“I admire what you did,” Kennedy said sincerely, picking up her fork and shoveling a bite of pecan pie onto it. Their desserts had been sadly ignored until now, and Sierra followed suit. Pie was easier than feelings.

“Part of me feels bad for not hanging around to help him through it,” she admitted, her heart hurting when she thought of the internal things Cole struggled with.

“He has to get through it. He has to want to get through it.”

Sierra nodded slowly, thinking about that so hard that she barely tasted the creamy sweetness of the chocolate in her mouth. “I don’t know. He’s been wrangling with a lot of things from his past, making peace with his family. Going to work for them was monumental for him. But I just don’t know if he can get past some things he needs to get past.”

“You were smart to end it now then,” Kennedy said. “I think back to my ex and wish I’d done that. Walked away when he couldn’t be what I needed. It would’ve saved a lot of pain in the end.”

“It seems like I missed out on saving myself a lot of pain,” Sierra said.

Kennedy shook her head. “It hurts now, but it would hurt worse later.”

Sierra knew she spoke from experience. A bad experience. But it didn’t really make her feel better now.

“Damn, that doesn’t help a bit, does it?” Kennedy asked.

All Sierra could do was shake her head, sniffle, and shove another bite of pie in her mouth. As she did, another round of tears ran down her face.

“Sometimes you just have to cry over pie,” her sister said with a sad half smile, reaching out again for her hand. “But I’m right here with you.”

Sierra nodded and sniffed again. With a pathetic laugh, she said, “You’re just here for the pie.”

“The pie doesn’t suck,” Kennedy said.

Sierra had told herself Monday night she could be sad for twelve hours, but that was before Cole had been added to the mix. She was on day three and tired of crying, tired of hurting, just plain tired.

“You’re going to get through this tough part,” Kennedy said. “It’s super hard, I know. But you’re going to be okay.”

Sierra nodded automatically.

“You’ll go back to work on Monday and get involved in your current project and lose yourself in the job that you love.” Kennedy said it without any kind of judgment, because she knew Sierra, knew how she was, how much she thrived on her work.

Sierra set her fork down and picked up her wineglass, held it in both hands, swirling the liquid around and watching it. Her sister was spot on in some ways, but Sierra was no longer sure that loving her job was enough.