Page 24 of Free to Run
After catching her up on the events of last night, she’s silent. “You must be excited that Colby will be stateside for a while,” she says.
“Aren’t you? You and Holly were closer to him than I was. He mentioned last night that he might visit everyone at the farm. I can’t remember the last time he was there,” I muse.
“When does he plan on coming?” Corinna questions.
“I don’t know. Want to FaceTime him to find out?”
Her mouth turns down, and her head turns away. That’s unusual. “No,” she says softly.
I frown. “Why not? You guys get along great.”
She plays with her fork for a few minutes before taking a deep breath. Something’s not right here. What did I miss between her and Colby?
“I don’t think he likes me that much.” She fiddles with her coffee next, stirring it repeatedly.
I frown. Where on earth is this lack of self-assurance from my man-eating sister coming from? Did Colby do or say something to make her feel that way? Before I can try to contradict her, she takes another breath and continues.
“It’s just that…a long time ago…” Her words trail off. Taking a deep breath, she sits up straight. She’s completely unaware of how much her luscious figure captures more than one set of male eyes around us, I note absentmindedly. “Ali, can we just leave it by saying there are things Colby did that make me realize that I’m not the kind of woman he’d ever go for?”
I burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny!” She falls back into her seat, frustrated and miserable.
Whoa. Hold the hell on.
“Where is all this coming from?” I reach for my sister’s hand and squeeze it, hard.
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s just something I overheard him say at school.” Decisively, she shoves her food away, her face a picture of misery.
I’m in shock. “What did he say to you?” I tread cautiously. I don’t want to hurt her more.
“It wasn’t him directly,” she states. I’m ready to find Colby and kill him. “But let’s just say a long time ago, I learned very definitively what Colby Hunt thinks of me. Let’s add that I won’t be going down that path anytime soon, and that’s all I’m saying.”
I slide out from my side of the booth and move over to hers. She immediately rests her head on my shoulder. “It’s so hard to be as perfect as all of you. I’ve given up trying.” I sit with my sister for a few moments, both of us lost in our own thoughts. Hers have to be vastly different from mine, which are running along the lines of murder and mayhem. She interrupts my plotting by saying, “I think I’m going to join a nunnery.”
Cori in a convent? I burst out laughing.
She giggles, squeezing me harder.
“I miss you, Ali, so much. It used to be you, Hols, and I against the world.” She runs her hands under her eyes while I look at her in astonishment. How did I not realize I was contributing to my sister’s unhappiness? “When I realized you were avoiding Keene, I figured something had happened. I hoped maybe you’d talk to me like you used to.”
I’m quiet, absorbing the impact of the blows she just threw at me.
Corinna has always been known in our family as the happy-go-lucky sister. Have a Christmas surprise you want to spring on someone? Don’t tell Corinna. She wants all the joy to happen immediately. Having a bad day? Walk into her kitchen and get a hug. She can’t keep a smile off her face. She’s the one who believes the world is meant for no boundaries and there’s no such thing as a bad day. To know that this has been building up inside of her, worming its way into her enormous heart, is making me bleed inside.
I turn to my sister and say some of the most important words I think will ever come out of my mouth.
“No matter where I am, where I live, who I’m with, or where I work, there is nothing in this world more important to me than family, Corinna. I would give up my life to protect, nurture, and love it. I would give up friendships, relationships, anything for it. I would even walk away to protect it, and I mean that. Nothing will ever break the bonds we have. Nothing.” I shake her hands that I’m holding. “Do you understand that?”
She nods before lifting our joined hands to wipe away her tears.
“I don’t know what was in Colby’s mind.” If I can find out, preferably with a meat cleaver in my hand so I can chop up valuable body parts, I will. “But you’re sensational. All of us have our special skills. Do you not think I wish I could hold a camera like Holly?” I’m not lying about anything I’m telling her.
She laughs a watery laugh. “Don’t we all. Remember that selfie we took and one of us had our thumb over the camera?”
I snort at that memory. “We showed Holly and she got us PopSockets for Christmas so we couldn’t do that again.”
We giggle.
