Page 103 of No More Words

“Me too. So, uh ...” Lily looks back at the guys. “You and Blaze?” She cringes. “Sorry. That’s not what I meant. I mean, that’s not where I meant to begin.”

“That’s okay.” Olivia feels Lily’s awkwardness as her own. Where do they begin when so many years have passed? But she can tell where Lily is going with this, and they need to get it out in the open.

“Mom told Dad that Ethan was Josh’s father.”

Lily looks at her, stunned. “That doesn’t make sense. I never gave them a name.”

Olivia knows that now. But it’s reassuring to hear the truth directly from Lily after all the lies their parents told. “Mom wanted me to hate you. I wouldn’t try looking for you. She said you were safer away than at home.”

“That woman.” Lily shakes her head.

“She was trying to protect you, that’s what she told me.” And Olivia firmly believes that. For all her faults, Charlotte loves Lily. “I only learned about it yesterday.”

“You thought I told her it was Ethan?”

“At first, yes.” Olivia nods. “And I hated you for years.” She follows Lily up onto the dock. There’s a light breeze over the lake that smells of moss and dirt.

Lily drops a leaf she plucked from a bush in the water. It floats on the surface. “I’m sorry about Ethan. I liked him. But you and Blaze? You’re better together.”

Olivia tilts her head. “Why didn’t you ever tell me that?”

Lily shrugs. “We didn’t tell each other a lot of stuff. I should have. Are you, though? Together?”

Olivia smiles. Her body warms in the early autumn sun. She nods.

“Good. I’m happy for you.”

“You and Tyler?”

“I don’t know what we are. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. I was staying with a friend up the road and saw a car in the driveway yesterday.” Lily watches the house. Josh appears on the deck. He waves when he sees them. Lily and Olivia wave back.

“This is going to sound terrible.” Lily absently rubs her forearm and Olivia braces herself for the worst. This is it. Lily wants her to leave. She won’t let Olivia see Josh again. She’ll want to keep all ties with the Carsons severed.

Lily glances back at her son. Tyler and Blaze have joined him. “I never told Josh much about you. I didn’t get the chance. I was going to. He was asking about his dad and my family. Then he had his accident and—” She chokes up.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Olivia touches Lily’s shoulder, then stops resisting. She pulls her in for a hug and revels in how good it feels to have her little sister back in her arms. Questions about Lily and Josh and what happened to them, how they separated, Dwight’s involvement, pound the walls in her head. But this, holding Lily, showing her the compassion she should have had when they were younger, has her momentarily biting her tongue. Olivia can never make up the years she neglected her sister, or for the years she pretended Lily was okay and she didn’t search for her. But she can show her now what matters: having her sister back. “I don’t care what you told Josh about me. All I care is that I get to see him again. And you. I don’t want to lose you again.”

Lily hugs her with a desperation that reminds Olivia of the little girl who used to hold her hand. She sniffles like a child. “It’s been so hard.”

Olivia gives her a bone-crushing squeeze. She can only imagine what Lily’s been through. She steps back and takes a good look at her. Lily’s grown up into a beautiful woman, flaming red hair and all. They’re faint, but she still has freckles across her nose.

“How did Josh find you?” Lily dries her face with the base of her palm.

“He has an envelope from you addressed to me. I found it in his backpack.”

She frowns. “What envelope?”

“It’s old. Josh’s birth certificate and a power of attorney dated a year after he was born. I take it you were going to send it to me but never did?”

Lily’s brows pull together. She tilts her head. “I wonder when he found those. It had to have been before his injury. He has trouble reading.”

“I think he showed the envelope to the woman who drove him.”

“Who?”

“Some old lady. She dropped him off at my house and left before I could get her name. My guess is he hitchhiked.”

She gapes. “Josh!”

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