Sounds like him. I still don’t know what a dichotomous key is, but I’m sure he’ll make a fully illustrated version.
Stef undoes her hair, then quickly wraps it up again before twisting a loose strand of hair around one finger in quick, anxious motions.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Um...” She glances down and the wobble in her voice has me sitting up straighter. I unzip my jacket and shrug out of it.
“What’s wrong?”
She grimaces. “Can’t keep anything a secret from you.”
“Stef.”
I know my sister well enough that I can tell when she’s struggling with something, but I also know if I push her, she’ll tell me to take a long walk off a short pier, so I wait.
“Don’t freak out,” she finally says.
“Not freaking out, but I’m definitely worried.”
She gnaws at her bottom lip, but she says, “Graham is flying to Anchorage.”
“What?” My worry immediately turns to annoyance at the mention of her pain-in-the-ass husband.
“He texted me this morning. His team is done in Guatemala. He was flying out from Guatemala City today and lands in Anchorage tomorrow. He wants to see me and Robbie.”
“Is he going to sign the divorce papers?”
She shakes her head, and I’m angry before she even speaks. “He wants to get back together.”
A small explosion happens inside my head. Everything goes white as the shock wave ripples through me.
“He what?”
She doesn’t look happy about it. “He says he wants to talk. He’s moving to Alaska, and he wants to try again.” Her gaze drops from the screen before she says softly, “I thought I should let you know.”
“Of course you should let me know. You’re planning to tell him to sign the papers and get lost, right?”
“Jack.” She tugs at a loose strand of her hair.
That’s not the answer I was expecting. “You can’t be considering this.”
“He’s my husband.”
“You left him,” I say.
Her brows pinch together. I can’t believe she’s defending him after everything she’s been through, both since she came back to Alaska and before.
“I left because he was never there for me and Robbie. He’s a good person. We fit together.”
“He’d have to be in the same country for you to fit together,” I mutter.
“Come on. I didn’t tell you about this so you could get mad.”
“Then why did you tell me? Did you think I’d be happy? Why are you so willing to forgive him?”
She swallows, and for a second, I think she’s about to cry. I don’t want to make my sister cry, I just want her to make sense.
But she says, “Because I love him. He’s got a kind heart, and he’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
