Page 34 of Chasing Home

“Are you sure? I don’t mind getting you anything you need.”

“I’m sure. My joints aren’t what they used to be, is all. I grow tired much too early nowadays.”

“I’m sure you’ve earned the extra breaks.”

Her eyes twinkle despite the exhaustion in them, as if her kindness outweighs all else. “Today, you have as well. Now, come sit beside me and ask what you want to know.”

I don’t hesitate to sit in the opposite chair. Leaning in toward her, I cross my leg over my knee and flip through the series of questions in my mind. There are so many I want to ask and the smallest bite of worry in my side that I won’t get the chance to get answers to them all.

“If she’s not close to Lee, what about her mom? Are her . . . parents close?”

Eliza turns her head so her cheek brushes the high back of the armchair as she holds my gaze and answers, “Lee and his wife are—” She cuts herself off and twists her mouth before continuing. “I only know what I’ve heard. Gossip in a small town is a blessing and a curse, my sweet. There’s no way to confirm the rumours unless we get answers from the mouths of the Roses, but from what I know, their marriage was not built from love. Wanda was raised by her mother, that much is true. Lee was off for long stretches and only home for the occasional holiday. Myself and everyone else can only assume?—”

“That he stayed because of Wanda.”

The statement sounds wrong. Gross.

Despite being cruel and selfish, I hate that he found a life somewhere else, with a woman who wasn’t my mother and a daughter that wasn’t me. But I’d rather my mother find a man who truly loves her than settle for one who only chose to be with her out of obligation.

“He’s an asshole,” I mutter.

Eliza chuckles. “He is an asshole.”

“It sounds wrong when you say it.”

She winks. “I’ve said far worse.”

“Do I want to know?”

“I’ll tell you another time,” she promises.

I nod and fidget in the ultra-comfortable chair, uncrossing my legs only to cross them again. “What is Wanda like? Personality-wise? Anna’s told me a couple things in passing, but nothing much.”

Like that she doesn’t know what it is she wants to do in life yet, so she’s trying a million new things until she finds something that sticks. The salon, for example. It was hers before she decided on a whim to abandon it to go find our father. It was a blessing for Anna, but I’m not the type of person to leave things unfinished the way my half-sister does.

Will we even get along when we meet?

“She’s to the point. Blunt and crass. Determined and fearless. She doesn’t care much for the opinions of others. You have more in common with one another than you think.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Why not?” she asks, not a hint of judgment in her tone, just simple curiosity.

I ignore my discomfort at diving this deep into my thoughts in the presence of someone else and change the subject. “Is she open-minded? Because once she learns about this, she’s going to be . . . upset.”

“Or she could be happy. Isn’t there a part of you that’s excited to have a sister?”

I pause. “That’s why I’m here.”

Her smile is knowing. “I know.”

“When she gets back to town, from what you know about her, do you think she’ll listen to what I have to say?”

Eliza reaches across the space between chairs and grabs my hand from my lap. Her thumb rubs softly over my knuckles with a gentle reassurance.

“I think that if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll do more than just listen to you, Aurora.”

Lifting my hair off my neck, I step out of the house and onto the porch. The wood planks creak beneath my sneakers as I twist to let the screen door shut, but the sound of hooves clopping along the gravel road is too loud not to hear.

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