Page 30 of The Sister's Curse

I paused when I got to the pearl tucked beneath my pillow. I thought that might change how he saw me. Maybe he wouldn’t understand. He believed in what he could see and touch, and where I came from…may as well have been the far side of the moon.

And I didn’t want him to leave me. I was afraid I’d scare him again, that he would flee. I’d never opened up to someone like this, and I was so very afraid of losing him.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I’d promised to tell him the truth, and I did. I told him about the pearl.

Nick exhaled and rubbed the back of his neck. “You know I’m here for you no matter what, right?”

I nodded. We’d promised each other that. I wasn’t sure I totally believed that we would, but I believed we would try.

He came to sit beside me on the edge of the tub. “I’m worriedabout you. I’ve been thinking, since last fall…maybe we should move.”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“Maybe we should move. Get away from here. Go west or something.”

“What brought this on?” I reached out to take his hand. “What’s wrong?”

He slid his other hand over his mouth. “I haven’t wanted to bother you about work stuff, but it’s not getting better. We’ve got a new guy over the ER. Dr.Floyd. It’s a bad situation.”

I frowned. Nick had mentioned problems at work in the past few weeks. I hadn’t pressed to find out more, and guilt bubbled up in my throat. “Is this about him?”

“Partially. He’s fired my best nurse for taking a too-long break to pick her kid up from school. The guy’s a fucking tyrant. And I don’t think he’s going anywhere. He’s tight with the board.”

“But…” My mind latched onto all the impossibilities. “Your licensure…”

“I can apply to the medical boards of other states to transfer it.”

“Is it that bad?”

“It might get that bad.” The circles under his eyes were deepening. I’d never known Nick to run away from a fight. That was one of the things I loved most about him: his tenacity. Things had to be bad for him to consider leaving. And I hadn’t noticed. I’d been too wrapped up in my own issues to pay attention to his.

“I’ve built a life here.” At least, I’d built a career. A career built on lies about who and what I was, but a successful one. I couldn’t imagine working without Chief or Monica. And I had this house, perfectly private and owned outright.

Nick pulled his hand away and laced his fingers together. His thumbs warred with each other. “Maybe it’s not you or me or yourfather that’s so wrong…Maybe it’s this place. Maybe Bayern County is just cursed.”

I stared at him.

“I mean, there are all those stories about haunted places that drive people batshit. I’ve seen some weird stuff in the ER that I haven’t been able to explain. And you have, too. What if…it’s just this place that drove your father crazy? What if there’s just weird shit here, and we need to stop trying to fix it and get the hell outta Dodge?”

My mouth opened and closed like a fish’s. I was shocked that Nick was willing to entertain mad theories of the unseen in spite of his worldview. He was changing…for me.

But I couldn’t explain to him then how I felt so rooted in this place. He may as well have suggested moving to Mars.

“Bayern County has too much history, for you and for me,” he said. I wondered if he was thinking of his mother then. I wondered if this was more the reason he wanted to leave than the tyrannical ER doctor was. If it was ghosts, not the living, that were driving him out.

“I understand.” I thought I did.

He leaned against my shoulder. “Just think about it, okay?”

I couldn’t imagine it. I couldn’t imagine being anyplace other than here, with its twisted roads and its singing frogs and its little brown snakes sleeping under my porch. I couldn’t imagine going somewhere I couldn’t identify the trees, where I wouldn’t be able to find a salamander in a creek.

I was entwined with this land. Wasn’t I?

And if I was…what did that mean for our future?

—

I couldn’t imagine leaving this place, not really.