Page 13 of My Heart Before You

Analie had probably been up for hours, run four miles, showered, packed her kids’ lunches, made breakfast for her family, and dropped her kids off at daycare before commuting to campus. As much as she and Analie looked nearly identical, causing their mother to give them almost matching, rhyming names, their personalities were on opposite ends of a very long spectrum.

A door opened and closed and she assumed her sister was in her office by now. “I wanted to talk to you before you headed out.” The authoritative tone left her sister’s voice and uncertainty replaced it, pulling Emilie quickly out of her sassy mood.

“Sure, what’s up?” She sat up in bed, silenced her impending alarm, and ran her hand through her hair, still damp from last night's shower.

“I was looking at my schedule and was hoping to come visit the first week of December. Do you think that would work for you? Something short. Maybe a long weekend?”

She knew Analie felt guilty about not being able to help get her settled into Boston, even though she’d been teaching double summer sessions.

“Yeah, I’d love to have you!”

She heard an exhale. “Great. I’ll look up flights and confirm with you before I book.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Her sister's voice softened. “I miss you.”

Though they’d talked nearly every day, Emilie missed seeing and hugging her sister. Her lips pulled up at the evidence that she wasn’t alone in her feelings. “I miss you too.”

“It feels like grad school sometimes, except I’m here and you’re away.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, remembering how weird it was the first time in twenty-two years not to live under the same roof. She fought the heaviness pulling at her shoulders with something light. “It should be a winter wonderland when you visit. Complete with snow I’m told.”

“There’ll already be snow on the ground in early December?”

“Potentially.”

“I hate the cold.”

Emilie snorted and rolled her eyes. “You’ll be fine. You can borrow my winter stuff.”

“You’llbe fine.I’llbe cold,” her twin rebuffed.

Ignoring her sister’s words, she did what any “little” sister would do, and pushed the barb farther in. “I’ve been googling the weather to find out what this first winter will be like. Come January the snow sticks to the ground for months and doesn’t melt until March.”

“Then expect my next visit to be sometime in April.”

“It’s still freezing in April. It’s just the snow will have melted.”

“You’re really trying to win me over on Boston, aren’t you, Em?” Her sister seemed to finally catch onto her game because she could hear Analie’s smile through her words.

A bark of laughter fell from her lips. Her mind played a well-worn image of her sister's face—chesnut eyebrows raised high on her freckled forehead.

“It’s nice to hear you laugh.”

The comment sat in the air for a moment. They both understood the darkness that hovered around her, but she felt too light after teasing her sister this morning to give any power to it.

Analie switched the subject with another question. “Are you hanging out with Ash today?”

She rose out of bed and pulled up the covers. “No. She’s on shift. I’m going skating after my appointment and then cooking some meals for the week.”

“That sounds like . . . a good busy day.”

She let slide the implication behind her sister’s words. Now that her family wasn’t there to make sure she took care of herself, they were worried that she wouldn’t.

“It should be.”

“All right.” Analie’s voice switched back to business. “I'm going to try and look up tickets before my first class, and I’ll email you the information.”

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