Family Ties

“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!”

“Don’t sell yourself short either,” I told her. “You’re totally hot and you know it.”

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.

Erin watched us for a moment. “You two are cute together. And don’t take this the wrong way,” she said to Christy, “but you are totally not what I

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.”

Christy’s eyes flashed. “You really are the worst boyfriend in the world!”

“Told you,” Erin said smugly.

“Sorry,” I said. “We were so busy with your project and Thanksgiving and then my project. I won’t say I forgot, but… I guess I forgot.” I smiled at a sudden thought. “No, I take that back. I was so blissfully happy that I couldn’t think of anything but you.”

“Oh my God,” Erin groaned. “You are so full of crap.”

“You can say that again.”

“He is so full of crap.”

“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’

people.”

“So are we,” Christy said, “but we still talk.”

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

“I guess.”

“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?”

“Susan.”

“How did she know? Did you tell her?”

“Um… no. Wren did.”

Christy threw up her hands. “Is everyone involved in this matchmaking scheme?” Then she grew suspicious. “Hold on… why was Wren talking to Susan? How do they even know each other?”

“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.

“Oh yeah, right. Sorry. But still… why is she telling her about me?”

“You want the truth?”

“To thine own girlfriend…”

Erin laughed. “Now she sounds like Dad.”

“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.”

She glanced at Christy again and decided to elaborate. “Paul and Gina pretty much grew up together. First loves and all that. We all thought they’d get married. Her family and ours. Then… they broke up. We thought they’d get back together eventually, and for a while it looked like they had, but then… nothing.” She turned to me again. “So, what happened?”

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.