Anna shook her head at him. “You are never telling me what case I can handle. Do you understand me?”
“Dammit, Clare!”
The blood drained from his face and pooled in his stomach.
Anna looked as if he’d slapped her. She slowly turned around and raced back up the stairs. After a moment he heard his bedroom door slam shut. He knew he should go apologize, try to talk to her, but he couldn’t face her at the moment. He couldn’t face any of them.
He turned and went out the front door.
His mother’s words rang in his ears as she spoke to his grandmother. “Told you so.”
♥♥♥
The day began with a huge fight, but it ended with her in Skylar’s arms.
The Griffin family had a holiday tradition. They gathered in the living room at dusk to watch a movie every year. Tonight’s pick was a feel-good comedy with a heart-warming message. Unfortunately, it featured twin daughters with traditional parents, and the characters reminded her of her own family.
She and Skylar sat on one end of the couch with his sister on the other. Joey was upstairs asleep. His parents cuddled on the love seat. Skylar had turned his body at an angle so she could lean back against him. He had a bowl of popcorn on his lap within reach of his left hand and his other arm was wrapped around her. His fingers absently played with strands of her hair.
Anna had hidden from Skylar’s family for two hours that morning. Embarrassed after their public argument, she would have stayed locked in his room until it was time to go home, but Becca came upstairs after her. His sister talked her into spending the day with the Griffin women, saying they all knew what Skylar was like to deal with. Nobody blamed her. That made her feel better.
Skylar stayed gone until dinner time. They could barely look at each other, but right after dinner he had cornered her for a second without witnesses. “Let’s take a moment to act like we talked things out and made up with each other.”
She’d glared up at him. “Why don’t we actually talk about it and make up for real?” Hands on hips, she said, “I don’t appreciate you talking down to me. I was good enough to make junior partner on my own. I’m not some dumb twit that just fell off the turnip truck.”
His lips twitched. “Turnip truck? Where are you from? Midwest? A southern state?”
She’d given him the name of the town and state.
Then he had noticed his mom watching, and he kissed Anna on the cheek. She had put her arms around him. It was enough to bring a smile to his mother’s face, enough to make his family think the engagement was still on.
And another brick of guilt landed on her shoulders.
Now, while watching the movie, emotion clogged her throat as the sisters on-screen started fighting over identity. One of them was tired of having an identical twin who borrowed her clothes without asking and showed up at every event she was invited to, tired of being one-half of a whole.
Tears welled up in Anna’s eyes, and the awful things she’d said to Lily echoed in her head.
“I wish I didn’t have a twin sister!” her eleven-year-old self yelled.
She bolted upright, jumped off the couch, and ran from the room. Skylar called her name, but she kept running until she reached the bedroom. After the door closed, she fell on her knees. The dam broke, and every ounce of grief she’d suppressed over the years came spilling out.
Hands grasped her shoulders and pulled her up off the floor. She turned and was immediately wrapped in a pair of strong arms. Face pressed against his solid chest, she breathed in his familiar scent. The independent part of her, the part that hated to lean on anyone fought for control.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Skylar’s arms tightened. “When you ran off, I thought it was part of the act. I sure didn’t expect to find you on the floor. Are you okay?”
Sobbing, she tried to speak but couldn’t.
“That was a happy movie,” he said. “Why are you crying?”
“M-my s-sister.”
He stiffened. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“L-lily. She died when we were eleven. C-car crash. Stupid drunk guy. He ran a red light. Hit them. They d-died. My parents. My sister. P-party. I was at a party. They died.”
“Oh, baby.”
Anna gulped air before spilling everything at his feet. “Lily was supposed to be at the party with me, but I was going through a stage where I didn’t want to have someone looking like me anymore.” A burst of hysterical laughter shook her body. “The last thing I said to her was that I wished I didn’t have a twin. A few hours later, I didn’t.”