What the week did do was show Lacey how much her sister loved her. She knew, anyway, but, still, it filled her heart, and broke it, too, to see Kacey trying so hard to be invisible. Didn’t matter what she wore in the makeup or clothes department, didn’t matter what she did with her hair, Kacey entered a room with her eyes open and people were drawn to her.
It wasn’t her fault. There was nothing either of them could do about it.
Maturity had brought that knowledge to Lacey’s heart.
Moving away, having a life of her own where the two of them weren’t being compared, where she wasn’t always seen side by side with her sister, had been her way of dealing with reality. Of finding her own peace. Her sense of self and a chance to be truly happy.
And a chance to let Kacey be happy, too. Feeling guilt for something you couldn’t help was excruciating. Hurting the one who was a part of you from the womb wasn’t something you could ever be at peace with.
Jem measured and brought computerized drawings. Lacey signed city permit forms. Twice that week Kacey had pushed the two of them—Lacey and Jem—out the door to go look at flooring, screens, paint swatches, while Kacey entertained Levi at Lacey’s house.
She’d chattered about the house. Asking questions about the framing process. Pouring the floor, leveling it. Running electric. Keeping her mind focused so it didn’t run away with her.
He cooperated nicely. Answering questions. Explaining in detail—with utmost patience with her ignorance. Making suggestions, based on what she said she wanted, not on his own tastes.
She didn’t even know his own tastes.
Or anything new about him. Other than that he was a very patient man. And clearly very knowledgeable about his business.
And that was as it should be.
They didn’t mention Levi. She couldn’t. Not for any ethical reason, but because it didn’t feel right to her, discussing a former investigation. He didn’t mention his son, either, which she found a bit odd. Parents generally went on and on about their youngsters, finding every normal developmental advancement a miracle and oftentimes accomplished better than anyone had ever done it before.
She put his reticence down to the fact that she’d represented a chance that Levi could be taken away from him. But in his shoes, she’d have been glad for a chance to mention the boy in the nonthreatening setting, conveying the sense of normalcy that Jem wanted her to know existed within the walls of his home.
“How long is your sister staying?” He broke protocol—asking a personal question—as they left the home repair superstore he’d taken her to just before closing Thursday night, after she’d been more than an hour late getting home. He’d wanted her to take a look at retractable shades, and to consider windows, as well, for the two screened sides of the new room, so that she could use the space year-round.
He’d already talked her into including a heating duct. She’d have to have heat and air to include the square footage in her home’s value assessment.
It also meant raised taxes, but not enough to make the trade-off a bad idea.
“I’m not sure,” she said now, feeling suddenly deflated in spite of the fact that she’d been expecting questions about Kacey. It had only been a matter of time. “She’s got another couple of weeks until she has to go back to work. I’m hoping she’ll be with me that long.”
“You two really lived together until you were thirty?”
“Yep.”
“What about relationships?”
What about them? Defensiveness sprang forth, but she wasn’t susceptible to it anymore. “We had them,” she said, assuming, she hoped, a Kacey smile as she answered lightly.
“But neither of you married.”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“That’s a bit personal, don’t you think?” She could be Kacey when she needed to be. Like a lot of identicals, they’d done their share of switching places and fooling people as they’d been growing up. She just had to make sure she didn’t make eye contact.
It was the eyes that gave them away.
“It’s just... You’re both so beautiful and...”
Lacey actually got hot from the inside out. Which brought to mind the complaints her mother had made a year or two ago as she’d gone through middle-age flashes.
“Why this sudden interest in our love lives?” Her tone held authority, not come-hitherness. She was Lacey again. Because there was no point in trying to be anyone else.
“My interest isn’t sudden.”