Free Unbreak My Heart by Teresa Hill Page B

hands were so small, her arms so pale. She'd lost weight, Allie remembered, realizing this must have happened that summer, right before Megan left. Allie had noticed her sister losing weight.
    "Megan?" she whispered. "What's wrong?"
    Megan hit a jarringly wrong note. She winced, and her hands fell to her lap. She turned briefly toward Allie, seeming to look right through her, and there were tears on her face. Megan was rubbing her hands together and shivering when Allie noticed the bruises on her sister's arm, as if someone had grabbed on to her and refused to let go.
    "What happened?" Allie whispered. "Megan, please. Just tell me, what happened?"
    But her sister didn't say a word. She brushed away tears, put her hands back on the keys, and started to play again.
    Startled, Allie opened her eyes to find her own fingers on the keys, playing that same song she thought Megan had played that day. She felt a chill in the air, one that seemed to go right through her, and fought the urge to run screaming from the house. Instead, she closed her eyes, wanting one more look at her sister, and waited until the sound of the music faded completely away.
    * * *
    Five minutes later, Allie was still sitting with her back to the wall, still able to close her eyes and see the bruises on her sister's thin arm, when the phone rang, startling her yet again. She grabbed it like a lifeline and said, "Hello?"
    "Hi," Stephen said. "I'm sorry, I know it's early, but I saw your lights on and thought I'd take a chance on calling. Tell me you were up."
    "I was up," she said, wondering what he'd say if she told him, I saw my dead sister playing the piano and begged her to tell me what was going on, but she wouldn't.
    "Are you all right?" he said.
    "Yes," she lied, thinking bruises. Who had done that to Megan? Who had hurt her and made her cry?
    "I was wondering if you'd like to get out of that house for a while."
    She was trembling hard enough and was paranoid enough to think he knew everything, that he somehow just knew, but she managed to keep it to herself and simply ask, "Why?"
    "I want to see you."
    He'd said that the first night, and she'd wanted to believe it. It was harder now. Every bit as enticing, but harder to believe. She kept thinking about Megan. How awful it felt not to be Megan for the mother who had loved her. For the mother who could never love Allie as much as she had loved her sister. Allie didn't ever want to try to take her sister's place again, not in any way, no matter how little or how much Stephen might have felt for her sister.
    "It's going to be beautiful today," he said. "Much too pretty to stay inside all day."
    Allie frowned, thinking it wasn't fair that he could cast a spell over her, just with his voice. The familiarity of the cadence of his speech hit her again. It wasn't what she was used to from Connecticut, and yet she recognized it, much in the same way she felt a recognition of the place itself, of the trees, the grass, the sky, everything. The man could draw her to him with his voice alone.
    "We were doing so well that first night over dinner," he coaxed.
    Before she thought he was involved with her sister and that he was keeping something from her about Megan's disappearance.
    Allie sighed. The saddest part was that despite all her doubts, all the reasons she had to be cautious around him, those moments in his arms had felt better than anything she'd experienced in months. More likely years. How many men could chase away loneliness and bone-deep sadness with a kiss?
    Even so, she couldn't let it happen again.
    "Let's back up, all right?" he said. "Be friends. I was wondering what you remember about Kentucky."
    "Not much." And she didn't need to. She was likely leaving never to return again. She was supposed to resist any excuses he came up with for them to be together.
    "I thought I could show you some of the sights."
    "I don't have time for sight-seeing, Stephen. I have so much to do..."
    "And you will. Later.