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“Julie?”
“Hi big bro,” she grins. Her brown curls dance around her face as she skips up to me. The hug she gives me is one that I need more than she’ll ever know. If she notices that I hold her longer than normal, she doesn’t say, but she’s frowning when I finally release her.
“Was… was that Jamie Carson I saw in the car down the road?”
I suck in a deep breath. “Um, yes.”
“Oh, God, I feel so stupid,” she whispers and covers her face with her hands.
“What do you mean?”
Glancing at me through the gaps in her fingers, she says, “I was throwing myself at him this summer, but he said he wasn’t ready, with his recent divorce and all. And now he was here.”
“Yeah?” I swallow.
“It was just a summer flirt, Trevor, it wasn’t even a fling. Did he say anything? God, what if he’s ready now and wants us to date.” Her face twists.
“That would be a… bad thing?” I ask, not sure what’s going on here.
She drops her arms down her sides and shrugs her shoulders. “He’s really nice and all, you know, but he’s way, way too old and boring for me. And besides,” she does a discrete nod with her head and whispers. “This is Steve.”
“Who is Steve?” I glance over her shoulder to the young man shifting on his feet by the car.
“My boyfriend.”
Her boyfriend.
Boyfriend!
“Oh!”
“What the hell am I going to do with Jamie?” Julie whines while I’m trying to sort all this new information in my head. “I don’t want to break his heart…”
“He wasn’t here for you.” The last thing I want is Julie feeling guilty without reason. I clear my throat. “He was here for me.”
Confusion mars my sister’s face. “But…”
“We… um… He’s just out of the closet, Julie.”
It takes a few beats, but then her face beams as if the sun has taken residence. “Oh my God,” she squeals and claps her hands. “Oh-my-God, oh-my-God! My brother has a boyfriend!”
“What? No…” I’m stunned by her response and of some reason, my cheeks warm.
“You are perfect together!” She looks down the road as if he would magically appear. I do too. “Why did he leave?”
“I, um, I sent him away,” I stutter.
“Why?”
“I thought you had feelings for him, I didn’t want to hurt you again.”
“No way!” She gasps. “You sent him away because of my dramatic behaviour this summer?”
“Um, yes?” My head is starting to hurt.
“And what do you mean ‘again’?”
“You know, hurt this family… like I did when I sent Dad away.”
