“No,” Lillian said firmly, “if he shows up again, we’ll go inside the house and call for help. I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”
“Lil,” Teri said, with a strange note in her voice, “you can’t tell me what to do.”
It was odd. The line should’ve been delivered with a childish pettiness—the kind that Lillian had heard from Teri many times over the years. But instead, Teri said it with such an assured confidence, with a hint of...compassion.
Like Lillian had gotten something wrong, and Teri was gently correcting her, because she knew better.
It was a strange, uneasy feeling.
“Well, he doesn’t seem to be here, so it doesn’t matter,” Lillian said briskly, trying to move past the odd moment with action. “Will you show me around your home?”
That distracted Teri right away, and she hopped out of the car, leading Lillian inside with noticeable excitement.
“So this is the living room, and it’s mostly furniture that was already here when Zach moved in, but I found this chair at Lenny’s antiques—” Teri plunged into the tour, obviously proud of her house and excited to show it off.
Lillian was struck by how happy she seemed. For some reason, Lillian had had the idea that Teri had simply grown out of her childhood bubbly effervescence. That adult Teri was more sober, more likely to get angry or upset.
Instead, it seemed like those qualities had been
the result of her situation. Now, here in this home that she obviously loved, her natural sunny disposition had come out again.
Lillian was torn—obviously she was happy that her sister was happy. But if the family had been what made her unhappy...
She followed Teri through the tour of the house, paying close attention to the things Teri seemed to be especially proud of. The tour ended in a pleasant, simply-decorated bedroom.
“This is where you can stay,” Teri announced. “Joel and Nina sometimes sleep here, but these days they’re always up in their cabin, now that Joel’s almost done fixing it up.”
“And Joel and Nina are...” Lillian said hesitantly.
“Oh, I completely forgot you’ve never met them,” Teri said, flushing. “Um, sorry. Joel is Zach’s brother, and Nina is Joel’s mate. Fiancée. You know.”
Lillian filed that away: apparently shifters used “mate” to mean “romantic partner.”
She also couldn’t help but notice that Teri had a whole new family, now—not only a fiancé, but a new brother- and sister-in-law.
Their mother had been expecting Teri to come crawling back any day, having realized that running away with her boyfriend wasn’t a good long-term solution for her life, and that she belonged with her family.
Lillian was starting to suspect that her mother was both wrong and right. Teri did belong with her family—but maybe it was this family, and not theirs.
It suddenly seemed possible that the state of the last few months—hardly speaking at all, never seeing Teri face-to-face once since she’d left—could just...keep on going.
And that was something Lillian didn’t think she could bear. To lose her baby sister forever...
“Teri, I’m sorry,” burst out of her mouth without any forethought or consent.
Teri’s forehead wrinkled in surprise. “For what?”
“For—for driving you away,” Lillian said, hearing the despair in her voice. “I could tell you were miserable. I knew that Mom was making you crazy, and that it wasn’t going to stop. And I just backed her up, instead of taking your side. I should’ve stood up to her for you.”
Lillian was the big sister, after all, by over seven years. It wasn’t right that Teri had been left to fend for herself like that.
Teri was quiet for a long while. “Thanks,” she said finally. “That means a lot, to hear that.”
Lillian nodded. “Good. You deserved better.”
“I did,” Teri said, with an edge of fierceness. Then she softened, taking on a faraway look. “But...it meant something to me, to break away on my own. You know? No one was letting me stand on my own two feet, so I stood up myself and walked away. And I’m proud of that.”
“Good,” Lillian said again, although her voice broke a little. Her heart was breaking a little, too. No matter how proud of herself Teri was, she shouldn’t have had to do that.