“Jenna, this is gorgeous.” Betsy ran her fingers over the glass. “You took this?”
Jenna nodded. “I missed your birthday. I wanted to get you something special, but . . .”
“This is special. It’s perfect. Thank you.”
Outside, something heavy hit the porch roof. They paused, waiting to hear if the noise would rouse the girls, but they slept undisturbed.
“Are you glad you went to Halcyon?” Betsy sipped her wine and watched Jenna from across the top of her glass.
Jenna nodded slowly. “I am. If I hadn’t gone, I’d still be thinking the best of me had already come and gone.”
“And now?”
“Now . . . now I see what I’m capable of. This will sound crazy, but I’m kind of proud of myself.” She bit back a smile. “I know it was hard on y’all to have the girls here for so long, but I think that extra time there is what helped me settle into myself. It showed me who I am. That I’m more than just a girl who got knocked up—twice—and works at a coffee shop.”
“Is that how you saw yourself?”
Jenna smiled. “Well, with no evidence to the contrary . . .”
“Jenna, I’ve always known you were capable of so much more.”
“Even though Mom never did?”
“I think she . . .” Betsy sighed, propped her elbow on the counter, and rested her chin in her hand. “I don’t know what she wanted.”
“I know what she didn’t want. She hated that I took photography and art theory instead of marketing and statistics like you. She made it clear you were the one who made good life decisions. I was the cut-rate, disappointing second child.”
Jenna hated the sound of her voice, the words coming out of her mouth, but it was now or never. She wanted these thoughts and feelings out and gone, to clear the air between her and her sister so they could move past it. She wanted them safe and close, like they used to be.
Betsy pulled the rubber band from the messy knot at the back of her head and raked her fingers through her hair. “You’ve got it all wrong.” She twisted her hair back up.
“What do you mean?”
“After you moved to Wyoming, she used to call me to see if I’d talked to you, if I’d checked on you, how you were doing. I think she knew she’d handled you wrong but was too proud to just call you up and fix it. She cried a lot.”
“Mom cried?”
Betsy nodded. “I could hear it through the phone. She was heartbroken, both over the fact that you left and that she played such a part in your leaving.”
“I don’t . . . I can’t . . .” Betsy could have been talking about a different woman altogether, not their cool, distant, scientific mother. Why did Jenna never see this side of her?
“It’s true. You were special to her.”
“But you did everything right. You had all the grades and accolades and the nice boyfriend who always brought you home ten minutes before curfew. That was you, not me.”
“You think I was the golden child, but it wasn’t always that way.” Betsy laughed. “That job I was supposed to have after graduation? With Prescott Branding? The summer internships, the informational interviews . . .”
“Sure. You were practically on their payroll before you even graduated high school.”
“Right. I gave it up for Ty.”
“You . . . what? I thought that was your dream job.”
Betsy nodded. “It was my dream—when I was willing to choose a career based on what would please Mom and Dad and impress their friends. I realized one day the path was laid out in front of me and all I had to do was follow it, so that’s what I did. I chose the right major, scheduled the right classes, made good grades, worked at Prescott every summer. It would have been a fine job, but my heart was never in it. And when I met Ty, giving it up was an easy choice.”
“Wow,” Jenna breathed. “What did Mom and Dad say? And how did I never know any of this? I just assumed the job didn’t pan out or was filled in-house.”
Betsy shrugged. “You were off on your next big adventure. I didn’t think you cared that much about what was going on back at home.”
“That’s not true.” But it was, wasn’t it? She’d been so focused on doing what she wanted, on flaunting their parents’ expectations, but she did it at the expense of knowing what was going on in her sister’s life.
“Anyway, they were livid, as you can imagine. Good little Betsy daring to rock the boat. And to marry a farmer, of all things.” She gave a half smile. “You know what though? That one moment—telling them I wanted a life with Ty more than the job in Birmingham—it was liberating. I remember thinking, This must be what it feels like for Jenna. To forget the rules and follow your heart instead.”
She paused and slowly twirled her wineglass. “I think I’ve always been a little envious of your ability to do exactly what you want without feeling the pressure to do the right thing. I wish I’d done that more.”
Jenna propped her chin in her hand. “And here I’ve been, most of my life, jealous of how perfect you seemed. Of how Mom and Dad adored you.”
“There was no adoring going on for a while. I even thought Mom might skip the wedding, but Dad talked her down.”
Jenna shook her head. “I feel like I’m seeing a whole side of our family I never knew. I guess that’s what I get for trekking across the country and leaving everything—and everyone—behind.”
Betsy leaned toward Jenna and tapped her finger on the counter. “But you see, all my rule following, all my doing the right things—it was the only way I knew to get her attention. Of course, I didn’t realize it at the time, and even if I had, I never would have admitted it, just
