“Okay, talk to me.” Ashley dropped onto the bed, crossing her legs in that criss-cross-applesauce kind of way preschoolers did. “I know what it’s like to be that scared. I’ve been there, remember?”

Cora looked at Ashley. What Cora had been through was a drop in the bucket compared to Ashley’s nightmare. Ashley had been kidnapped and had to fight her way out. She’d had to kill a woman to save herself and it was something that had taken Ashley a long time to come to terms with, but she was doing well now.

“I’m okay, really. I got lucky and they ran.” The police had caught the men who’d robbed the convenience store. They’d been stupid enough to run a red light on the way out of the area. It caught the attention of an officer. When he radioed the plate in, it matched the plate reported by a witness who’d been outside the convenience store. They were in custody.

“Hey,” Ashley put her hand on Cora’s arm and waited for her sister to look up. “What you did took amazing guts. I’m so damned proud of you.”

Cora was fighting tears for the tenth time that day. She’d been so damned scared and it seemed like her body was trying to cope with that with spontaneous bouts of crying. “Thanks, but there wasn’t much of a choice. What was I going to do? There was no way I could run.”

“You could have tried to hide yourself instead of covering those kids. You could have left Alice to deal with it on her own.”

The sound that came from Cora was half grunt, half laugh. Running and hiding had never been an option.

“Now, you need to tell me what else is bothering you,” Ashley said.

Oh hell, the tears came. Ashley was always able to read Cora’s mind. It was a blessing and a curse to have a sister you were that close to.

Cora reached for a tissue and swiped at her tears, then blew her nose. She was an ugly crier. By now, her nose was probably bright red and she knew if she looked in the mirror she would see blotches on her cheeks.

“I think I’m more messed up than I thought.”

Ashley reached out to touch Cora’s hand. “What makes you say that?”

Cora blotted at her eyes again. “I always thought I had my past under control. I didn’t do all of the stuff most people with abandonment issues do, you know? I wasn’t jumping from relationship to relationship or glomming on to some guy and acting like we were ready to get married after two dates.”

Ashley nodded. They’d all gone to therapy as kids. The term “abandonment issue” wasn’t foreign to any of the Walker siblings.

“Then I realized I’d been holding out hope for years that Justin might wake up and see me someday, and Laura pointed out that that’s probably as much of an abandonment issue as the other things.”

“Yes, and you did something about that. You’re seeing Ethan.”

Cora pressed her eyes shut as more tears came. “I think I need to stop seeing Ethan.”

“Why do you say that? I thought you liked him.”

Cora sniffed and reached for another tissue. “I think I’ve known for a while now that he doesn’t do it for me the way he should, but I didn’t want to face it. I like him a lot, but it isn’t more than friendship. When we kiss, I don’t feel what I should. He can’t sweep me away from reality or make my toes curl.”

Ashley sighed. “The toe curl is kind of important.”

Cora only cried harder at that and Ashley reached out to hold her. Sisters were the best.

She took a deep breath and said what she knew she needed to say. “I tried to like Ethan the way I should. I tried to make myself believe he could be the one, but he just isn’t…”

She couldn’t say it. She felt like a fool for even thinking it.

In a move of utter and complete lunacy, our heroine is still stuck on the one man she can’t have.

“He isn’t Justin.” Ashley said it for her.

Cora nodded her head. “It’s so stupid. I’ve never even kissed Justin, but I can’t stop comparing every guy to him. When I met Lice Guy in the restaurant, the first thing I did was line him up to Justin in my head. I hate it.”

Ashley scooted over next to Cora so they sat side-by-side. She wrapped an arm around her. “It’s not stupid. I get it. But here’s the thing. Just because Ethan wasn’t the guy to make you forget Justin, doesn’t mean there isn’t a guy out there who will. One of these days, you’ll meet someone whose kisses will make you forget all about Justin. You’ll be like, Justin who?”

Cora nodded, looking down at her lap. “I just want that to happen now. I don’t want to want him anymore.”

“I know. But I promise, there’s a guy out there for you. I’m an expert, remember?”

Cora laughed and leaned her head on Ashley’s shoulder. They sat like that for a bit until her nose stopped running and the tears had dried up.

“What if this is just me switching to a new abandonment thing? Like, I stopped waiting for Justin, but now I’m going to head into no-guy-is-ever-good-enough territory and find reasons to reject every man who comes along?”

Ashley shook her head. “I don’t think that’s what you’re doing. It’s totally normal to date a few guys before you find the right guy for you. There’s nothing unusual about that. It sucks, but it’s life. Sometimes, even if your mom left you in a park and you spent a few too many years pining for one guy, you’re still just a normal girl floundering in the dating pool like we all do.”

Cora nodded and pressed the now-soggy tissue to her eyes again, taking a few deep breaths as Ashley rubbed her back.

“God, I hate to tell Ethan. He’s got so much going on with his dad sick and the lawsuit and moving his business. It’s shitty to be like, hey, it turns out you don’t turn me on enough.”

“Has he called? What happened at the convenience store must be all over town by now.”

Cora pointed to her phone on the night stand. “He called and texted a couple of times. I told him I’m okay and I just wanted to sleep for a while.”

“The fact he’s okay with that tells me he knows on some level, at least, that you’re not the one for him, either. When I told Justin what happened, I swear, he launched over his desk and flew through the door of his office to get to you. There was no doubt in my mind he was going to be coming to the police station with me. If you were the right woman for Ethan, he would be banging down your door right now to be sure you’re okay.”

Cora sat up and looked at Ashley. “You’re confusing the hell out of me. I thought you said you thought I was going to meet someone someday who would make me forget Justin. Now you sound like you’re saying Justin has stronger feelings for me than Ethan does.”

Ashley’s mouth twisted as she grimaced. “I think he does. I just think Justin’s too fucked up in the head to realize what he feels. Or maybe it’s just that he’s too messed up to act on his feelings. Either way, I think you’re right to move on. You can’t wait for him forever.”

Cora sighed. “God, I really hate that. I hate all of this.”

Ashley pulled her to her and they sat, sisters, side-by-side. Neither had to say a word. It was enough just to be there together, knowing they had each other’s backs.