to college in a couple of years’ time and their youngest was a girl of Ellie’s age, Sandy. She’d immediately taken his daughter under her wing, as her parents had done with him and his wife.
Eight years on, another promotion meant that the Laings would be returning home to England. Andrew knew that any job he took would be easier than telling his daughter that they were leaving Kansas – and so it had proved. Promises of long summer vacations and Easter breaks had done nothing to ease the pain for either of the distraught teenagers. They’d been inseparable almost since the day the Laings had moved in. Forcing them apart had given him more than one sleepless night, wondering if taking this new position had been the right thing to do.
Now, Ellie watched the little luggage trucks whizzing around on the tarmac outside the plane’s small oval window as her mind drifted back to the time she’d had to tell her best friend her family was moving back home. It was funny. She remembered saying those exact words all those years ago. And yet, sitting on the Danvers’ front swing with Sandy, she’d already felt like she was home.
As much as they knew their parents had hoped they’d come to terms with it, two weeks after the announcement had been made, Ellie remembered them still moping together on that same swing when Sandy’s older brother, Ben, had returned home from a day out with friends. After finishing his music degree, he’d returned to the family home while pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. He played as part of a band that was popular at functions, and was always writing and recording songs, but over the past year he’d also been spending more time out in Nashville. Nine years younger than Ben, Sandy was the baby of the family and as such had always been a little protected, especially by him. Ellie knew her friend missed her big brother when he was away, but she was wise enough and had a big enough heart to know that was where he needed to be in order to follow his dream. Ellie, however, knew that they had both been thankful to see his kind, handsome face that day. She cast her mind back now to how he’d done his best to comfort them that day.
*
Looking ahead to the porch, Ben saw his teenage baby sister and her best friend Ellie resting against each other on the porch swing. A soft early evening Kansas breeze ruffled Sandy’s dark, and Ellie’s red hair as they sat in silent sadness. Ben mounted the steps, gave them another glance and took a chair opposite with a sigh. Two pairs of eyes flicked up to his. Sandy raised her eyebrows in a ‘hey’. Ellie half smiled but her jewel green eyes remained sad.
‘Hey.’ Silence.
‘I guess Mom and Dad already did the vacations and stuff speech, huh?’
Sandy gave a shrug with the level of indignation only capable of a wronged teenager. ‘It’s not the same, Ben.’
‘No, I know, but sometimes we have to take what we get and make the best of it.’
The two girls looked up at him again. Sandy adored Ben but this didn’t prevent her giving him a fifteen-year-old’s disdainful ‘What?’ look.
‘And don’t give me that look either. It’s just that things aren’t always easy and I know this is really hard for you two but at least there are the vacations – think how jealous all the other kids will be when you tell them where you’re spending yours! Pretty cool to have your best friend abroad. You’ll get to visit each year, travel without your parents, have cute accents that boys’ll like …’
His words percolated in their brains for a few moments and Ben saw the slightest flicker of change in their demeanours. The girls added a couple of their own thoughts and very gradually started to see a few possible upsides of the situation – though obviously they would still have preferred Ellie to remain in the States and thought it vastly unfair of everyone involved to tear them apart. That was a rock solid fact that would never change. Ben stood and left them to the plans they were now making about where they would go together in London. One hand on the front door handle, he threw a look back.
‘Hey?’
The girls looked up.
‘Don’t say anything to Mum and Dad – or you, Ellie – about what I said about boys and cute accents. OK?’
Two grins full of metal braces were his reply – and reassurance.
Disappearing into the cool of the house, Ben smiled wryly to himself and shook his head. Those two were going to be heartbreakers, accents or not.
*
Ellie wearily took her seat in the jet that would now take her from Texas to Kansas, where Sandy would meet her. She didn’t usually manage to sleep too much on planes but it seemed this time her body planned to take advantage of any opportunity it had to grab some extra rest, and she’d dozed on and off on the initial flight. At least Ellie had no worries of having to wait around at the airport for a while – Sandy was a stickler for punctuality. Always had been. Ellie laid her head back against the seat as the engines gained power and forced the jet into the sky. It was over a year since she had seen Sandy in person. The time just seemed to fly by and they hadn’t been able to firm up any plans for visits. Not to mention that planning much at all hadn’t been easy since she’d been with Carl. He’d never liked her seeing any friends or doing anything that didn’t involve him. She swallowed and pushed him out of her mind. There was no need for him to be in her thoughts now. He’d already taken far too much from her. She steered her mind in a more pleasant direction.
With Sandy, for the moment, still living at home in the large family house, something Ellie knew both she and her parents were loving, Ellie would also get to see Molly and Ted Danvers, Sandy’s parents. As the friends had last met up over in England, it was now over two years since Ellie had seen the people she considered her second family, and she loved hearing about the rest of the family, and the pride that rang in their voices as Molly and Ted spoke about Sandy and their boys.
Her mind drifted to the brothers. The eldest had already been at college and living their own lives when the Laings had first moved out to the States, but they had got to know them over the holidays and Joseph and Matt were both pleasant, witty and intelligent.
‘Lovely manners,’ her mother would always say after talking to any of the Danvers’ offspring.
But Ben was different, and that special bond he and Sandy had made the relationship different too. This was no doubt helped by the fact that his easygoing manner resulted in his giving them rides all over town once he’d passed his driving test. Sandy idolised Ben and everyone knew the feeling was mutual. They were even closer in looks than their brothers. Although there was no mistaking the three men were brothers, Ben’s colouring more resembled his father’s and thereby Sandy’s. Joe and Matt were both blonde-haired blue-eyed All-American boys, whereas both Sandy and Ben’s hair was dark. Sandy had also inherited her father’s soft brown eyes but on this the two differed, and Ben, as with his brother’s, followed the maternal line of a pale ice-blue. The clear intensity of them combined with almost black hair made a truly striking combination.
Ben’s dreams had also been far removed from that of all his siblings. Matt and Joe had both studied business and were now well established in the family company. Sandy had shown a keen business acumen at an early age and declared her intentions to study law, encouraged by Ben’s best friend Tyler. Her wish was to then join the legal team at the family firm but she knew she’d have to prove herself worthy, and wouldn’t just get a job there because of who she was. A bad lawyer could cost the business, and therefore her family, a lot of money. Sandy had approached her studies seriously. She’d been interviewed by the business’ legal team along with other candidates for the position. Sandy had been top of her class, and had the quickest, smartest answers of all of them and was now part of the family
