“But it was totally worth it!” she declared, licking her lips. “Oh, that berry cobbler Maxine brought was out of this world.”
She yawned again, and Liam smiled. “Feel free to nap on the way home if you want.”
“Nah. That’s not fair, you’re full of turkey and carbs and sugar, too. I’ll stay awake so I can keep you company.” She grinned at him suddenly. “We made it through the whole evening without Angela going into labor.”
“For which I am appropriately grateful,” Liam responded.
“What, you didn’t want to deliver twins in the upstairs bedroom?”
“Speaking of which. I didn’t realize you and Beth were twins I remember you’d said you two looked alike, you didn’t say you were twins.”
Naomi pulled her feet up under her on the seat. “Oh, right. Thing is, we never had to actually tell anyone, we were always together and it was pretty obvious.” She grinned. “Especially when we were wearing matching outfits and hairstyles.”
“Angela was thrilled talking to you about twins.”
“Yeah, she was. She’s so lucky. If I could ever have kids, I’d have hoped I had twins.”
Liam nodded, traffic capturing his full attention as he merged into traffic on the freeway. Naomi watched the passing cityscape, apparently lost in her thoughts.
“I can still feel her,” she said suddenly, breaking the silence. “My sister, Beth. It’s not like the telepathy we all have in our Changed forms, but more like, a sense of her, you know? How she’s feeling, if she’s ill and shivering with cold, or hurting. That kind of thing.”
Liam shot her a thoughtful glance before returning his attention to the road. “This is a twin thing, then, not a shifter thing?”
“Yes, exactly. We’ve always had that, at least, for as long as I can remember.”
“And it’s not limited by distance?”
“No. At least, I could still sense her when I moved to New York, and she was back in Florida.”
“But none of your other sisters? Not your mother?”
“God, no!” She shuddered. “I think I might go crazy for real, if I did!”
“No, no, we don’t want that!” He shot her another glance. “So what’s she feeling now?”
Naomi sighed, shrugging helplessly. “Sad. Lonely. Depressed. Hurting.”
“Damn.” Liam winced. He hesitated a minute, then asked, “Do you want me to see if Maroulla could get you permission to visit her at the Sanctuary?”
“No!” Her heart jumped in her throat, and she cringed away from even the thought of it. She took a deep breath, and steadied herself, striving for calm. “It’s not that I wouldn’t love to see her, I miss her so much. Even though I know she has to stay in her Changed form and all. But they have them all together… Mom and Beatrice, and Beth and my other two sisters. I-I can’t.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.
“I’m terrified of them,” she confessed. “Not Beth, but all the rest, especially Mom and Beatrice. I know they’re in an enclosure, with fences and guards. They can’t get to me, Iknowthat… but just to think of coming face-to-face with them is more terrifying than the thought of facing Jason or that Michael guy from those horror flicks.”
Liam reached over to take her hand with his free one, lacing their fingers together. “Hey, it’s okay, it was just a suggestion.”
She summoned up a faint smile. “I know, and thank you for the offer. Really. I didn’t mean to be such a drama queen.”
He frowned. “That’s not being a drama queen. It’s pretty obvious it was pretty traumatic growing up with them. That’s not on you.”
Fidgeting with her purse strap, she shot him a quick glance. “I should have left as soon as I finished college. Or at least moved out of the house, gotten my own place. But I didn’t want to leave Beth. We’d always been together. Always. We talked about it, but the time never seemed right. And I think, maybe we were both a little scared of what would happen if we tried to leave. It wasn’t until Beth… well… you know… that I realized I had to get out of there, for my own sake.”
She rubbed her forehead, wishing things had been different. “Maybe if I’d pushed harder to leave, she wouldn’t have… it wouldn’t have happened.”
“No. Naomi, no.” Liam squeezed her hand tightly. “You can’t think that way. You can get lost in the ‘what-if’s’ that way, because hindsight is always twenty-twenty. You got yourself out, take full credit for that, and now you’re moving forward. Don’t let the past hold you back.”
“You’re so smart.” Naomi smiled at him. “I know that, I promise I do. Just remind me when I forget, okay?”
