Free Somebody Like You by Beth K. Vogt Page B

that his feet rested on the bottom edge of the car’s frame, welcoming the rush of cold night air on his face. A faint scent of a coming snowfall lingered around him. “I’m sorry. You didn’t know that Sam was married—”
    “No. Your mother made it clear years ago she wasn’t going to answer my questions about Sam. And I didn’t press the issue. I kept thinking there’d be time—”
    “We both did, Dad. When Mom called to tell me about Sam, she mentioned Sam’s wife. So I decided to try and find her. I didn’t say anything to you because I wasn’t sure what would happen.”
    “So, how did it go—meeting Sam’s wife?”
    “Well, just like we didn’t know about her, she didn’t know about me.” Memories of their first meeting rushed back, causing his heart rate to accelerate. “For thirty seconds, she thought I was Sam.”
    “Stephen, how horrible for you—”
    “For me? I wasn’t the one seeing her de—her husband.” He opted for the abridged version of his interaction with Haley—no need to mention the armed standoff. “Despite all that, Haley—that’s her name—agreed to meet me for dinner today. In the Springs.”
    “Sam was stationed in Colorado?”
    “Yes. About two hours from Fort Collins.”
    “Hard to believe . . .” His father’s voice trailed off. “So, what happened?”
    “I survived an hour with a woman who didn’t want to look at me because I’m an exact replica of her husband. I wanted to apologize . . . or at least drape a napkin over my face.”
    How could he confess the rest to his father? He’d spent so many years just being Stephen Ames that he’d forgotten what it was like to be Sam’s twin brother. The stares of his friends. The confusion.
    But now it was worse. He wasn’t just Sam’s twin.
    He was Sam’s ghost.
    He knew his father was waiting for him to say more. “After dinner, we ran into a couple of Sam’s friends—one of his army buddies. The guy was stunned when he saw me.”
    “I can imagine.”
    Stephen stood, shutting the door and walking to the front of the car, leaning against the hood, cold seeping through the material of his pants. Cars moved along Powers Boulevard, headlight beams streaming past, the sounds an odd motorized acoustic background. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come.”
    “Do you really believe that? You had to try, son. You may still end up with more questions than answers.”
    “Haley agreed to one meeting. And I got nothing.” He did a quick review of Haley’s minimalist answers. “While Sam and Haley were married, it sounds as if he was gone more than he was home.”
    Hesitancy tinged his father’s words. “You could always talk to your mother.”
    “I don’t think so, Dad.” The leap from a single phrase written in a Hallmark card to an entire conversation seemed as wide as the Vermont lake he’d tried to swim across when he was eight—and almost drowned.
    “I could try calling her.”
    “This is my journey, Dad. I’ll figure out something.”
    He had to . . . because, really, he still didn’t know who his brother was. And he wasn’t willing to walk away—or to let Haley walk away. But could he convince her to talk with him again? Was there any other option?
    Chaz’s words echoed through his mind. “Your brother was a good guy. A great soldier.”
    Maybe someone like Chaz, someone who had worked with Sam, could tell him more.

six

    I t had been good to get out of the house again. After last night’s dinner with Stephen Ames, Haley hoped the walk this morning would clear her head of the double images that haunted her sleep. At six months pregnant, she couldn’t outrun them, but she could walk fast.
    Haley rounded the corner onto the cul-de-sac that harbored the home she’d moved into eight weeks ago. It sat just left of the house in the center. Would Sam have liked it? Today the gray, cloudless sky huddled over the rancher guarded by a tall, leafless tree on the left and a small porch that