“Maybe,” she said with a small nod. “I’m pretty busy with work.”
“I know.”
I hated how stilted I felt around her. It wasn’t that I doubted her love for me—or mine for her. Not even a little. It was just, well, complicated. She’d had to grow up on her own while I was stuck in doctor’s offices.
“Well,” I said lightly, “I’ll text you.”
“I know you will.” She smiled faintly. “And I’ll text you. I just saw Mom and Dad last week when I was up in Fairbanks for a conference.”
“Oh, nice.” I hesitated, then blurted, “Rowan?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think we could ever…I don’t know…relax with each other?” I shifted on my feet, twisting my hands together again.
I couldn’t believe I’d said that out loud. My cheeks flamed.
For a moment, I thought she was going to deflect or brush it off. After a quiet beat, she straightened her shoulders and nodded once, slowly. “That would be nice,” she said.
“I know growing up was…weird,” I rushed to say. “I was gone a lot and everybody was always worried about me. I’m sorry for taking up so much of our parents’ time.”
“Adele, you don’t have to apologize,” she said quickly. “You didn’t take up too much time. You were sick.” Silence stretched, her gaze holding mine. “Okay, I don’t really know how to explain it. Ididworry a lot. You’re my sister. Of course I worried. Mom and Dad did too. But it’s okay.”
“Okay.” I took a breath. “Could we—maybe—get together sometime soon? And just hang out?”
She chuckled softly. “I’m kind of a workaholic.”
“Well, I am too,” I chirped. “Just, our work is wildly different.”
She cracked a real smile then. “You hike up mountains and I’m trapped in the office.”
“Exactly.”
“You know what? I do need a vacation,” she said, surprising me. “If you’re going to be in Willow Brook for a little while, if I can figure out a time, I’ll come visit.”
“You will?” The hope in my voice was embarrassingly obvious.
Rowan stepped closer and pulled me into another hug, holding me tight for a long moment. “I will try,” she said. “That would be really nice.”
“In the meantime, we’ll text and call,” I added. “It’s not like we don’t talk.”
A light knock interrupted us. Ellen poked her head around the door. “Oh, sorry to interrupt.”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, stepping back. “Just saying hi to my sis.”
“Your next patient’s here,” Ellen said to Rowan.
Rowan nodded before casting a smile my way. “We’ll talk soon, okay?”
“I’ll let them know you’ll be a few minutes,” Ellen said, backing out of Rowan’s office.
I gave my sister a quick squeeze. “All right, I’m out of here, okay? I won’t hold you to it, but if you actually use your vacation days, I’d love to see you.”
“I’ll try to make it happen,” she promised.
Moments later, I was on my way. As I drove back toward Willow Brook in the car I’d borrowed from Maggie, my fingers strayed to the entwined scars that ran down the center of my chest. This was an old habit when I was nervous, or when I was thinking, or sometimes, just because.
The sensation of Cole’s fingertips tracing the scars came rushing back with unsettling clarity. The tenderness in his touch, the reverence. But then, the kiss. The way he laughed it off after. I knew what that meant.
