“Did you know about this?” I ask her.

My younger sister pointedly avoids my eyes, suddenly very intrigued by the newspaper sitting on the counter.

“BeeBee.” Jules takes my hand and threads our fingers together. “I’m going to miss you. What are you going to do without me sticking my nose in your business?”

“Stop it. You already apologized. I forgave you, JuJu.”

“I know,” she says, swallowing through tears. “But I still feel shitty about it. I shouldn’t have pushed you. I’ll always be in your corner, and I’ll probably always fuss and worry more than I should, but you know your own path to happiness. I shouldn’t have tried to make it for you.”

I wipe tears from my eyes with the back of my hand, Jamie’s note still clutched tight in my grip. “But why do you have to go?” I whisper. “Why now? And where?”

She smiles around her tears. “Because I want to. Because it’s time. The universe says so. Kate had a place lined up for the next few weeks, but now with her accident, she’s no longer using it. So that’s where I’m starting, the-middle-of-nowhere Scotland, and I’ll go from there.”

My eyes blur with more tears. “I can’t believe you’re leaving. We’ve never lived apart.”

“It’s weird, I know. I’ll miss you. But you won’t be alone for long. You have Kate. And you have West. He’s so perfect for you, Bea. I know I went about it the wrong way, but I’m glad it still gave you the right person.”

“Jules—”

“Be happy,” she whispers, kissing my cheek and throwing her arms around me. “Because when I come back, I will be, too. So you better be ready.”

I wrap my arms around my twin, feeling our hearts beat against each other’s chests. Same height. Same hard grip when we clutch each other. “I love you,” I tell her. “I’m sorry everything ended—”

“Awfully?” she says through a teary laugh. “Me, too. But good fodder for the novel I’ve always wanted to write. That’s what Grandma said—‘You have nothing to say, Juliet, because nothing’s happened.’ ”

“Grandma was harsh sometimes,” Kate says.

Jules nods. “But I think she was right. Now, get over here and hug me goodbye.”

Reluctantly, Kate curls her good arm around us both, towering over us and tugging us close. “Nothing like a good five-minute Wilmot sister reunion.”

My twin’s teary laugh echoes inside our little sister cocoon. “Love you both,” she whispers.

Then, like a Band-Aid being ripped off, she shrugs on her coat and powers out the door. It thuds behind us, and I hear her thumping with her suitcase down the steps. Sprinting, I make it to my bed and rip open the curtains just in time. “Jules!” I yell, yanking open the window.