Family Ties

”

“So,” Christy said thoughtfully, “no single guys around to be… um…

“I didn’t say that,” Erin said with a laugh. “Single guys are always jerks sooner or later—”

“You can say that again,” Christy muttered.

“—but not because they stare at you,” Erin finished. “Besides, sometimes it’s nice to have guys stare at you. I mean, I can always tell which ones are interested and which ones don’t have a clue.”

“I don’t think I’ll have that problem,” Christy said. “I’m too skinny and small.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Erin said. “Sorry, no pun intended. But you have a really nice body, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Christy’s cheeks turned rosy, but she smiled and accepted the compliment.

“I wish my stomach was as flat as yours,” Erin continued. “And don’t get me started on my hips and butt. Ugh!”

Christy gave me an odd look, but I didn’t take it back.

“You and Christy are simply built differently, Erin. She’s the small model, you’re medium.”

“Medium trying not to become large,” Erin said.

“Oh, relax. You aren’t pint-sized like Christy, but you’re hardly what I’d call large.”

“I think you’re beautiful,” Christy agreed. “And the perfect size.”

Erin perked up. “You really think so?”

“Totally. You remind me of my sister-in-law. Marianne,” she said to me as an aside. “She’s absolutely gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” Erin said, uncharacteristically demure.

Christy smiled up at me and slipped her arm through mine.

imagined when Paul told us about you.”

“You can probably quit covering for me,” I told her. To Christy I said,

“Mom and Erin and Susan have been lying to keep me from looking like a complete jerk. I… um… hadn’t told them we were dating.”

“Told you,” Erin said smugly.

“You can say that again.”

“Oh my gosh!” Christy blurted. “She’s just like you!”

“What’d you expect? She’s my sister. But really,” I explained, “I don’t talk to my family as much as you do. We’re mostly ‘no news is good news’

“Paul’s right,” Erin said in my defense. “We’re close, but not… talk-every-day close, if that makes sense.”

“So I would’ve told them about you,” I said, “but things happened so quickly with the funeral and everything else that I forgot.”

“Then how did your mom know so much about me? I mean, if you didn’t tell her?”

“Wren came to camp with us this summer,” I said. “Remember?” It was true, strictly speaking, but only half of the answer. The rest would have to wait for the swinger discussion, if we ever got that far.

“You want the truth?”

“To thine own girlfriend…”

“Yep.” I chuckled but then paused when I realized how quickly Christy and I were becoming more like each other.

“So…,” Christy pressed, “why is Wren talking to Susan about me?”

“She wanted some advice. About you and me and… um… Gina.”

Erin looked at me sidelong. “Okay, since you brought it up…” She glanced apologetically at Christy. “Sorry. I hope you don’t mind, but… I’m dying to know. Paul, what happened with you and Gina? All she told Leah was that you wanted to stay friends.”

I thought about it, and we walked in silence for almost a minute. Erin could barely contain herself, but Christy walked beside me with remarkable composure.

“Two reasons,” I said at last. “Gina and I will always love each other, but we decided we couldn’t make a long-distance relationship work.”

“We figured that was part of it,” Erin said. “But what’s the other reason?”

“You’re looking at her,” I said with a nod toward Christy, who smiled at Erin and did a happy little bounce step.

“For real? No offense,” Erin added quickly. “I mean, you’re totally awesome, Christy, but… Paul and Gina were, like, perfect for each other. We really thought they were going to be together forever.”

“Well, Gina and I never talked about it,” I said. “The forever part, I mean.

And deep down, we probably both knew.” I shrugged. “Think about it, Er…

we want different things. She wants to be a doctor in California. I want to be an architect in Atlanta.”

“Yeah, but… it’s Gina,” Erin said wistfully.

“Sometimes your first love doesn’t last. I guess that was the case with Gina and me. It wasn’t meant to be. I’ll always love her, and I want her to be happy, but it’ll have to be with someone else, not me.”

Erin nodded. Then she glanced at Christy. “Sorry to bring that up. But since Paul mentioned it, I figured you knew.”

“Some of it,” Christy said. “Although not the part about how everyone expected them to get married.”

“Even Paul probably didn’t know. He’s kinda slow on the uptake sometimes. Maybe you noticed.”

“I did,” Christy said with a sideways grin at me. “It took him forever to realize I liked him.