Long Road Home (The Barker Triplets 4)

ffle easily. The woman’s lips moved soundlessly until the noise cleared from Bobbi’s ears and she was able to hear.

“What was that?” Bobbi asked softly, a catch to her voice.

“I was asking if y’all were okay.” Her Southern drawl was much sharper than before, and, God bless her, Coral was obviously concerned.

“I’m fine,” Bobbi managed to say without losing her mind. Shane was here. In Louisiana. At the Belle Adair B and B. The thought made her stomach roll again, and she had to take a moment or chance losing her breakfast all over Coral’s Sunday shoes. And Bobbi couldn’t let that happen again.

“You don’t look fine.” Cora slowly shook her head, and her mouth tightened. “Is it true? Is that man your husband?”

Husband.

Bobbi wasn’t exactly sure what Shane was anymore, and that thought brought with it such an ache. It bloomed in her chest and spread like a virus until she was left shaking and weak from it. She thought she’d been better. That she’d somehow managed to dial back the pain. But heartache was a sneaky son of a bitch, and she’d been fooled.

“I don’t…” she began, licking dry lips as her eyes darted toward the stairs. “I need my room. I have to lie down or…something,” she muttered, moving past Coral and praying her legs wouldn’t give out.

Bobbi must have taken the stairs without incident. She must have found the strength to get to the upper level, because when the fog inside her head dissipated, she found herself on the third-floor landing, eyes riveted to the room across from hers. Shane had been there all night. Lying in a bed less than twenty feet from her own. Without knowing, they’d been separated by walls and doors and ignorant bliss.

And now? Those damn hot tears pricked her eyes, and her throat tightened so much, it was hard to swallow or breathe, or even think. Bobbi grabbed the room key from her purse and, after a few fumbled attempts, opened her door and closed it behind her as quick as she could. She locked it immediately and leaned her forehead against the wood, her breaths as erratic as her heartbeat.

She couldn’t fall apart.

She slowly pulled away and, shivering, tossed her bag onto the bed. She stared at it, visualizing the little white paper bag with the little thing inside it—the little “big” thing she needed to deal with. Then she thought of Shane and turned away, shaking her head at the unbelievable image of him standing with little Mackie in the foyer.

How long she stood there, staring into space, was anyone’s guess, but finally, she moved back toward the bed and reached into her purse. She pulled out that little white bag and then the package inside it. Mouth dry, she gave herself a mental smack down and got her shit together enough to head to the bathroom and get it over with. There was no use tying herself up in knots when she didn’t know all the facts. The only thing she was sure of was that Shane had found his way to the B and B, and she had a pretty good idea who was responsible.

After finishing up in the bathroom, Bobbi grabbed her cell and called her sister-in-law, who picked up after the first ring.

“Don’t be mad.”

Bobbi opened her mouth and then slammed it shut without saying a word. She didn’t trust herself to speak just yet, and caught sight of the mirror. Her color was high, cheeks red and flushed, and her hair was wavy from the humidity. Her eyes were huge and haunted, and all the anger inside fled as quick as it had come.

She didn’t have the energy to be angry. God, it felt like she’d been hit by a Mack truck and could sleep for a week.

“Bobbi?” Eden said hesitantly.

“Why?” she whispered hoarsely, trying hard to keep her emotions in check. She bit her lip and grimaced, waiting for an answer.

A soft sigh filled her ear, and a few moments passed. “I could give you one hundred and one reasons why. And I will gladly sit down and tell you each and every one of them if you need me to. But if I had to compact all those reasons into one grand speech, I’ll try to get it right and keep it short.”

There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of a door closing as if Eden had locked herself in a room. Bobbi’s heart began to beat faster as she sank to the bed, listening for Eden’s voice.

“I didn’t set you guys up to hurt you, even though I know there’ll be hurt. I apologize for that, but I didn’t know of any other way to get the two most stubborn people on the planet together so they could fix whatever the thing is that’s between them. The thing that’s keeping them apart.”

Bobbi’s shoulders dropped as she rubbed her forehead. A headache was brewing. It had started somewhere between the pharmacy and the foyer…and Shane. “Eden,” she began haltingly, but was interrupted before she had a chance to say anything else.

“Bobbi, just listen to me, please, and when I’m done, if you think I’m wrong and the worst kind of person that ever existed in the history of yucky people because I stuck my nose into your business, then I’m sorry. But I had to try. I had to try because Shane is my family, and I love him and I love you too. I had to try because the world is a screwed-up place full of things that can’t be fixed. But you guys? You’re not in that category. You guys were meant to make it all the way to the end. That’s why you need to try harder. Because of that and because of those one hundred and one things I could recite to you. Those one hundred and one reasons why you and Shane work boil down to pretty much one universal thing. And as kooky or as corny as it sounds, that one thing is love. The kind of love that’s like a miracle or something.”

In spite of trying to hold her shit together, Bobbi’s eyes filled with tears again, and she stared down as they slowly dropped onto her lap.

“Love isn’t the problem,” she whispered, more to herself than anything, and was surprised when Eden replied.

“No. Anyone who’s spent any time around you guys knows that love definitely isn’t the problem. But it’s the solution. I might be a lot younger than you and Shane, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about. The scars across my heart are deep. I know what it’s like to lose someone who was the world to you. I know what it’s like to look back and remember things I wished I’d done differently. Things I should have said, moments I shouldn’t have let pass by.”

Eden’s voice caught, and Bobbi felt her pain. It traveled through the invisible lines between them like lightning across the water. It wasn’t so long ago that Eden had lost her mother and a boyfriend who’d meant the world to her.

The girl was young, but she was right about one thing. She’d suffered too.

“I know what you’re trying to do, but there’s so much you don’t know,” Bobbi said slowly, eyes on the bathroom door as she spoke.