Long Way Home by Neve Cottrell Read Free Book Online Page B

regretted it. She’d been to the Maldives on her honeymoon. It had been an amazing trip and she couldn’t bear remembering it now.
    “Where’s that?” asked Betsy.
    “A string of islands off the coast of India. Very private.”
    “Sounds like you,” Betsy said and it took all of Alexis’s willpower not to hurl a cinnamon roll at her sister’s head.
    “Did you go alone?” asked Tilly, clearly fishing for information. “That sounds dangerous to go somewhere so remote on your own. You always read about these solo women travelers getting raped or murdered.”
    Alexis rolled her eyes. “Mom, you don’t read anything of the kind. I’ve never seen you read a newspaper in my life.”
    “I’ve seen it online,” Tilly insisted.
    “Well, you’ll be relieved to know that I didn’t go alone,” Alexis replied and she caught the other two women exchange not-so-subtle glances. “How about you? Have you been anywhere?” She didn’t expect the answer to be yes, but she was desperate to change the subject.
    “You know your father doesn’t like to travel,” Tilly responded. “Joe’s pretty much the same. Anyway, it would be difficult to travel with Joey.”
    Alexis noticed Betsy’s slight irritation at her mother’s mention of Joey. She suspected Betsy and Joe handled Joey’s condition much better than her parents did.
    “Joey probably wouldn’t like being confined on an airplane, but he wouldn’t mind a car trip somewhere.” Betsy took a long sip of her orange juice.
    “Well, maybe this summer,” Tilly said, picking up on Betsy’s frustration. “Joey gets two weeks, doesn’t he?”
    “Joey’s school goes all year round,” Betsy explained to Alexis. “He gets one to two week breaks throughout the year.”
    “Have you talked about what you’ll do when he’s older?” Alexis asked. “Will he be able to live independently?”
    Betsy shook her head. “Not Joey. Plenty of autistic people can, it depends on where they are on the spectrum. Joey’s not going to be one of them, though.”
    Alexis didn’t know what the appropriate response was for something like that. She longed to reach out and hug her sister, but it felt too unnatural.
    “Oh, he’ll be fine,” Tilly interjected with a dismissive wave of her hand and Betsy shot her sister a hopeless look.
    Alexis and Betsy’s most sisterly moments had involved shared frustration with their parents. As much as she wanted to be helpful to her sister, though, she had no leg to stand on. If her mother wanted to live in denial, who was Alexis to drag her back to reality?
    “Betsy,” Joe’s voice boomed from the family room. “How about some coffee?”
    “Okay,” Betsy called back. She pushed her chair back, but Alexis beat her to it.
    “I’ll make it,” Alexis volunteered.
    “You drink coffee?” Betsy asked.
    “You make coffee?” Tilly added.
    Alexis sucked in her breath as she retrieved a coffee filter from the cabinet and set to work. “You two act like I was some indolent slob who slurped tea all day and refused to help out around the house.”
    “That’s not what I meant,” Tilly said.
    “Me neither,” Betsy chimed in. “I just didn’t know you drink coffee is all.”
    “It’s true I didn’t drink coffee in high school and I loved blueberry pancakes, but I hardly think people’s eating and drinking habits stay exactly the same their whole lives.”
    Alexis hit the start button and returned to the table, relieved to get that minor detail off her chest. It certainly didn’t bridge the gap of her seventeen-year absence, but it was a start.
     
    When Alexis finally wrapped up her visit to Betsy’s house, she was ready for a few hours of solitude before she ventured to Gatsby’s. She’d decided to accept Ty’s invitation while sitting in Betsy’s kitchen, listening to her father complain about the current government. His complaints hadn’t changed, just the names of the people at fault. The thought of sitting in her