She tried to be quiet as she dumped her purse in the second bedroom and padded into the single bathroom, where she flipped on the shower and waited for the hot water to steam up the small room. She felt cold to the bone.
She hadn’t exactly dressed for a cold morning trek over to Evan’s, after all. That was why she still felt haphazard shivers attacking her.
No way were they caused by Evan Taggart himself.
She stepped under the streaming water, nearly groaning with relief as the hot needles stung her skin.
“I thought I heard you leave already.” Sarah’s voice rose above the rush of water, breaking through Leandra’s dazed heat-giddiness.
Leandra looked around the tastefully striped shower curtain to see her cousin peeking around the corner of the door. “I did. I’ll just be a sec. I know you need to get ready for school.”
Sarah pushed the door open farther and entered. “Sorry,” she said as she flipped on the faucet and reached for her toothbrush. “Have a parent meeting before school this morning. Time’s tighter than usual.”
Leandra ducked back under the shower, which ran even hotter now that Sarah was using some cold water, and rinsed the shampoo out of her hair. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I could have stayed at the motel with the rest of the crew and not put you out.”
“You are not putting me out.” Sarah’s voice was muffled by the toothbrush. “Idiot.”
Leandra made a face and hurried through the motions. When she turned off the shower, Sarah tossed her a thick towel over the shower curtain. Leandra quickly toweled off and wrapped it around herself, then stepped out so her cousin could take over occupancy. “All yours.”
“Where were you earlier, anyway?” Sarah reached beyond the curtain and turned the water back on.
“Evan’s.” She dragged her fingers through her hair.
“In the middle of the night?” Sarah looked amused. “Anything you need to confess to Auntie Sarah?”
Leandra just shook her head as she left the bathroom. “I’ll put coffee on if you’ve got the time to drink it.”
“I always have time for coffee.” Sarah’s voice followed her down the short hall.
Sarah was a Clay, too. For the most part, the Clays were all inveterate coffee drinkers.
Leandra quickly dressed and started the coffee. The grind-your-own-beans kind that she’d sent Sarah the Christmas before. There was a half pot brewed by the time Sarah entered the kitchen. Her long, strawberry-blond hair was twisted into a thick wet braid that roped down to the middle of her back. She wore a loose-fitting knitted beige sweater over an ankle-length red skirt and looked exactly like what she was—a somewhat prim elementary school teacher.
Only Leandra knew her cousin wasn’t all prim and proper. They’d been thick as thieves while growing up, after all. “Here.” She handed Sarah a tall travel mug filled with black coffee.
“Thanks.” She took a sip, winced a little, and set the mug on the small kitchen table. “So, what was the deal with Evan? He trying to back out of the show?”
“He might hate every minute, but I’m not worried about him doing that. It’s been a long time since I moved away from Weaver, but I doubt Evan has changed in that regard. Particularly when the first episode airs in a few days.”
“True. He’s generally a reliable guy. But in what other regard is he supposed to have changed?”
Leandra shrugged. “None.”
Sarah looked skeptical, but she didn’t pursue the point. “So, you’re still going to be free tonight for supper, right? Family is all meeting at Colbys to talk about Squire’s surprise party.”
Squire Clay was their grandfather. “Friday night at Colbys. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Good. You’ve been so busy with the shoot since you arrived that hardly any of us have had a chance to sit down for long and visit with you.” She grinned as she tossed a jacket around her shoulders and grabbed up her satchel. “Everyone’s been bugging me to fill them in on all your latest, and I had to break their hearts by telling them there has been no latest, even for me.”
Leandra felt a quick knot in her stomach. Not even with Sarah had Leandra been able to share everything over the past several years.
Not since Emi had died.
How could she? Sarah—nobody—could ever understand just what Leandra had endured.
Endured because of her own failings.
“I’ll be there,” she promised. “After spending a day shooting with Evan and my crew, I’ll be more than ready to sit back and chill for a while.”
“Well, I promise we won’t make it too late of a night.”
Leandra smiled faintly. “There was a time when late nights didn’t stop us.”
Sarah’s light blue eyes twinkled. “True. But right now, you look like you need about twenty hours of sleep, my friend. And those days when we could play all night have passed me by. Too old, I’m afraid.”
“Old? Please. We’re only twenty-eight. I can still hold my own, even against Axel and Derek.”
“I seriously doubt it. Particularly where Axel is concerned. I know he’s your little brother and Derek is mine, but even he has said that Axel can wear him out. And they’re the same age.” She glanced at the round clock on the wall. “Gotta run. Hope things go well today.”
Leandra hadn’t even gotten her “thanks” out, before Sarah had hurried out the door.
She exhaled, her gaze slipping around the confines of the kitchen. Currently, it was painted in muted green tones. There were pretty pale yellow canisters lined neatly on the counter, matched in color by the placemats on the table and the woven towel draped over the oven door latch. The only mishmash of anything was the collection of photographs sticking to the front of the off-white refrigerator door.
She hadn’t looked closely at Sarah’s collection before. Hadn’t dared.
She still didn’t really want to look but, for some reason, her feet inexorably closed the distance until she was standing only inches away. Her heart was in her throat. Nausea twisted at her insides. She felt hot and cold all at once as she looked.
Her mind automatically dismissed the tiny snapshots that were distinctly school photographs. Sarah’s students, undoubtedly. And she really didn’t pay much attention to the assortment of milestones marked by someone’s trusty camera.
But the more she looked, the more she’d convinced herself that she did not want to see that beautiful, perfect face, the more she realized that the one face that was not captured here was the one face Leandra most wanted to see.
Her daughter’s. Emi.
Eyes burning deep inside her head, Leandra turned away. She felt shaky and her stomach pitched even more
