After Nathan left, Elizabeth’s mind was tangled in knots. She knew he was sincere about wanting to be friends. In truth, his initiative fit well with her own goal to put their past behind her. If he became her friend rather than just her ex-fiancé, then it might be much easier to do that. She just wasn’t sure that she could let the past go enough to get there.

To deal with her uncertainty, she did what she always did. She cooked. It was a coping mechanism that she had learned from her mother and it always worked well for her. Focusing on the food and the flavors always took her mind off of her troubles. Traveling to the remote destinations that she did for work made it rare to have access to a real kitchen so it had been a long time since she had been able to take advantage of it.

She was so lost in her work that she didn’t see Kate come into the kitchen. Her sister stood behind her and watched her in silence for several moments, a look of concern on her face. Though Elizabeth hadn’t realized it, Kate and their mother had seen Nathan leaving the house earlier. While Diane was thrilled, Kate had spent hours worrying that her sister was about to be hurt again.

“It smells good in here,” Kate finally said.

Elizabeth whirled around in surprise at the sound of her voice.

“Thanks.” She wiped her hands on her apron.

“Cooking a big dinner to avoid talking to me?” Kate asked knowingly as she watched her sister’s discomfort.

“Why would I be avoiding you, Kate?” Elizabeth said as she turned back to stir the sauce that she was working on.

“I saw Nathan leaving when mom and I were coming back from our walk.”

“He’s been here before.” Elizabeth tried to play down the importance of his visit. She knew that she would need to talk to Kate about it soon. The problem was that she wasn’t even sure how she felt about the conversation that she’d had with Nathan so she didn’t know how to begin to explain any of it to her sister.

“Yes and things were weird then. Remember how he acted around Bill?”

“I guess.” Elizabeth sighed, resigning herself to the fact that they were having this conversation right now whether she wanted to or not.

“So I’ve been waiting for you to tell me why he came by today.” Kate took a spoon from the door and dipped it in the sauce Elizabeth was working on. “That’s yummy. Since you’re stress cooking, I’m going to guess it wasn’t a casual visit.”

“Why didn’t you just ask when you and mom came home?” Elizabeth opened the oven to check on the fish she was baking. In many ways, she loved that Kate knew her so well but it made it very hard to keep anything to herself.

“Because I thought maybe you needed time to process it.”

“Maybe I still do,” Elizabeth said, her defensive tone the final piece of evidence Kate needed to confirm her suspicions.

“I knew it!” Kate cried.

“Don’t sound so smug.”

“I knew he said or did something to get under your skin.” Kate started to pace back and forth. She had hated Nathan for years because of how much he hurt her sister, but there was a new anger brewing in her at the thought that he was callous enough to think that he could do it all over again.

“It wasn’t that.” Elizabeth kept stirring her sauce, avoiding eye contact with her sister.

“Then what was it?” Kate demanded. The thought that he was selfish enough to play with her sister’s emotions in the midst of everything they were going through with their mother was enough to make her want to scream at him.

“He wants to be friends.”

“Friends?” Kate scoffed at the thought of Nathan and Elizabeth being friends after everything that had happened between them.

“That’s what he says.”

“How in the world can he expect you to be his friend after everything he put you through?”

“He did try to apologize for that.”

“What did he say?” Kate blurted out in shock. What words, after all, did he think could make up for everything he had ruined? Her mind was racing at his thoughtlessness before her sister even answered her.

“I didn’t let him finish.”

“Oh, good. I’m so glad you told him you can’t be his friend. You were right not to accept his apology.” Kate nodded as relief washed over her. If her sister was smart enough not to listen to his apology, then maybe she wouldn’t let him break her heart all over again.

“It wasn’t like that.” Elizabeth kept her eyes locked on the stove so that Kate couldn’t read her expression.

“I don’t understand.”

“I told him I didn’t want to hear him apologize for something he wasn’t sorry he did. It wouldn’t have been genuine.”

“How can he not be sorry that he lost you?” Kate still couldn’t believe that such a smart man had been so foolish as to let her sister go.

“He has everything he wanted. It all worked out for him.”

“Just not for you,” Kate whispered.

“It’s not so bad. I’m happy,” Elizabeth said, the tremble in her voice undercutting her words.

“I can’t even believe he thought you could be his friend.”

“I can try to be.”

“What?” Kate frowned, shocked.

“I’m going to try.” Elizabeth finally sounded confident.

“No!”

“Yes.” Elizabeth knew that Kate was only concerned that she would be hurt again.

“Why?” Kate threw her hands in the air.

“Because holding on to the past has kept me from really moving on,” she explained, not sure how to make her sister understand her motivation.

“You aren’t making sense.”

Elizabeth turned and faced her sister, sighing as she tried to find the right words.

“I haven’t really faced it all, you know? I ran. I’ve been pretending I’m fine. The intensity of my job and all the traveling gave me the illusion that I was over him, that it was all in the past. But remember that day when you told me he got engaged to that lawyer? I cried myself to sleep for three nights. And it was almost seven years after we broke up. Isn’t that crazy?”

Kate felt her stomach sink. A sense of impotence washed over her. Her sister and her mother were her entire world and she hated to see them suffer.

“How is being his friend going to help you get past that? Isn’t getting close to him again just going to set you up to get hurt all over again?” Kate’s voice had no trace of anger in it. There was only worry.

“We can’t go back. We’re never going to be as close as we were. I just want to be able to look at him without my heart bleeding.”

Kate was beginning to see why Elizabeth might think it was a good idea.

“There’s no closure there.” Elizabeth finally accepted the truth of her emotional state.

“Because of him!” Kate accused.

“Neither of us has tried to face it all.” Elizabeth knew from Nathan’s earlier words that he had pushed their past away just as she had.

“Because he’s ashamed to own what he did!”

“I need to find peace in that relationship. It’s the only way I can really let go of the future I thought we would have together.”

“I love you.” It was clear that Elizabeth had already made her mind up. Instead of arguing further, Kate wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her close.

“And I love you.” Elizabeth rested her head on her sister’s shoulder.

“I might not think it’s a good idea, but I will support you,” Kate promised, tears forming in her eyes as she thought of all that her sister must be going through.

“I know you will.”

“And if he hurts you, I’ll take a baseball bat to his Volvo,” Kate said, not a bit of humor in her voice.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Elizabeth laughed. With that, she turned back to the stove.

Kate went to the back of the kitchen door, taking down her own apron and putting it on. Without another word, she pulled out the cutting board and got to work helping her sister.