Page 156 of Where Roads Lead

But Matthew would never see Elsie’s eyes sparkle when she laughed. And she would never see the way he could cut through any type of tension with an easy joke and a smile, because for some reason, fate had crueler plans.

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t just grieving the brother I’d lost, but the man my future family would never get to know.

My kids would never know their uncle. My wife would never meet her brother-in-law. They’d see his face in pictures, hear of him in stories, but that’s all he would ever be to them. An idea of a person. Nothing more.

I guess I hadn’t thought of stuff like that until Elsie came around.

“Wait.” She put a hand on my arm as I threw the truck into park outside my childhood home. “What do you want me to say if they ask me what I do for a living?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to embarrass you. Do you think I should tell them I still work for the newspaper back in Boston? I mean, technically, I quit. But it’s the last job I had, so—”

“Why can’t you just tell them the truth? That you’re here writing?”

“Because that sounds so incredibly stupid.” She cringed, looking nervously between me and the house. “I just don’t want them to think I’m some silly girl floating her way through life.”

I laughed. “That’s actually a pretty accurate assessment.” She swatted my arm. “Not in a bad way.”

Not at all.

But she groaned, apparently coming undone at the thought of going inside and presenting herself as she was.

“Els.” I took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “My parents aren’t going to care what you do or don’t do for work. It’s just a job. I think they’ll actually admire that you’re doing something you love.”

“Okay, well, do you want to give me a code word if you think I’m talking too much? Sometimes that helps.”

“What do you mean, ‘sometimes that helps?’” I frowned at her, pulling back to get a good look. “Are you normally around people who give you a code word to stop talking?”

“Well, yeah,” she said shyly. “Otherwise, I can get carried away. Wait, why are you mad?”

“I’m just confused,” I told her, assessing her with new eyes. “You’ve never been like this before.”

Truth was, she’d been rattled the last few days, and I couldn’t figure out why. There was a tense set to her shoulders, a nervous energy to her that hadn’t been there before.

And some part of me wondered if it could all be traced back to that phone call she’d had.

“I’m sorry. I promise I’ll calm down before we go in. Just give me a minute to get it together.”

“I don’t need you to calm down for me. I want you to calm down for you. And I definitely don’t want you walking in there thinking you have to be on guard. Just…be yourself. Okay?”

“You’re really not worried about me embarrassing you?” she asked hopefully.

“You couldn’t if you tried.”

“No?” Her eyes gleamed at the challenge, and I was relieved to see that bit of her coming back. “Are you sure about that?”

“You can try, if you want. I give you my full permission to do your worst.”

“That’s nice.” She sighed blissfully.

“What?”

“Spending a holiday with someone who isn’t worried about managing me.”

I felt that there was a lot to unpack there, but we’d have time for that later. I didn’t want to make her shut down again, the way she had a tendency to do every time I brought up any questions about her life before Colbridge.

Something happened. Or someone. But I trusted I had all the time in the world to learn. To show her she could trust me and open up when she was ready.