A Sister's Wish by Shelley Shepard Gray Page A

back a portion of his drink.
    â€œSo, um, nothing changed.”
    â€œDid you really think it had?”
    She looked down at her lap. “No. But I guess I hoped they would have. And you’re still Amish . . .”
    â€œI had nowhere else to go. You and Jeremy said you’d come back for me if you could. You never did.” He hated to point that out and didn’t wish to make her feel guilty, but he felt like he was barely managing to hold on to himself.
    Seeing Tess out of the blue like this was difficult. So many emotions were spinning inside of him. He was happy to see his sister but completely unable let the gaps in their relationship go unnoticed. To make matters worse, he was already feeling stretched to the limit after discovering Amelia in her barn, staying by her side at the hospital, then being told he would never be good enough for her by his best friend in the world.
    Why had God decided to heap all of this on him at one time?
    â€œI had every intention of coming to get you, Simon,” she said quietly, “but I needed to have a place to take you to, first.”
    Remembering how scared he’d been on the streets after the initial relief of escaping their house had worn off, he said, “What happened to you?”
    â€œI spent my first three months living on the streets.”
    He wasn’t sure how to accept that statement. “But Jeremy said you were going to be together.” That was what Simon had always thought. He’d spent hours imagining the two of them together while he’d been dealing with the consequences of their departure at home.
    She shook her head. “We weren’t together.”
    â€œHow come?”
    To his amazement, Tess looked apologetic. “Jeremy, well . . . Jeremy hooked up with a bad crowd. They weren’t safe.”
    He almost smiled. “You don’t need to shield me, Tess. I have a pretty good feeling what they were like.”
    â€œThen you probably will understand what I mean when I tell you that I didn’t trust any of them. Actually, I was afraid of most of the guys he hung around. After the first night, I knew I would be safer out on my own.”
    He stared at her, hard. Even after all this time, her expression was haunted. “So you left?” he asked, his voice softer.
    â€œJah.” She shrugged. “I left the next morning. Jeremy was still asleep.” Looking out the window, she said, “At first I thought he might look for me. That he might leave the people he was with . . . but he didn’t.”
    â€œAll this time I thought that the two of you were together.”
    â€œThat isn’t what happened. I only saw him once after I left. It didn’t go well. Have you seen him?”
    â€œNee.”
    â€œI’m sorry. I had hoped . . . well, I hoped that Jeremy would have fulfilled his promise better than I did.”
    She looked sincere. He supposed she was. “It doesn’t matter now.”
    â€œI think it might,” she said softly. “For what it’s worth, after things got better, I planned to come find you, but I was too afraid.”
    â€œI understand that now.” Any reminder of their past was particularly painful.
    â€œDo you? I’m not sure if I do.” She stopped and leaned back when Josephine brought their salads. She picked up her fork, then froze when Simon bowed his head.
    Then, to his surprise, she bowed her head and joined him in silent prayer.
    That action meant the world to him. It helped him realize that they weren’t all that different after all. They might have chosen different roads to take with their lives, but they were essentially the same people who had lived across the hall from each other. That realization was all he needed to warm up toward her. “After you left Jeremy what did you do next?”
    â€œI met Jill.” Looking happier, she said, “Jill was a police officer when I met her. She brought me