Page 41 of Butterfly Sisters
“What was it about me thatfityou back then?”
His brows pulled together as he constructed an answer to her question. “You were always thinking, always one step ahead. It’s in your blood.”
How did that make her a good fit for him? “What do you mean?”
“Your sister Meredith needs physical movement, but you need mental exercise to be happy. And I rose to the challenge of keeping you excited. I’d never read books before I met you—that was all for you. But when I would lie beside you, reading, I felt what it was like to be in your world, and I loved it. You challenged my everyday thoughts. You taught me to look at things differently, see bigger outcomes. Having your perspective made me feel like a whole person.”
He flipped onto his side, shifting backward so the hammock didn’t make them roll into each other.
“So, you enjoyed learning, like I did,” she said.
“Yes, but that wasn’t all. You just see things differently than I do. The world is this giant place that you can experience—you’re not afraid of any of it. Deep down, as a kid, I was terrified of what was out there, scared the world wouldn’t understand me. You taught me that there was nothing to fear, that my world was only as small as I made it.”
He stared at her, vulnerable, the two of them looking into each other’s eyes, their arms supporting their heads and his fingertips tickling hers. If she pushed her head forward, she could press her lips to his. She considered it, but then thought better of it. She had a lot to learn about the older Colton. The untamed child had been replaced by this refined southern man.
But their eyes met just before he rolled onto his back again, and she had to force herself to breathe. “That’s not to say you didn’t drive me crazy too—in lots of ways,” he said.
“How so?” she asked, still trying to regain her composure.
“Well, besides putting me in the friend zone for all of our teenage years, no matter how hard I tried to make you see me as more, you wouldn’t see it.”
“I did,” she said. “But I didn’t want to ruin things.”
“That’s what I mean by saying you’re always thinking. Your worry that you were going to ruin something kept you from ever experiencing it.”
She lay there, her eyes on the black outline of a bird as it flew between her and the sun, as she considered this.
“It’s the same with Meredith. You avoid her.”
She sat up, the hammock wobbling underneath them. “I do not try to avoid my sister. I’ve been there with her the whole time! It’s her who’s always leaving.”
He gently reached up and took her hand, pulling her back down, but her shoulders were now tense and she wasn’t comfortable anymore.
“I’ve been there with the both of you. You don’t talk to her. You don’t ask her about her life.”
“I did! The other day,” she said, defensive, remembering their conversation on the porch. “I asked her what she did for a living because I didn’t even know.”
“That’s a start,” he said, still holding her hand. “But Leigh, you didn’t even know what your own sister did for a living. Why did it take you so long to ask?”
“You don’t understand, Colton. She’s different with you.”
“Because I ask her things. And I listen to her. That’s why she’s different.”
“She’s never wanted to be around any of us—ever. When I left for college, she didn’t even bother to come out of the house to tell me goodbye.”
“And did you ask her why?”
She lay there on the hammock, silently frustrated. Should she have to extend an olive branch when she’d done nothing in the world to warrant Meredith’s behavior?
“Nobody hears her,” he said, his voice serious. “And that’s all she wants.”
That was ridiculous. “If you’re so great at reading people, what doIwant?”
He grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkling adorably. “You want to have purpose. You’re a doer, a worker. And you want to be able to show off what you can do because it’s spectacular.”
The hairs on her arms stood up, his compliment warming her. He’d hit the nail right on the head. “What about you?” she asked quietly. “What doyouwant?”
“I wanna fish off the side of my boat and watch football out on my porch in the evenings. I wanna go into town and know everybody there.”
