I read somewhere that pregnancy makes a woman glow.

Or maybe it’s just the tears in my eyes when I see Hope standing in the baggage claim area of the St. Louis airport as soon as I pass security. The same brown eyes and brunette hair I stared at in the mirror over five years ago stares right back at me. No Flanders Flock. No TV cameras. Not even her husband. Just my twin.

No words are said, we just rush into each other’s arms and hold one another.

When I went to my supervisor to request the rest of the week off, he was more than fine with it. Apparently, the higher-ups weren’t too thrilled with the non family-friendly publicity I had brought to the department store. Thankfully, he assured me that they were just as worried about the fallout from firing me, so “disappearing” for a while would be good for everyone involved. Right here in my sister’s arms, I’d say I feel more than good, I feel amazing.

I pull away and wipe my eyes. “I’m so sorry for not calling or writing or…I just—”

“Stop that,” she says gently. “You had your life out there in New York. You didn’t want it turned upside down like before.” She rolls her eyes to the side with a smile. “Now I see why.”

I cough out a laugh despite myself. My face falls when the next thought hits me. “What did Mama and Daddy have to say about it?”

She winces. “Let’s get in the car. We have a long drive ahead of us.”

“That bad?”

She gives me a sympathetic smile and hooks her arm through mine. “We’ll deal with that when the time comes. Right now I want to hear all about New York. What’s my twin been up to in that Devil’s town?”

We both laugh at the term Daddy used when he first found out I wasn’t headed right back to Missouri once I graduated, but instead straight to the Big Apple.

“Nonsense, I want to hear all about you. When is the baby due? What’s Luke like? How does it feel to be married?” As I pose each question, my voice is filled more and more with the heavy weight of guilt. Once again, I’m struck by how much I’ve missed, all due to my own stubbornness and desire to separate myself from the Flanders Flock. Now that I’m back home, I realize that they will always be a part of who I am…even if I do stray.

“Oh no, I know you watch the show every week. And don’t lie and say you don’t. You know all about us. I want to hear all about you.”

“I don’t want the TV version, Hope. I want the real version.”

“Well, you’ll be getting a nice dose of it this week,” I stop walking and she laughs. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell them you were here. I wanted you all to myself. But you know it’s a small town. Word is going to spread eventually.”

I sigh and close my eyes, letting her lead my reluctant body out of the airport to the parking lot.

“So this, um, man you were with, Rhys? Is he someone…special?” She asks in a deceptively idle tone as she starts the car.

“Is that your way of asking if I get up to that every week with a different guy?”

“Do you?” she asks, turning to me with a smirk.

“Don’t tell me you think I’ve fallen that far from the family tree.”

She laughs and pulls up to the machine to pay for parking. “No. In fact, I wasn’t too surprised when I saw the pictures. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was shocked at first. But then it made sense.”

“What?” I ask in surprise.

She laughs again as she finishes paying and heads out of the lot. “You always were the attention hog.”

“I was not!”

She laughs even harder as she looks both ways to drive onto the main road. It’s about a two-and-a-half hour drive from the St. Louis airport to Rutherford so there’s plenty of time to hash this particular point out.

“Yeah, you were. The things you got up to. The things you tried to drag me into…” She shakes her head with a smile as she stares at the road. “Remember how you used to bring a paper bag to church, then blow it up and pop it just so you could see how everyone reacted to it? And you weren’t shy about fessin’ up to it either! No such thing as bad publicity for Faith Flanders.”

I vaguely remember doing something like that. Once. Maybe a handful of times, but certainly not enough to be called an attention hog.

“That wasn’t me seekin’ attention,” I can hear my midwestern accent come roaring back now. “That was just me fightin’ the boredom of Pastor Simon’s droning sermons.”

We both laugh. It’s going to be a fun ride. God, how I missed her.

“Anyway, tell me about this beau of yours.”

I sigh and look out at the city disappearing as we head out into rural territory. “Rhys? He’s funny and ridiculous and…sexy.”

“And doesn’t look half bad from behind,” She muses.

I slap her shoulder. “Look at you! Does Luke know how you feel on the matter?”

“Marriage is all about trust,” she says easily. “He trusts me. I trust him.”

“Yeah,” I say, looking out the window again. I think about that night Rhys revealed everything about Princeton to me, something I later threw right back in his face. Now, I’ve done far worse. My negligence has caused this mess for both of us.

“Want to talk about it?”

I turn to her with a smile, remembering the night Rhys said those very words to me in reference to her.

“I just—it didn’t end well between us. I said things I shouldn’t have. Horrible things.”

“Things that can’t be forgiven?”

“He’d have to want to forgive me first. I really haven’t given him a reason to.”

“You know, I don’t know this man, but I did see the video of you two. Not that I condone violence, but…he was willing to fight to protect you. Can’t say I approve of the language either, but at least he seemed passionate about it. I think that’s a man who would maybe find a reason to forgive you…if you actually reach out the olive branch. We both know how stubborn you can be.”

