I decide to drop her a line tomorrow and ask. It was the part of my job I enjoyed the most—that and actually designing.
As we arrive at the farm, a car starts up the drive, its headlights nearly blinding us.
“Who’s that?” Anders asks, perplexed, as the car crawls forward.
He puts his arm out to hold me back and the heat of him seeps straight through the cotton of my shirt and into my skin.
“It’s Heather,” Anders says with shock as she passes, and I see her, her long dark hair tied up in a high ponytail and her face etched into a scowl.
“What the fuck are you doing, Jonas?” Anders murmurs with disappointment as we watch Heather drive up the track toward town.
It’s a question he repeats much more angrily after storming down to the cabin.
Jonas is sitting on a deck chair by the water.
“She’smarried, for Christ’s sake!” Anders yells at him. “She’s gotthree kids!”
“She wanted to talk,” Jonas snaps. “Nothing happened.”
“Yeah,yet,” Anders says pointedly. “She’s sinking her claws into you like last time. She’s not good for you! When the hell are you going to accept it?”
“I think it’s a bit rich ofyouto tell me what’s good forme.”
“Don’t start,” Anders warns, and his voice sounds strange, uneasy.
“What areyoudoing?” Jonas asks, not with anger, but with exasperation. “It’s been nearly four and a half years. When are you going to start living again?”
“Iamliving.”
“Barely! Look at what you’ve got in front of you. You can’t even fucking see it. You won’t let yourself see it.”
“Don’t do this.” Anders glances over his shoulder at me before returning his eyes to his brother, who still has his arm outstretched in my direction.
My heart is a bass drum pounding in my ears.
“I can’t,” Anders says, shaking his head. “You know I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” Jonas replies vehemently.
He drops his arm and stares at his brother.
And then Anders says, in a voice so low I can barely hear him, “I fucking can’t and you know it.”
The next thing I know he’s stalking away from his brother, in my direction.
“I’m sorry, Wren,” he mutters, not meeting my eyes as he passes.
He doesn’t give me any indication that he wants me to follow him so I stay where I am and watch him walk back toward the house, my heart hammering so hard it’s shaking my foundation.
“Wren.”
I turn around at the sound of Jonas’s voice.
“Come and sit with me a minute.”
I walk unsteadily toward him.
It’s clear Jonas has something to say.
