Page 30 of My Heart Before You

They often slept together as kids, even though they each had their own bed. Frequently at night, Analie would sneak into her bed and hug her like her own personal living stuffed animal. She couldn’t count the amount of times she woke up being “the little spoon” growing up. Their mother said that they were always on top of each other in the womb and shared a crib as infants, so it made sense that they preferred sleeping next to each other.

“Mmmmmm, you’re right. Plus, your back’s less hairy than Scott's, which makes you a better ‘lovey.’ No hairs tickling my nose and waking me in the middle of the night.”

A chuckle left her mouth. “I should hope not!” Her sister had the only relationship that she was aware of in which the wife spooned the husband.

Analie smiled wide over her encircled coffee mug, the steam lifting and dancing in front of her brown eyes. Once when they were tweens, they sat on the double vanity of their bathroom and tried to find any appreciable differences between their eyes, but were unlucky in their search.

“What time is it?”

Emilie craned her neck to look at the microwave. “10:34.”

Analie exhaled a dismissive breath. “I must truly be on vacation. Normally, I would have been up five hours already.”

“Yeah, yeah, Miss Overachiever. Regale us with your accomplishments.” She rolled her eyes.

A tossed pillow narrowly missed her coffee cup.

“Hey! Priorities. Don’t spill my coffee!”

“Apologies.” Analie took another sip. “What’s on the itinerary today?”

“There’s no itinerary.” She felt a cat-like grin cross her lips, watching her sister’s eye twitch. “Didn’t you say you were on vacation?”

Her twin nodded slowly, no doubt a feeling of unease brewing in her stomach. Analie’s natural state was in motion.

“Relax.” She let her grin widen. “I have some plans, but I didn’t want us to be overscheduled. It’s more of a rough outline of possible activities that we can choose to do if we feel like it.”

“Like . . .”

“Ice skating . . .”

Analie’s lips lifted as she set down her mug and started finger combing her hair.

“. . . walk through the Christmas lights in the Commons, eat at Bo’s. I haven’t looked, but we can see if there's any tickets left to the Holiday Pops, or we can always hang out and talk.”

“Idolike to talk.”

“You?” She mock gasped while flattening her hand to her chest. “The person who pursued a career that specialized in talkingatothers, often without interruption? I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“Lecturing colleague students isn’ttalking at, it’s teaching.” Analie’s brows lifted.

“Sure. Whatever you have to tell yourself.”

Her sister picked up another pillow and held it aloft in a threatening way. “I’ll use this if I have to.”

She chuckled. “I’ll be good.”

The pillow returned to the bench. “What do you want to talk about?”

“How are Liam and Penny?”

This was something she had to relearn after her world turned upside down. At first it was getting used to seeing her sister again. Then it was being okay with seeing her children.

Initially, Analie had only brought Liam over with her for visits. Absorbed with her grief and self-destruction, she’d completely forgotten that when she cast out her sister, she lost contact with her nephew as well. It had taken Emilie a long time until she felt ready to see the little girl who was supposed to be her daughter’s best friend.

Across the bench her sister tensed, no doubt running through the possible ways to answer that statement without upsetting her. Her family was all still used to walking on eggshells around her.

“It’s okay, An. We worked on this before I left, remember? It’s important for you to share your life with me as I share mine with you. We have to have more honest interactions with each other.”

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