. She had to put it in the garage and that's the only place they were allowed to play it. "I think we can all agree that our sweet Georgia is smiling in heaven, happy that you all have been doing great things with your lives. Accomplishing everything you set your brilliant minds too. She lifts her glass and toasts "To Georgia my dear bestie that I miss every damn day. Thank you for bringing these fabulous women into the world and to John for helping". She winks at dad and we all crack up. Everyone laughs and has a good time until it is time to go home.

Instead of going home, though, I went straight to the bakery. I already had a supplier deliver ingredients, so I decide that I won't be able to get sleep tonight. I haven't heard from James and I am too worried. I write up the dessert menu for the grand opening and get started on baking. I bake all kinds of desserts. I make 50 dozen of different kinds of treats and I bake a cake that I plan on cutting with my family after the event. This will be for my family only, like literally just my dad and sisters and nieces, because I don't want anyone to make it weird. At some point, my phone begins ringing. I check my phone and it is James. "Hello" I answer. "Sunshine, I am sorry I am calling you this late. I hope I didn't wake you up, but the fire spread. Things took a long time. We had injured people and we just got back. I am about to shower, but I had to hear your voice." he tells me, making those damn butterflies start going crazy again. "I am awake Jamie. I am at the bakery. I couldn't sleep, so I got a head start on the baking. Now I will only have to frost tomorrow." I tell him. "I miss you so much. I can't wait until Sunday. I want to see your sweet face already" he says. "Same" I tell him. "Go home already. I don't think it is safe for you to be alone at the bakery this late. I don't like it.." he tells me. "I am probably safer here than at my house. Plus, I will sleep in my office and get back to it after a little nap." I tell him. "I'm going to let you go rest then. Love you. I will text you once I wake up." he tells me.

I hear pounding on the front door. I open my eyes and groan. I am not even at home, so why is anyone banging on the bakery door this early? I get up and I open the door. I see both my sisters and my niece standing here. "Told you she was here," Virginia says as they push their way inside. I lock the door behind them. "Yes you did, auntie." Austyn tells Virginia, who looks so proud that she found me. "We just came from your house. You weren't replying to our messages, so we went to look for you there and at James' house, but no-one answered at either place and dad said he is at work, so here was the only other place left to look" Virginia says. "It smells good", Austyn says. "It does, doesn't it" Virginia says, taking a cupcake and peeling the bottom off and shoving it straight into her mouth. Austyn copies her and so does Dallas. They all moan "This is the best damn cupcake I have ever eaten. I need a million of these to take on the road. I am going to get as big as a house, but I don't even care," Dallas says with her mouth full. "So, put us to work. We came to help you with the grand opening," she tells me and I smile. My annoying, thoughtful little sisters.

I make the different frosting and show them how to frost. Luckily, most of them look perfect. "So what is the name of the bakery?" Virginia asks. "It's a secret for the grand opening. The name will stay hidden until then." I tell them. My sisters help me store everything and clean up the small mess we made. When we head out, I realize it is the afternoon now and my phone has been dead for hours. "James has been blowing up my phone looking for you by the way," Dallas tells me. "Since when?" I ask her. "This morning" she says "and you are just now tellling me?" I ask her. "We were busy having sister bonding time. No time for male best friends" she says. "So, does that mean you are ignoring Tyler too?" I ask her. "I haven't spoken to Tyler since yesterday. He took Adeline and her family home and he texted me asking if I was alright. Saying how the whole ride home, Noreen made comments about me and him being too close, but he shut her down saying we always have been and always will continue to be. I didn't even know what to say, so I didn't bother replying. Like, what does one say to that? Obviously, his mother-in law is looking out for her daughter. Who is going to look out for me? I don't have mom anymore," she says, then laughs, but it is more of a sad laugh. F*ck that hurts deep. "Maybe we are too close and I need to re-evaluate our friendship and closeness," she says. Now with a sad smile on her face. This breaks my heart, because my sister is the sweetest person in the world and her life has been hard. People have not been kind to her and now she might have to separate herself from the one person who means the world to her. She might have to give him up all together and I know she will do it in a heartbeat for Adeline if it will make them happy and their relationship stronger. Dallas took Adeline in when they were younger and Adeline kept getting bullied. Dallas does so much for her and her family. That is why it upsets me that Noreen is being awful to my sister. Dallas has given them money to pay their rent. She understands that Noreen is a single mother who is struggling and she never even bats an eyelash. She just opened her wallet and handed her the money and she is also paying for Adeline to go to school. She wants to be a lawyer. Do you know how long Dallas will be paying for that education? Not that it even matters, Dallas is so kind, she will help anyone and she would never throw it in their face. Sh*t, she helps Virginia and I so much, but if anything, at least we are her sisters and we appreciate her. Today made me see a different side of people. I think people around her are starting to feel entitled and I don't like people using my sister. Dallas takes such good care of the people around her and this is the way people pay her. She is leaving Monday, and we won't be able to be there for her anymore. Knowing that she will be struggling with all of this on her own makes me worry even more. My duties as a big sister are to make sure that they are all alright. I always feel like I am failing though. I need to talk to James about this. Hopefully he can help. He always has the best advice. I don't want to overstep and give my sister the wrong advice or tell her to cut Adeline off. I don't think Adi is like her mom and I know Dallas loves her so much, but Dallas needs to keep her eyes open on who she has around her.