Free All Fall Down by Erica Spindler

the situation more clearly because she wasn’t a part of her and Mia’s little clique. Their little twin’s club.
    Three was a crowd.
    Wannabe idiot. That’s all she was. All she had ever been.
    Her sisters and nephew were everything to her. They were the most important part of her life. The only part that meant anything.
    But they had more in their lives. So much more that she sometimes thought they didn’t need her at all. Thought that if she fell off the face of the planet, they would hardly notice she was gone.
    Ashley sucked in a sharp breath, hating her thoughts, denying them. They weren’t true. Melanie and Mia loved her. Her alienation was of her own creation. Her loneliness had nothing to do with other people—only herself. With her displaced anger.
    Wasn’t that what the shrink she had seen for a while had told her? That she would always be alone until she faced the truth about her past?
    Ashley dropped her purse on the kitchen counter and crossed to the refrigerator, but didn’t open it. On the appliance’s shiny black front was a photo of her and her sisters, taken on their thirtieth birthday. Theirarms were linked, they were smiling. Three women, strikingly attractive in identical flame-red dresses, near mirror images of one another.
    Ashley settled on her own image and an ache of loneliness and longing settled in the pit of her gut. Near mirror images. Not exact.
    Her part of the mirror contained a distortion. Subtle, true. But it set her apart. Ashley, the one who was different. Ashley, forever the outsider. The outcast.
    Tears choked her and she cleared her throat, fighting them off. Wishing she could fight off the ache in the pit of her gut as easily, wishing she could find something to fill the empty, hurting place inside her.
    Ashley passed a hand over her eyes. What was happening to her? It was as if she was becoming a person she didn’t recognize. One filled with fear and rage. At times vengeful, others repentant. One who wanted to fit in but who always felt alienated, who longed for love but was afraid to allow anyone near her.
    Why couldn’t she let down her guard? With a man or anyone else? Why couldn’t she let herself be loved?
    Ashley blinked against the tears that blinded her. As she did, her vision cleared. Beside the photograph, also held by a refrigerator magnet, was a note from Boyd, informing Mia that he was going to be very late and that she shouldn’t wait up.
    The note’s meaning registered and her equilibrium returned. Fall in love and end up like her sisters? One constantly fighting for her independence, the other too dependent even to try?
    Making a face, Ashley opened the door and reached inside for a beer. As she did, she heard the sound ofthe garage door rumbling up. Mia. No doubt trunk loaded with packages. Her sister loved to shop and spent a good portion of her days enjoying Boyd’s seemingly endless supply of money.
    Ashley shook her head. Doctors. Overpaid, self-proclaimed kings of the universe. She played nicey-nice with them day in and day out—save for a few who were authentic healers, she could do without the lot of them. Her esteemed brother-in-law as well.
    Ashley opened the bottle of imported brew, then fished around in the cabinet for a glass. The front door opened and closed; she heard the rustle and crackle of shopping bags and Mia humming under her breath. Ashley smiled. Her sister was nothing if not predictable.
    Grabbing a handful of mixed nuts from the jar on the counter, she took her beer and headed toward the living room.
    She found Mia there, back turned toward her as she bent over the coffee table, still humming under her breath.
    â€œSunny little tune,” Ashley murmured from the doorway. “Where have you been all afternoon? Walt Disney World?”
    Mia whirled around, one hand to her throat, the other pressed to her side. “Ashley! What are you doing here?”
    â€œGetting a