Hannah Alexander - Collateral Damage

He was reaching for his T-shirt when a voice trailed from the other end of the hallway. He jerked, bumped his elbow on the towel rack and gritted back a growl.

The voice was Sarah’s. He couldn’t keep a smile from his face. She was here.

Then Emma’s voice fell plaintively on his ears, not quite clear enough to make out the words. The voices grew softer but more intense, which meant they were probably arguing and didn’t want anyone to hear. Which made him want to hear.

He took two seconds to comb his still-damp hair and cracked open the door. Time to calm the waters.

“...don’t listen to me. You never listen! I told you, Nick said I could stay. We can both stay. Edward said so, too.”

“And you thought you could accept the invitation for both of us without consulting me?”

“Come on, Sarah, they’re family friends, practically family.”

“You’ve been communicating with him online. Do you know how dangerous that could have been? What if it hadn’t been Nick?”

“But it was.”

“You didn’t know that for sure. What would stop someone from contacting you online and posing as Nick to lure you down here? How did you know you weren’t walking into a deadly trap?”

“But Nick said he wanted to talk to me...to us.”

“He had no idea you were coming here. What you did was beyond dangerous.”

The silence that followed her statement was telling. Nick waited for some exclamation of outrage from Emma, maybe a good, out-and-out catfight, but that wasn’t Sarah’s way except when it came to her twin, and judging by Emma’s behavior last night, she might be impulsive but not aggressive.

“That car parked outside isn’t yours,” Sarah said at last. “The title reverted to me upon Mom’s death, and I’m the one who calls the shots in our household now, whether we like it or not. That car goes back to Sikeston today, and you’re driving it.”

More silence.

Nick could almost close his eyes and picture the twins, Shelby and Sarah Russell, arguing in the school hallway, or on their front porch or just about anywhere. Typically it was Shelby who instigated the fight in an effort to force Sarah to do something she didn’t want to do, such as join the cheerleading squad or go on a youth camping trip or sign up for summer sports. Sarah knew how to dig in and not be moved.

“I can’t believe you would force me back home before I even have a chance to meet folks Mom and Dad used to know. How could you?”

It was time for Nick to make an appearance and stop eavesdropping. As the two continued to argue, he stepped down the hallway barefoot. He saw them before they knew he was there, saw Sarah’s shiny, dark brown hair feathered around her face, those gray-green eyes that he used to look for in the school hallways. His friend. And when he wasn’t being an idiot about her twin sister for those brief couple of weeks, he’d occasionally admitted to himself, even that long ago, that Sarah was the one with a special quality that put him at peace.

His breathing stopped for a second or two. Sarah’s looks had changed dramatically, of course. Gone was the Goth look she’d worn to distinguish herself from her more popular sister. He still remembered the light of intelligence that had set off Sarah’s gaze from Shelby’s. Same coloring, different person looking out on the world, and that made all the difference.

“Sweetie, I’m not trying to be mean,” Sarah said.

“If we go home we might never come back. I want to meet these people and get to know them.” Emma marched across the living room to the sliding glass door that overlooked the backyard. Her warm brown eyes, that dark hair, the way she moved... Her appearance filled him with such curiosity. No one in the Russell family had brown eyes...did they?

“Now that we’re here, Nick says we should be safe,” Emma said. “Why can’t we stay?”

“You’re not calling the shots. I am.” Sarah’s voice held the barest thread of steel, tempered by gentleness.

Emma stood with her back to the room, arms crossed as she stared in the direction of the trees past the backyard.

“Do you know what people think when they see a girl your age drive up alone to a household of men?”

Emma turned around, rolling her eyes. “Oh, come on, Sarah.” She held out her arms and looked down. “I could pass for twelve, and Edward’s a pastor. He and Nick know everybody in town. Who’s going to think something gross?”

“The smaller a town is, the more people notice.”

Nick realized he was becoming an eavesdropper. “Trust me,” he said at last, “most folks in this town know us better.”

Sarah jumped to her feet and swung toward him, eyes wide. And then her full lips curved up in a smile of recognition. He remembered vividly the familiar light that had so often glowed from her when they were both young and full of life and ideas and dreams about the future.

* * *

Sarah’s breath played and danced up and down her windpipe as she stared at Nicolas Tyler in his fully grown, fully masculine body, with shoulders appearing almost as wide as the swing set that they once played on in the Tyler backyard. His skin was already tanned, brown hair darkened by moisture from the shower. His dark brown eyes were still striated with flecks of sunshine gold. Emma’s eyes. He entered the room in well-worn jeans and a navy T-shirt.

The impact after all these years took her breath completely.

His mouth curved up in a smile, setting off that characteristic cleft in his chin—the cleft his daughter had inherited. “Is this really Sarah Russell, who never stepped outside without her black everything?” Voice twice as deep as when they were teenagers, much nicer, even, than his phone voice. He sounded almost bemused.

Sarah chuckled. “Goth does not live on forever.”

“I bet you were glad that spiderweb tattoo on your collarbone was temporary. And you finally dropped the face goo.”

Sarah didn’t blush easily, but she’d suddenly become Emma’s age. “Hi, Nick.” Stop it, Sarah. It’s no longer high school, and you’re a grown woman. “Thank you so much for calling me last night.”

He glanced at Emma. Was he studying her features a little too carefully?

Emma looked away. “Sorry, sis, really. I should’ve called you. Nick and Edward both drilled me on it. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Why did you turn off your cell?”

Emma grimaced. “I forgot my charger. My phone went dead halfway here last night.”

Something eased in Sarah’s stomach. So Emma hadn’t shut her out intentionally. Right? “It’s a good thing I didn’t know that last night when you were on the road alone. We’ll have to hunt for it when we get home.”

“But not today, right?” Emma gave Sarah her most plaintive look. “I know all about Dad’s side of the family, but Mom had family here in Jolly Mill. I wanted to find out more about her, okay? Talk to people who knew her. You got to live here. I didn’t. It’s not fair.”

“Fair? You grew up in Sikeston. Larger town, more relatives, and they all knew Mom, too. We’ll visit Carmen before we leave.”

“I miss Mom and Dad.” As more tears slid down Emma’s face, Sarah sneaked at glance toward Nick’s compassionate, sorrow-filled expression, and she knew all their lives had just taken a huge turn. He had questions; she could see them in his eyes. How was she going to answer them?

She was still lost in Nick’s gaze when the sound of a softly closing door reached her. She glanced around the room. Emma was gone. Seconds later came the sound of the Beetle as it revved and buzzed away from the house. Emma was going to get her way, and nothing would ever be the same.