“Wait,” he said, shifting into park. “We need to talk about this.”
My sister opened her driver’s side door and stepped out. Her bump looked twice the size it had a month before.
“I have to go,” I said.
“Wait!” He leaned across the seat as I jumped out. “Emma, we have to talk—”
I shook my head, exhausted from the list of letdowns tonight and looking forward to something much better. “Another time. Goodbye, Davis.” I wiped the pads of my fingers under my eyes to check for smeared makeup, then made a run for Annie.
This was the highlight my trip needed.
“You’re here!” I wrapped my sister in a hug, elated to see her face. “I missed you,” I said, meaning it to my core. Then another thought emerged. “What are you doing here?”
I pulled back, and the tears on her cheeks became clear in Davis’s headlights as he reversed away. Her makeup was wrecked and her cheeks bright red.
“I left Jeffrey,” she said on a sob. “And I have to pee.”
“Oh, hon, no.” I turned her toward the manor. “Let’s go inside.”
“Wait.” She sniffed loudly, then pushed a button on her SUV’s key fob, and the trunk opened. “I need to get my things.”
She wiggled away from me and headed to the open hatch.
The SUV’s interior light illuminated a piece of luggage, a massive makeup-and-toiletries case, and a canvas tote with unfolded clothing spilling out.
Annie looped the shoulder strap for her canvas tote over one shoulder, then hefted the toiletries case in one hand. She reached for the luggage with the other.
“Whoa.” I stopped her. “I’ll get this. You get the hatch.”
“I can do it,” she said. “I put it in here, and I can carry it twenty more feet to your door.”
I leaned my weight onto the suitcase when she tried to pull again. “Will you please stop? You’re like twelve months pregnant. You’re obviously upset. You’ve been crying. You drove forty miles in this condition, and you came to me. You knew I’d help, no matter the problem. So, you should also know I’ll stand here and face off with you over this luggage until the baby’s born if I have to. I won’t, however, stand by and watch you strap another bag to your body like some kind of tiny sobbing pack mule.”
Annie tried to glare, but her tear-filled eyes ruined her attempt.
“You can be mad at me,” I said. “But give your kid a break. Don’t stress your body any more than it already is.”
She cast her gaze aside. “Okay. Thank you.”
I let us in the door and deposited the suitcase in the foyer. I pointed her to the bathroom and headed for the kitchen, refusing to think of Davis or all the conversations we’d had online. How I’d thought of Historically_Bookish as one of my closest friends, and he hadn’t been honest with me about who he was.
Annie returned a few minutes later and sat at the table while I put on a kettle and set out a tray of baked goods and charcuterie.
We didn’t speak as I prepared two cups of tea and ferried them to the table.
Annie nibbled on fruit slices while she waited. Her splotchy skin and desperate mood had cleared by the time I sat down.
I felt Emily’s presence with me as I placed a bottle of water beside Annie’s tea. In a letter to her cousin, Emily had written the perfect words for this moment.Affection is like bread, unnoticed until we starve.Before my trip, I’d been at odds with my little sister for too long, and I was starving. Seated across from her now, I wanted nothing more than to hug her tightly. To tell her how much I loved her. And to fix every broken bit of us immediately.
“How was the drive?” I asked instead.
“Dark and lonely.” She sniffled. Her puffy brown eyes snapped to mine. “I’m leaving Jeffrey.”
I forced myself not to respond, because Annie leaving Jeffrey was ludicrous. He adored her and vice versa. But my opinion on the topic didn’t matter unless she asked for it, maybe not even then. So, I kept my thoughts to myself. “You want to talk about it?”
She slumped. “No.”
“Okay.”
