Family Ties

She didn’t know a thing about my lifestyle, either. And she seemed willfully oblivious to my moods.

The last wasn’t really true. She was acutely aware of my frustration and the reason for it. She simply didn’t know how to deal with it. Mindless chatter was her answer. I finally figured it out after she nervously glanced at me the fifth or sixth time.

I didn’t want to start an argument, especially when we were trapped in a plane, so I stopped her the only way I knew how: I kissed her.

“Relax,” I said. “Sorry I’m brooding. I’ll get over it. I just get frustrated when things don’t go like they’re supposed to.”

“I’m so sorry about the ticket. I completely forgot.”

“That’s okay. I just have to remind myself that you’re total chaos sometimes. I’m all about order.”

It’s the idea that opposites are really part of the same whole. You can’t have one without the other. They’re the ‘cloudy side’ and the ‘sunny side.’ You’re the cloudy, by the way. And I’m the sunny, of course.” She beamed at me and then chattered away.

At least she wasn’t flustered anymore. That was something.

Christy’s ticket mix-up made life interesting at the other end of the trip as well. We arrived in San Diego and no one was there to pick us up, since we

hadn’t told them about the flight change. I had to take some of the blame, though, since I hadn’t even thought of calling them during our layover in Atlanta.

We found a pay phone. Christy glossed over the real cause and made it sound like we simply had to take a later flight.

“Don’t get upset,” she begged me after she hung up.

“But you totally just lied to your mom.”

“I didn’t lie. I just… left out a few details.”

“And how is that not a lie?”

“The same way you left out a few details about talking to Gina when I thought it was Sara.”

“Whatever. I’ll tell them… eventually.”

“They’ll find out anyway when you tell them how much the new ticket cost. I mean, that was a pretty large check you wrote.”

“Oh, that?” She waved it away. “My dad’ll take care of it.”

My eyebrows shot up.

“He may yell a little, but he always fixes things.”

But a niggling part of me remembered Trip and Wren’s Halloween argument about money. Once again, I reminded myself that it wasn’t my problem.

It didn’t occur to me that Trip had probably told himself the same thing.

Christy’s brother Danny picked us up instead of her mother. He pulled up to the curb and climbed from the driver’s side of a big Cadillac.

“Birdy-bird,” he called over the roof of the car.

She squealed in surprise. “Danny!”

“Mom sent me instead. I hope that’s okay.”

“Lemme pop the trunk and I’ll help you with the bags,” he said to me. He reached into the car and then joined us on the sidewalk. He gave Christy a hug and shook my hand. “Good to see you again. She’s hard to say no to,

“Oh, I think I do. She’s had the rest of us wrapped around her finger since she came home from the hospital.”

“Danny, that isn’t true.”

“Sure it is, Sis.” He gestured at the suitcases. “All of these yours?”

“Yeah.” I gestured feebly. “She… uh…”

“Oh, I’m familiar,” he said with a grin. “She used to pack all her dolls for family trips.”

“She even packed a little suitcase of doll clothes.” He hefted one of the large bags and her smaller one.

I grabbed her other large suitcase and my own.

“I knew she’d have a bunch,” he said, “so I brought Dad’s car instead of Mom’s.”

The Cadillac’s trunk looked like it needed its own zip code. Our four suitcases plus Christy’s overnight bag and my backpack barely took up half of it.

“Sabrina’s in the front,” Danny said as he dropped the trunk lid. “You guys hop in the back.” He walked back to the driver’s side, and I opened the rear passenger door for Christy. I climbed in after her and closed the door with a soft thump.

The woman in the front seat turned. “Hey, Birdy, good to see you.”

“Sabrina! Good to see you too. You’re as beautiful as ever.”

“Thanks. You too. How was your flight?”

“It was good. The guy next to me was really cute.” She flashed me a grin.

“When did you get in?”

“About an hour ago. We hadn’t even settled in before you called. Danny was restless from the flight—you know how he is when he isn’t the one flying—so he volunteered to come pick you up.” She glanced at me and smiled. “Sorry, you must be Paul. I’m Sabrina.”

I shook her hand over the seat back. “Nice to meet you.”

She was pretty—what I could see of her, at least—with long, dark hair and finely sculpted features.

“Your mom put us together in your bedroom,” she said to Christy. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, that’s awesome!”

Danny glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “You and I bunk together on the screen porch.”

“Fine by me,” I said.