A Time for Us - By Amy Knupp Page 0,67
couch right here in the living room, my files spread out on the coffee table and beside me on the cushion, my laptop on my lap. I was my usual stressed-out self and Noelle came in and sat down hard on the chair. I could sense something was bugging her, but I wasn’t in the mood. Didn’t have the time.” She blinked against tears. Damn never-ending tears. “She wanted to know why I didn’t spend any time with the two of you. Why I didn’t want to get to know her fiancé better. She accused me of not caring about you or her future or the family.” She broke off as her voice cracked.
Pivoting forty-five degrees so she was no longer facing him, she noticed an empty nail hole in the wall, the paint scraped off around it, and she latched her gaze onto it. Stared at it intently as she forced herself to continue.
“All our lives, Noelle has been the pretty sister....”
“You’re her identical twin, Rachel.”
“The social sister. The popular one. The one with all the fashion sense and social grace. You know exactly what I mean, Cale. Don’t pretend you don’t.” Rachel crossed her arms over her chest as if she could shield herself from age-old wounds. “She’s always been the one with the boyfriend, the countless dates and guys calling her and asking her out. More than once, we liked the same guy, and I’ll give you three guesses who won every single time. Here’s a hint—it wasn’t the shy, studious, geeky sister.”
“I told you there’s nothing geeky about you.”
“You didn’t know me in high school. None of this justifies anything that happened that night, but I’m just telling you how it was. How it’s always been. Most times, I let her get away with it. The guy-stealing. Because let’s face it, she couldn’t really steal them from me if they were never mine to start with, right? I can’t tell you how many times I told myself that.”
“It must’ve been hard to handle, though,” Cale said, his voice brimming with sympathy that made her stomach hurt.
“I loved her so much,” Rachel said, her voice breaking. “Don’t think that I didn’t. I would have done anything for my sister. And she felt the same about me—I know it.”
“You’re right, Rachel. Whenever she talked about you, it was obvious she felt the same way.”
“It was just a fact—she was the social one and I was the brainy one. Most of the time, I liked it that way. But...I guess it was one time too many.”
“What was?”
“When she accused me of avoiding you and making me sound like I was doing it because I was selfish, I lost it. I threw the truth at her. Listed all the guys she’d gone out with that, at one time or another, I had been interested in. Then I told her she was doing it again.” She stopped, bit down on the inside of her lip because, damn, this was embarrassing and impossible to get out.
Cale waited quietly, the tension in the room becoming tangible.
“I met you first,” Rachel said. “You probably barely noticed. Most likely pushed it right out of your mind that you and I talked outside before you ever ran into my sister.”
“I remember. You were intimidated by the crowd and didn’t know anyone but your sister. And she was surrounded by people all night.”
Rachel nodded. “And then I watched when the two of you met. I knew within seconds what was going to happen.”
“What are you trying to say, Rachel?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying. As I very bluntly explained to Noelle that night, I had feelings for you. From the very first night and the nights afterward when I was still at home on my visit and she came in gushing about you. When the three of us went to the beach together and I watched her flirt with you for all she was worth. Watched the two of you kiss and touch and...”
Keep your eyes on the nail hole and ignore the tears. Don’t let the tears get you now.
“The night Noelle ran out of this house with nothing but her keys, she left because I made her feel like complete, utter crap for once again getting the guy. The guy that I wanted. You.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CALE BACKED UP to the chair and lowered himself heavily. To say he was stunned by Rachel’s admission was the understatement of the decade.
His mind spun into overload as so many