Page 54 of Ford
He didn’t know why he said that, and he now glanced at her.
She was grinning at him. “Big tough Ford had to sit on the sidelines. It killed you, didn’t it.”
His mouth tightened.
“I just…I hate being helpless.”
“Hence the sneak and grab into the former Soviet Union to save your sister, who may or may not need your help.”
“She needs my help.”
Scarlett raised an eyebrow.
“Listen, Ruby Jane is my twin. Fraternal twins, of course, but we’re a lot alike. Or we were, once upon a time. She thinks like me—or at least she used to, and that’s what has me so scared.”
“What, that she’s invincible?”
“I don’t think I’m invincible.”
“That is not true—”
“It is. Believe me, I’m keenly aware of my own stupid impulses, the fact I can easily get in trouble. RJ and I nearly died because of me when we were kids.”
“When you got sucked into a cave?”
Oh, that’s right. He’d told her the story the night Reuben got married, when he took her out to the river to watch the stars. But maybe not all of it.
“It was my fault. I wanted to go swimming in the river. I told her that we’d be fine—the river wasn’t that deep, normally, and I’d been swimming there plenty of times with Rube and Tate…but never alone. But that’s the thing—I was always watching my brothers, learning from them, emulating them—or trying to not make their mistakes. I figured if I just did everything right, then nothing would go wrong. I told RJ where to swim—there was this shallow area without much current, and she was supposed to stay there. But I underestimated the current and the fact that she wasn’t a good swimmer, and suddenly, she was drowning. I caught up to her, grabbed her, and we managed to stay afloat, but the river took us about a half mile downstream, into a gorge. The river pushed us into this alcove, and RJ realized it was a cave, with tunnels. I found a ledge and we climbed out and wandered back to a dry area. We were just supposed to catch our breaths, but then it started to get dark out. By the time I tried to get her to leave, it was pitch dark. RJ was terrified. She begged me not to leave her, and she refused to move. We were cold and wet and I…I was afraid. I thought if I left her, I might get lost in the cave or maybe under the water. But if I didn’t go, we could freeze to death. And the worst part was, no one knew where we were.”
They’d come out onto the square. Lights bathed the cathedral from the bottom. Overhead, the sky was velvet, thick and brilliant with stars.
“It’s hard to tell the passage of time in darkness. We huddled together, and every time I said I should go—I’d decided I probably needed to leave her there and get help—she begged me not to. And if I’m being honest, maybe I was a little relieved because…”
“You were a kid and afraid.”
“Itwasvery dark.”
She slid her hand into his.
“It took them three days to find us. By then, RJ was really sick, hypothermic and near death. I’ll never forget the moment my dad showed up. Shined light on us in the darkness and I felt naked and dirty and yeah, relieved, but so horrified that I had done nothing.Nothingto save us.”
It seemed like the right thing to say nothing more. To not try to soothe it and somehow add to his wounds. Which felt achingly deep for a man who spent his life being the tip of the spear, doing everything he could to save lives.
Save, really, the world.
“I vowed then that I wasn’t going to do nothing ever again.”
“Mmmhmm,” she said. “That explains a lot.”
He wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but… “And it also explains my sister’s stupid independence. She felt so guilty that she made me stay, that she’d clung so hard to me that she pushed me away after that. And she’s still trying to prove that she doesn’t need us. Especially me.”
Scarlett made a small noise beside him, and he looked at her. “What?”
“They say that fraternal twins are always solving each other’s problems. She doesn’t want to depend on you, and you want to show her she can.”
“Shecan.” Oh, he wanted his words to be true.
“I know.” She turned to him. Touched her hand to his chest. “But who doyoudepend on?”