in London. One hand on the front door handle, he threw a look back.
‘Hey?’
The girls looked up.
‘Don’t say anything to Mum and Dad – or you, Ellie – about what I said about boys and cute accents. OK?’
Two grins full of metal braces were his reply – and reassurance.
Disappearing into the cool of the house, Ben smiled wryly to himself and shook his head. Those two were going to be heartbreakers, accents or not.
*
Ellie wearily took her seat in the jet that would now take her from Texas to Kansas, where Sandy would meet her. She didn’t usually manage to sleep too much on planes but it seemed this time her body planned to take advantage of any opportunity it had to grab some extra rest, and she’d dozed on and off on the initial flight. At least Ellie had no worries of having to wait around at the airport for a while – Sandy was a stickler for punctuality. Always had been. Ellie laid her head back against the seat as the engines gained power and forced the jet into the sky. It was over a year since she had seen Sandy in person. The time just seemed to fly by and they hadn’t been able to firm up any plans for visits. Not to mention that planning much at all hadn’t been easy since she’d been with Carl. He’d never liked her seeing any friends or doing anything that didn’t involve him. She swallowed and pushed him out of her mind. There was no need for him to be in her thoughts now. He’d already taken far too much from her. She steered her mind in a more pleasant direction.
With Sandy, for the moment, still living at home in the large family house, something Ellie knew both she and her parents were loving, Ellie would also get to see Molly and Ted Danvers, Sandy’s parents. As the friends had last met up over in England, it was now over two years since Ellie had seen the people she considered her second family, and she loved hearing about the rest of the family, and the pride that rang in their voices as Molly and Ted spoke about Sandy and their boys.
Her mind drifted to the brothers. The eldest had already been at college and living their own lives when the Laings had first moved out to the States, but they had got to know them over the holidays and Joseph and Matt were both pleasant, witty and intelligent.
‘Lovely manners,’ her mother would always say after talking to any of the Danvers’ offspring.
But Ben was different, and that special bond he and Sandy had made the relationship different too. This was no doubt helped by the fact that his easygoing manner resulted in his giving them rides all over town once he’d passed his driving test. Sandy idolised Ben and everyone knew the feeling was mutual. They were even closer in looks than their brothers. Although there was no mistaking the three men were brothers, Ben’s colouring more resembled his father’s and thereby Sandy’s. Joe and Matt were both blonde-haired blue-eyed All-American boys, whereas both Sandy and Ben’s hair was dark. Sandy had also inherited her father’s soft brown eyes but on this the two differed, and Ben, as with his brother’s, followed the maternal line of a pale ice-blue. The clear intensity of them combined with almost black hair made a truly striking combination.
Ben’s dreams had also been far removed from that of all his siblings. Matt and Joe had both studied business and were now well established in the family company. Sandy had shown a keen business acumen at an early age and declared her intentions to study law, encouraged by Ben’s best friend Tyler. Her wish was to then join the legal team at the family firm but she knew she’d have to prove herself worthy, and wouldn’t just get a job there because of who she was. A bad lawyer could cost the business, and therefore her family, a lot of money. Sandy had approached her studies seriously. She’d been interviewed by the business’ legal team along with other candidates for the position. Sandy had been top of her class, and had the quickest, smartest answers of all of them and was now part of the family firm, as per her dream.
The youngest son was the only one who’d never shown the slightest interest in business. Ben’s heart had always been in music. He liked nothing better than to sit out on the porch swing quietly playing a tune he’d written or a favourite he’d heard on the radio. Although only next door, the girls were always sleeping over at one another’s houses, and they would lie in their beds as the warm Kansas wind gently sucked the curtains in and out, listening to the quiet strums of Ben’s guitar and the whispered lyrics as he unintentionally soothed them to sleep.
Ellie thought about Ben. Tall, kind, gorgeous and now married to a model he’d met at a charity function their band had performed at. She hadn’t seen him for years. His devotion to music had paid off and he was now the lead guitarist in a successful country band. They’d already had two number ones in the US country chart and their current song was climbing both the country and the regular charts after being used in a huge box office success, which had brought them even more fans.
In the past Ben had told her that he knew he was lucky he’d been allowed to tread his own path and would be ever thankful to his family for that. Just the thought of sitting behind a desk all day had sent shivers down his spine. In turn, his family, and Ellie, were overjoyed for him. All he’d ever wanted was to play music and now that dream was reality.
*
Having checked her phone again for the hundredth time, Sandy’s dark eyes scanned the travellers as she squeezed Todd’s hand in nervous anticipation.
‘Honey, you’re going to break my hand.’
Sandy turned and smiled as she lessened the grip on her fiancé. As soon as she’d told him about Ellie coming to visit, and the main reason behind it, he’d volunteered to drive her to the airport, saying that it would let them catch up without having to worry about concentrating on driving. She was glad now that he had, as nerves and excitement and concern all bubbled within her while she continued to watch the gates for the first sign of her friend.
What Todd hadn’t mentioned was that it was his concern for the woman he loved that compelled him to rearrange his day at the last minute in order to drive her to and from the airport.
Todd’s family had been friends with the Danvers for years but it was only a couple of years ago that his and Sandy’s friendship had deepened into something more. Every time he thought about that, he kicked himself for not seeing what an incredible woman she was sooner and at the thought of all the time he’d wasted not being with her. One night, after a couple too many beers, he’d confided this to his brother-in-law. Ben was, and had always been, as much of a brother to him as if they’d had the same blood running through their veins. Ben had just smiled, squeezed his shoulder and told him that sometimes people had to go through the things they did in order to appreciate the right thing – or person – when it was the right time.
Todd had met Ellie very briefly a couple of times when they were kids but not properly since he and Sandy had been dating. He’d seen her on Skype but if he was around when they called, he was usually shooed lovingly out of the room so that, as Sandy said, she could talk about him. But he knew how close the two women were and, if the information Zak had given Sandy was accurate, his fiancée was likely in for more of a shock than she thought when she saw her friend. She’d told him she was prepared but he didn’t know if she was prepared enough. If he was right, the shock of seeing a woman as close as a sister bruised and battered was going to impact her harder than she thought. For Todd, offering to drive was a no brainer.
Beside him, Sandy was still scanning the crowds, jittering back and forth.
‘There she is! Oh!’ She squinted a little. ‘She cut her hair.’
Todd followed Sandy’s frowning gaze to see a slim woman, about Sandy’s height, with a red, chin-length bob under a baseball cap. Her eyes were hidden behind rose-tinted aviator-style sunglasses.
‘Ellie!’ Sandy called, rushing to the end of the barrier and pulling her friend into a big hug.
Ellie stiffened involuntarily and eased away a little. Sandy pulled back. From a distance, Todd watched the concern on his fiancée’s face. He had a feeling that was only going to increase once those sunglasses were removed.
‘Ribs,’ Ellie explained,