“I’ll be in touch. I’ll be okay.”
“I’ll be there if you need me, just say the word.”
“You’re worrying. Shut it.” Hunter rang off and walked out of the hotel room.
He had her parent’s address and it was a reasonable time to make a visit.
The house was a lovely wooden villa in a nice area in the second biggest city of New Zealand. From the outside it looked like a normal suburban family home. Nothing like the series of shacks and rodent infested units of his childhood.
He breathed out and knocked on the door. The woman who answered just had to be Luisa’s mom. She was tall and lean and had the same eyes—only hers were lined— both laughter and worry lines. And she had that look that he recognized instantly. The faint shadow of loss that no amount of laughter could ever completely erase. Luisa had that look too. So did he.
“Hi there, I’m Hunter Shaw. I’m a friend of Luisa’s,” he cleared his throat, unsure how to explain.
“Oh.” She blinked, looking surprised. “Hello Hunter. You’re her friend?” She looked apologetic. “She’s not here.”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “We travelled together for a bit, but then she went on ahead of me.”
The woman smiled. He kinda suspected that she guessed that he’d been intimate with her daughter, but he was saying nothing.
“Would you like to come in and wait for her? She shouldn’t be too long.”
He gritted his teeth to stop his jaw from falling open. Luisa was here—staying with her family? She was so much closer than he’d realized. “I can wait at a cafe—”
“No please come in. She shouldn’t be too long.”
“Really?” He double checked out of pure politeness. “I don’t want to convenience you.”
So not true. He was desperate to get in there and learn what he could, as quick as he could.
“It’s no trouble.” Luisa’s mom laughed, the sound an echo of her daughter’s infectious delight. “We love to meet Luisa’s friends. It doesn’t happen often given she’s overseas so much.”
The depth of curiosity in her eyes matched his.
So Hunter nodded and followed her into the house, marveling at her trust—given her daughter was so guarded. But he knew she had her reasons to risk inviting a total stranger into her home. She wanted information too.
“Can I get you a cup of tea or a cool drink?” she asked as she led him along the hallway.
“I’d love a cool drink, thank you.”
“Apple juice okay? Wait here and I won’t be a moment.”
“Thanks.”
She’d walked him into the living area, the kitchen was open-plan and only a few feet away. While she fetched the drink, he looked around. But his attention was instantly and completely stolen by a large picture hanging pride of place on the wall. A photo had been printed onto a large canvas. Luisa and her brothers as children. Luisa looked about eight in the image. Only there wasn’t one Luisa in the photo—there were two.
“I’d always thought Ellie was the adventurous one.” Luisa’s mother smiled as she walked over to where he stood directly in front of the picture and handed him a tall glass of juice. “But of course Luisa is too. There’s nothing to that twin dichotomy thing—you know, shy-twin, out-going twin. They were similar in so many ways. Both shy at times, both outgoing at others. We tried so hard not to compare them.”
Identical twins. Ellie and Luisa who were similar. Were.
His heart stopped. He was good at keeping his thoughts to himself, but right now?
“Where did you travel with Luisa?” she asked.
Yeah, he’d known her mom was as eager for information as he was.
“Her photos don’t tell us much about where she actually is,” she added.
He knew that too. “Fiji,” he said. “She’s spent the last six weeks in Fiji.”
“Working in the bar and cafes? Always bars and cafes.” She smiled.
“She’s very good at it,” he said loyally.
“I know. She has that bubbly personality.”
“And a fantastic sense of humor.” Sometimes dry, sometimes slapstick, sometimes ribald. She could laugh with anyone.
“She worries about worrying us,” her mom said. “We get all those photos. Her journals. Her smiles. But we don’t get her.”
Yeah, she played them a highlights reel on her Instagram feed.
“She always looks happy.” Her mother looked at him with a very direct stare. “Do you think she actually is?”
“Actually yes, I think so. Most of the time. She likes working with people. She’s really great at her job. She makes people feel good.”
Her mother didn’t reply for a moment, her expression sad. But then she smiled—an echo of Luisa’s look again.
His thoughts churned as he tried to assimilate the new information he’d gleaned. Too much information. She’d had a twin. She’d lost her boyfriend as well, right? She’d clearly lost much. Did she make others feel good, to make herself feel better?
“I probably shouldn’t have come here.” He suddenly felt exposed and uncomfortable. Angry.
“Why not?” she replied. “You care about her.”
It was a plain statement of fact.
He nodded, not wanting to hide it from her. “People who get to know her do.”
“She moves so often, I wasn’t sure she got to know anyone all that well.” She looked at him. “I knew there had to be something that brought her home so unexpectedly.”
Did she think he’d made her come home? If only he had that influence over her.
“She’s supposed to see the specialist in the next month or so of course.” Her mother continued. “They’ve sent a few letters but she’s not told us where she’s been staying and she hadn’t mentioned it in her emails home.”
He looked at the photo of Luisa and her siblings. Five of them in total. Three older brothers—no wonder she could handle banter in the bar. And a twin sister. And Luisa had been sick.
He thought back to that passport photo that he’d seen in her room. Her hair had been shorn, he’d thought she was going through a pixie-look phase. But she hadn’t. Then he thought about what she’d said about her boyfriend. The one who’d had cancer.
We had so much in common.
And the questions she’d asked him. Have you ever told someone you love them
?
How could he have been so stupid? She had an anti-bucket list because she’d been sick. She’d had cancer. Her hair was so short in that picture because it was only just growing back. And she had an upcoming appointment? To have some more tests—to get her all-clear? Was she scared she was going to get sick again? Was that why she pushed everyone away? Why she kept moving?
He was furious with her. Her mum wasn’t over-protective. Well if she was, he didn’t blame her. This wasn’t about anyone else but Luisa and her stifled reaction to her own situation. She’d loved deeply once before. She’d lost him. And she refused to love like that again. She’d never love Hunter like that. He could never compete. And then there was Ellie.
Have you ever watched someone die?
Her twin. The kind of relationship that so few could understand. The closeness. The hurt she must have felt. But she’d run from the rest of her family. That protected youngest child, the only surviving daughter.
And she hadn’t told him any of it. Not really. Her omission felt as bad as a lie. He’d opened up to her and she hadn’t reciprocated and it galled. It felt like a betrayal of that honesty he’d thought they’d shared. She’d been holding so much back.
Once more he was destined for less than. Once more he’d lost—never getting as much as what he’d wanted. Always teased with the prospect. The possibility. And it was denied him.
It hurt. So damn much.
“She’s gone skating.” Her mother interrupted his silent rage.
He’d been quiet too long—even for him. But before he could offer an apology she just smiled, her eyes too knowing. Too understanding.
“Rollerskating, just down the road at the local school,” she explained. “All our kids went to school there. You could walk down and see if she’s still going or you might meet her on the way back.”
“That sounds like a great idea.” He huffed out a breath and put his glass on the low coffee table. “I’ll walk down now.”
She walked him back down the hallway. “Take care on the corner, that’s where it happened.”
He looked at the older woman and saw the keen determination in her eyes. Luisa’s over-protective mom was ensuring he was up with the play. She had ‘don’t hurt my daughter’ vibes radiating a mile off, but at the same time she wanted him to understand it all because she was worried her daughter was lonely. And clearly she knew Luisa’s tendency not to offer all information, so she was doing it for her. Go mom.