“Oh, you’re going to throw that in my face?” I say with a laugh, even though I know she has a point.

“Don’t act like I’m tellin’ you anything you don’t already know.”

I laugh softly and lean my head back against the rest, then turn to her. “It’s good to see you, Hope. I’m so sorry I missed so much of your life. I wish I could go back in time and just slap some sense into that girl I was. Hell, slap some sense into the woman I’ve been up until you called me. I should have been the one to pick up the phone, not you. I owed you at least that much. In retrospect, nothing seems like it was worth losing time with you, even if it meant giving up my anonymity.”

She turns to me and smiles. “Remember that next time you think about disappearing. Life is boring without my twin the attention hog around.”

The ride back to Rutherford is usually long and tedious, but the hours pass by quickly as the two of us fill in the blanks of every part of our lives for one another.

“Eyeshadow? He wears eyeshadow?” Hope asks, raising her eyebrows in surprise, then laughing. “Well, to each his—or her?—own I suppose.”

“Jermaine’s a good friend, they all are really. Even boring old Peter in his own way. Shiloh’s the best though. You’d like her. You should have seen her when I found out about Rhys’s show. She was like—”

I stop when I see the tiny nondescript green sign announcing our entrance to Rutherford, Population 1547. Small town indeed. I feel myself sinking into the seat, hoping no one recognizes me.

“No one recognizes you,” Hope says, reading my mind as always.

“Yeah, but they recognize you, and that’s the same thing.”

“No one knows why I drove out of town this mornin’ and Luke knows he’d be in the doghouse if he told anyone.”

I laugh. “You really did want me all to yourself.”

She smiles and taps me with her elbow. “Twinsies for twinsies.”

Echoing the exact words that are in my head.

We arrive at a small white house situated in a quiet street of similar homes. “So this is where you live?” I say, getting out to admire it. It’s the perfect home for two people just starting out and for a split-second I envy her perfect happiness. Hope doesn’t have to live with back-stabbing roommates in a cramped Queens apartment. On the other hand, she also doesn’t have hotels with floor-to-ceiling views of New York.

The door opens before we even make it to the front steps and I meet Luke for the first time. I’ve seen him online already. Her wedding was televised, obviously. He’s about as midwestern, cornfed, American apple pie as you can get. Football player build, blonde hair, blue eyes, easy smile.

“You must be, uh—”

“Prynne,” Hope answers for him as she quickly climbs the steps to meet him. They kiss in that effortless way couples who are used to kissing each other all the time do, short and sweet, but meaningful. My heart swells knowing that she found her perfect fit.

“Nice to finally meet you,” I say, reaching out to shake his hand.

“Oh now, you’re family,” he says, surprising me by pulling me in for a hug. I guess New York has rubbed off on me too much. I forgot how overly affectionate people are here.

“Well,” Hope says with a satisfied smile. “How about some iced tea?”

Before I can respond, their quiet street is disturbed by the sound of the squeaking pedals of a bike. We all turn to see a young woman on a pretty pink bike pedaling toward the house as fast as her racehorse legs can work within the confines of a skirt that is most definitely below knee-length. As she draws closer, I note the long, dark hair with bangs, that slightly upturned nose, that full bottom lip she inherited from our mother.

Chastity Flanders.

“I knew it!” she squeals as soon as she reaches the driveway, immediately hopping off and leaving the bike to lie there. Something that would never happen in New York City.

She was not quite thirteen when I first left Rutherford, never looking back—until today. The flush of pleasure on her face, makes her look more beautiful than just cute, as she usually is, at least on TV. I scan the curves underneath that prim white blouse and long skirt, and wonder if she wouldn’t be eaten alive if she moved straight from Rutherford to New York City, as she plans to. As conservative as it was, at least Bluett was a bit of an eye-opening buffer for me between the two.

“It’s you! I can’t hardly believe it!” She rushes up to me and, in true Rutherford fashion, hugs me as though I’m not some stranger who disappeared out of her life before she even finished puberty. “What is it like in New York? I can’t wait to move there! You have to tell me everything!”

Oh boy.

Hope looks at Luke with the accusation on her face.

“I promise I didn’t say a word,” he insists.

“Oh everyone knows,” Chastity says, pulling away and looking at the two of them with an amused smirk. “You honestly think anything’s a secret in this podunk town?”

Perfect.

My eyes scan the street Chastity just rushed down, waiting for the convoy of Flanders folk driving up to give the former Faith Flanders a piece of their mind.

“Don’t worry, they ain’t comin’.”

“Aren’t coming,” Hope corrects.

“Aren’t coming until tomorrow. Mama and Daddy figure they ought to give you a chance to get settled in before they have a talk with you.”

Even more perfect.

I feel like that eighteen year old girl who butted heads with them before they finally gave in and let me go off to college in another state. I have a feeling this time is going to be a lot worse.