12. Chapter 12
Mila
After tonight’s conversation with Jared, there’s something I need to do… but really don’t want to do.
I have a phone call to make.
I wait until I’m showered and settled on the porch swing of my little rental cottage before I work up the courage to call. With the time zone difference, Mandy will just be waking up. But I know she’ll answer. My big sister is always there when I need her.
The phone only rings twice before she answers.
“Mila!” Mandy’s voice bursts through, bright and sing-songy. “You’re alive. I was beginning to wonder since it’s been a few weeks since our last call. How are things in Friendly?”
“Hi to you too,” I laugh, already relaxing. Same Mandy, teasing and warm in equal measure. I’ve always looked up to her. Been jealous of her, even. But she’s my big sister, and I love her and she loves me. “I’m alive. There’s just been a lot going on. With work, and with, um, other things.”
“‘Things,’” she repeats, pouncing on the word like a cat with a toy mouse. “What kind of things?”
I take a deep breath. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with a man.”
Mandy squeals into the phone. “Tell me everything!”
“You know him, actually…” I say slowly.
“From school?”
“Mmm hmm. It’s Jared Tuck.”
There’s a pause—just long enough to make my heart lurch—before she says, perfectly calm, “Go on.”
“And, um, we’re kind of at the kissing and making plans for the future stage of our relationship. Do you hate me?”
She laughs. “I could never hate you. And it’s not like I didn’t know you had the hugest crush ever on him. You practically drooled whenever he was around.”
I groan. “Please tell me you’re exaggerating.”
She laughs, then softens. “Listen. I want you to hear this straight from me: I think you and Jared make sense. You have so much in common—more than he and I ever did. We were just high school sweethearts in a small town with a tiny dating pool. It was sweet. Puppy love. But it wasn’t forever.
You two? I can actually see it lasting.”
Something loosens in my chest, and I realize that I needed Mandy’s blessing. Suddenly I’m lighter than I’ve felt in weeks. The guilt I’ve been quietly carrying—the worry about stepping into my sister’s past—melts away like sugar in tea.
“You really mean that?” I ask.
“Of course I do. You deserve someone who will treat you right, and Jared will.”
“Thanks, Mandy. I love you.”
“Love you too,” she says. “Okay, enough about Jared. Tell me about the turtles. Has a nest hatched yet?”
Laughing, I tell Mandy all about seeing the hatchlings make their way to the ocean tonight.
“Sounds amazing,” she says.
“Absolutely,” I agree. “The sight of those little turtles never gets old, no matter how many times I see it.”
When we hang up, I set the phone down on the porch swing and grin at absolutely nothing. For the first time since stepping back into Friendly, I don’t just feel like Mandy’s tagalong little sister. I feel like me.