Truth and Justice - Fern Michaels Page 0,48

four years of high school. When Andy was accepted to the university of his choice in California, she packed up and left with him. She used all her wiles to convince him she needed to be there so he could have what he called a big sis to talk to.

She made a joke out of flying the coop, and Andy had laughed and said he was secretly glad she was going to go with him because he was afraid of being homesick because he’d never been out of Tulsa, not to say the state of Oklahoma. Nor had Sara, so that made them even closer in Andy’s eyes.

As for Sara, she simply could not imagine her life without Andy close by. No way. She counted the minutes until Andy would get out of class so they could talk or grab a burger someplace. Just telling each other about the hours they had spent apart.

Sara knew and dreaded the day when Andy would start bringing college coeds to meet her. She’d be Miss Nice Lovely Big Sis to them, and later, when she was alone with him, she’d pick the coed to pieces and Andy would then move on to the next girl. Just the thought of Andy kissing a girl and maybe . . . just maybe . . . doing other things with her made her violently ill. So ill she would throw up. Andy Nolan was hers. Andy Nolan belonged to her. And no one was going to take him away from her. No one!

Sara’s life revolved around Andy. People always commented on how close the brother and sister were. She always beamed with pleasure. Andy just . . . what Andy did was stare into space at their comments. She never did figure that out. She worked two part-time jobs so she could have free time on Andy’s schedule. She told him she was taking night classes, but it was a lie. He said he was so very proud of her. She remembered how she’d about gone into orbit at his praise.

He, in the meantime, was easily pulling down a GPA of 4.0. Andy was incredibly smart. He constantly joked that he was going to leave her flat and go to England to attend the London School of Economics. Then he laughed and so would she because they both knew it would never happen. Because, as Andy put it, it rained all the time in England, and he hated rain. He liked sunny, warm days. He was going to live forever in the sunshine state of California.

Weeks, months, years passed, with Andy completing his college education in three years and one month. He immediately signed up for the military, enlisting in the army.

Boot camp. Six weeks of nothing. Then OCS on the horizon. Sara wanted to lie down and die right then and there. How could she exist for six weeks without seeing or talking to Andy? How?

Sara had to stay behind. Communication between the two of them dropped to nonexistent. She stayed in bed for days at a time. She couldn’t cope. She literally could not function. Sometimes, she didn’t eat for days. She lost weight. She started to think she might die.

Then, suddenly, the magic began. Five weeks into boot camp, Andy found a way to call her on the phone. His voice was hoarse, choked up when he said how hard boot camp was, but he was going to make it because he was determined. The word failure was not in his vocabulary. A career in the military was something he hungered for, and he wasn’t about to give it up. He said he just worked harder, doubled down, and made it all happen. He told her how much he missed her. The reason for the call was to ask her if he could bunk with her for a few days before he headed back to Tulsa to see his mom and dad before being shipped out to God only knows where because suddenly he wasn’t sure about Officer Candidate School. She remembered how she had literally swooned at his request.

Her response was, “Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.” Andy made a smacking sound with his lips and she did the same before she hung up. Long-distance kisses. If only she could experience the real thing. If only.

Sara bounded out of bed as though her feet were spring loaded. She had her life back. She headed for the refrigerator and ate everything edible