Page 7 of Return By Fire

That’s when Kara snaps, “I’m having dreams of him falling on a log.”

Maris is either working through the pain meds to process her words or thinking about them. She eventually agrees. “It would be fitting. Asshole.”

Kara lets out another choked cry. “Can’t. Do. This.”

Dean asks, “What? Have a baby or have Jennings’s baby?”

Kara grunts, “Both.”

Every molecule in my body turns to stone. Did they just say what I think they said?

And my sister—half a universe away riding a high induced by unicorns and morphine—just smiles beatifically.

I sink back into the uncomfortable hospital chair and watch for hours as Maris and this as yet unknown Dean coach her best friend into having my best friend’s baby.

When it’s done, when Kara—and Jennings’s!— son is born, Maris doesn’t say a word. She closes her phone and cries as she falls asleep.

Not for the first time since she’s been in her wreck, I join her.

CHAPTER FIVE

Present Day

“Oh my god.” Rainey breathes. Her eyes flit from Maris’s to mine. “That’s what you meant when you said they’d spoken years before.”

“Yes.” I reach over and capture Maris’s hand. Knowing now what I didn’t then, I’m still not certain I would have had Dean place that call despite how much I needed her that night. But if you hadn’t, what would have happened? Dean’s voice taunts me.

The answer is simple. My brother would never have met Jed.

Maris speaks next. “Still, there are some just desserts in this world.”

I chastise her, “Maris.”

“You can’t tell me you’re sorry they’re gone. Not after what they did to you and Dean,” she fumes.

I’m not either, but the confusion on Rainey’s and Meadow’s faces forces me to explain, “My parents disowned us. Long before Dean and Jed met for the first time, they died in a fire.”

“What did that matter to you and Dean?” Meadow asks timidly.

I study the lake that frames her in the backdrop. “After the fire, we were contacted by their estate lawyer.”

Satisfaction crosses Rainey’s face. “Let me guess, they made amends to you and Dean. You were left with it all.”

With the perspective of time, I’m able to answer honestly, “Absolutely.”

Rainey’s jaw gapes. “They did?”

Maris snorts. “Like hell. They left them a single sheet of paper.”

“Then what...”

I interrupt Meadow. “It said, ‘We leave you each other. That’s all you deserve.’ So, yes. They did leave us everything of theirs that was of value.” Elaborating, I try to explain, “Losing them freed something inside of me, us? Maybe it confirmed we were stronger together than they thought we could be. Either way, we were ready when Jed came to Florida.”

“Yeah, about Jed?” Rainey squirms.

“Yes?”

Maris elbows me. “I think what Rainey’s trying to say is get back to the good stuff. They want to hear about how sparks flew between our brothers from the first time they met.”

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