Page 1 of Butterfly Sisters
PROLOGUE
There was only one what-if in Leigh Henderson’s life. She didn’t think about it often, because when she let it into her consciousness, it swarmed her: the lost opportunity for a totally different life.
It had been the spring of her senior year in high school. She was hardly old enough to make her own decisions then, let alone to know what was right in front of her. The weather had turned considerably warm that year, the springtime rushing in with summer flare, temperatures in the eighties sending all her friends running for the Gulf Coast beaches of Seaside and Watercolor for spring break, but Leigh had chosen to spend the week at her grandmother’s cabin on Old Hickory Lake—her favorite place in the world. She spenteverysummer and holiday at the lake house with her grandmother.
No matter how hard her schoolwork or whatever she might be going through with her sister Meredith (and they were always going through something), her nan could always help her to see a different perspective. That year, Leigh knew she would be saying goodbye to a side of herself that she wasn’t sure she was ready to give up, and she’d needed the comfort of Nan and the cabin to soften the blow.
Taking full advantage of the spike in temperature, Leigh’s bare feet hung off the edge of the dock, her pink toenails dipping under the cold lapping water below her. She leaned back and turned her freshly bronzed face to the sun, her locks of golden hair puddling on the dock at her back, her fingers spread out on the old wood, taking in the final moments of her youth.
A long, slow whistle caught her ear, sending her reaching for her towel to cover last year’s pink bikini that tied at her hips and behind her neck. She twisted around to find Colton Harris walking toward her—no shoes, no shirt, wide smile. She rolled her eyes to stifle the flutter in her stomach that she got whenever he was around. She twisted toward him, taking in the smooth gait of his walk, the olive bare chest, and the square of his jaw, a pang hitting her right in the gut.
“Whatcha doin’?” he asked, plopping down beside her, those dark-brown eyes with gold flecks sparkling as he took her in.
She set the towel back down beside her on the dock.
“It’s Sunday. Don’t you have to pack to go back home?”
Leigh sighed. “I don’t want to,” she replied honestly, turning her gaze to the broad lake in front of her. If she looked at Colton too long, she might change her mind about leaving. She swallowed to keep the lump out of her throat, swinging her feet back and forth. The sun reflected off the water, giving it a blue hue with shimmering sparkles that danced across the surface.
His silence finally pulled her attention back to him. That million-dollar smile faded as Colton studied her. He could always read her. “When you coming back?” The question had a hint of desperation in it that only she could notice because she knew him so well. He fiddled with a lock of her hair, his finger grazing her bare shoulder.
“I’m not sure,” she answered, paying extra attention to the round of his shoulders and the curve of his face, burning it into her memory and knowing this was it. They were too young; the timing wasn’t right. And while she’d never felt more herself with anyone, she had to keep moving forward. This was what she’d been preparing for her whole young life. “I’m spending this summer in Chicago.”
Colton wrinkled his nose. “Chicago? Why?”
“I got into Northwestern University, and I start this fall.” The announcement that had prompted cheers and emotional hugs and kisses from her parents withered now on her lips.
He blinked, his hand falling from her shoulder as he looked out at Old Hickory with a frown, digesting this news. Then he forced a smile. She knew it was forced—it was too tight, not his usual laid-back look of amusement. “All them books we’ve been readin’ every summer worked out for ya then,” he said.
She nodded, letting him think that it was only the summer books they’d shared over ice cream, stretched out in the grass under the trees—not bothering to tell him that she’d spent every single minute back home in Spring Hill studying, scratching down facts on cards and flashing them to herself each morning as she ran out the door, writing research papers until way past her bedtime, and highlighting notes while holding sandwiches at lunch and rocking babies during her babysitting jobs—work was literally all she did.
“You won’t even miss me,” she said, trying to make the heaviest of situations seem lighter. “You’ll be able to spend every weekend with Teddy and Smash and the guys from baseball you hang out with all the time, and I won’t be there to get in the way anymore.”
He offered a half-smile, and she knew that her comment hadn’t helped. “May be I like you gettin’ in the way.”
Resentment swelled up from the pit of her stomach as she tried to fight the guilt that the look in his eyes caused her. “Colton, I can’t hang out with you and your friends forever.”
Her point was a stab and the sting showed on his face. “Why not? They not good enough for Miss Smarty Pants?”
“I didn’t mean it that way…”
He pursed his lips and looked out at the small peninsula of pine trees jutting out next to the dock.
“We’re not wired the same, you and me,” she said, still trying to explain, but he was already shaking his head, annoyed.
Colton ran his hand through his sun-streaked brown hair, the golden strands already bright from being outside over the last few days. “What you wanna go to college for?” he asked, teasing her.
“Yeah, what you wanna go to college for?” her younger sister Meredith asked, as she paced down the grassy hill from Nan’s cabin to the dock, her wild blonde curls bouncing.
Her sister clamped her blue eyes on Leigh’s. If Meredith were choosing sides, it would inevitably be the one opposite Leigh. She was only a year younger than Leigh, but she acted more like an older sister—bossy, independent. Meredith crossed her arms over her T-shirt and grinned in consensus with Colton before staring at Leigh, challenge in her eyes. The few times her sister had actually smiled were all with Colton. He had a way of bringing it out of her when no one else could.
Colton gave Meredith an air high-five and she shot one back to him, holding up the palm of her hand, something they’d started as young kids and never let go.
Even though Colton seemed to have taken an interest in Leigh, he and Meredith had always had a bond. They were like brother and sister, and at times they were so much on the same page that Leigh wondered why he and Meredith hadn’t just gotten together. But whenever she let that youthful jealousy get the upper hand and suggested it, Colton always gave her a sideways smile and told her that Leigh was much more his type.
“Whywouldn’tI want to go to college?” Leigh asked, not wanting to admit to Colton or Meredith that she was scared to live away from everyone she knew, terrified to be so far from Nan and the cabin, and heartbroken to leave Colton.
The distress lingering on Colton’s face sliced through her. Her skin burning from the heat of the sun, and wanting to get herself out of the conversation, Leigh jumped off the dock, plunging into the frigid water. Her head went under, bubbles floating up from her nose. When she emerged, she put her goose-bumped forearms on the dock and looked up at Colton and her sister.
