Command Control

“I’ll be right there.” Sadie ended the call and sat upright on the couch, scanning the living room for shoes. She pulled on her boots, grabbed her phone, shoved the keys in her pocket and ran for the door. Ten minutes later, she was in Laurel’s kitchen.

“What is so urgent?”

Laurel frowned, her gaze fixed on Sadie’s feet. “You’re wearing your city boots.”

“They were the first thing I could find,” she said, which was true. Mostly. She felt like herself in these boots. City girl. Career woman. After what had happened with Logan that morning, she needed a reminder. “You said you needed me. Now.”

Laurel nodded. “It’s in the front room.”

Sadie followed her twin through the archway into the main living area. An opened box overflowing with little girl clothes sat on the floor. “Are those—”

“Our clothes,” Laurel said. “Dad sent them.”

Sadie walked over and picked up a pair of pink dresses. “He saved all of this?”

“Only our favorites. The top is mostly baby and toddler stuff. There’s not much of that, but below I found some of our favorite dress-up outfits.” Laurel sank onto the couch and picked up the baby video monitor. “Remember the princess dresses we got at a yard sale when we were seven?”

Sadie nodded. “I wore mine to school for a month. Dad convinced the principal it would help me deal with my grief over losing Mom. He conveniently left out the part about Mom passing away when we were babies.”

“I forgot about that. You wore a tiara every day and made up all those wild tales about your royal family across the ocean who lived in a pink castle.”

Her father had allowed her to live in her fantasy world, doing whatever he needed to do to make the outside world comply. Sadie stared at the massive box. A second one sat beside it. “It must have cost

a fortune to ship all this and store it for so long.”

Laurel nodded. “Now we know what he’s been doing with your money.”

Sadie sat down next to her twin and took her hand. “I’ll get him here. I promise.”

“Thanks.” Laurel rested her head on Sadie’s shoulder. “I miss him. And I want him to meet Lacey.”

The imaginary scale balancing her career on one side and her personal life on the other might be leaning toward career right now, but that didn’t mean she should give up. Not when it came to her family. Her commitment to her job strained her relationships with her sister and father, but it wasn’t an insurmountable barrier.

With Logan, it was.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Sadie said. “Logan found a reporter outside my bedroom window.”

“They put the pieces together—your picture, your address—and found you.”

“You were right. It was easier than I thought,” Sadie said. “I’m sorry. I know I promised you a month, but if they publish the pictures, I need to go home. And you don’t want a bunch of crazy reporters hanging around your house. They’d wake up Lacey.”

“No one who threatens to wake her is allowed within a mile of my house,” Laurel said, keeping her head on Sadie’s shoulder. “And you’ve done more than enough. I know you have your life in the city. Go whenever you need to leave. Just promise you’ll come back. I owe you and I’m thinking about repaying you in home-cooked meals. Give you a break from all that takeout you eat in the city.”

“I’ll come back. I promise.”

Laurel lifted her head. “How did Logan take the news? I assume this means you told him?”

“Everything.” Sadie stared across the room. “He was very understanding. But then, he just walked away. I knew he would. But still, it hurt.”

“You’re falling for him,” Laurel said, knowing what was written in Sadie’s heart even though she was trying her best to bury the feelings.

“I am,” she said. “Or I was. It’s over now. He shared everything with me and I kept one big secret that could destroy his chances of returning to his team. I feel horrible. But at the same time, if I had to go back, I think I’d do it all again.”

“Because you love him.”

“Maybe,” Sadie admitted.

“You should go after him. Tell him,” Laurel said. “You always go after what you want.”