“What made you ask that?” My mother tried to keep her voice light, but I could hear the curiosity and just a tinge of apprehension.
“Oh ... I don’t know. Just wondering about it.”
We were all quiet for a while, and then my mother, still keeping her tone deceptively casual, remarked, “Quinn has really grown up this summer, hasn’t she?”
I didn’t know whether I really blushed, but my face felt hot. “Yeah, I guess,” I mumbled.
“Leo is sprouting up, too,” my father added. “I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. Both his brothers are tall boys. Do you think Leo will play basketball next year?”
“I don’t know.” I wasn’t really worried about Leo’s potential in basketball. He was always going to play sports that I wouldn’t be able to dream of trying. I was used to it, but since sports didn’t interest me anyway, his prowess didn’t bother me.
“Hard to believe the three of you are thirteen,” my mother mused. “I remember when you were all babies, and Lisa and I used to tease Quinn’s mom about one of you boys being her son-in-law one day.”
“Seriously, Mom.” I rolled my eyes. “We’re not babies anymore.”
“No, you’re not,” she agreed. “And things are going to change soon. I hope you and Leo and Quinn will be friends forever. But now that you’re getting older, you might find that Quinn wants to start spending more time with other girls. She may begin dating, even.”
The idea of Quinn—myQuinn—dating someone other than me made me feel like I did when my lungs were tightening. I couldn’t take it, and I began rubbing my chest absently, trying to loosen the muscles.
“Nate! Are you okay?” My mom twisted around in her seat, concern all over her face. “Do we need to stop?”
“No, I’m fine,” I told her. “Sorry. Just habit, I guess.”
She looked both relieved and suspicious, but she nodded. “Okay. Why don’t you try to catch some sleep? We’ve still got another couple of hours.”
I closed my eyes and lay my head back against the seat, but in my head, all I could see was Quinn. It had suddenly struck me that having her for my own might not be as easy as I thought. What if she didn’t love me?
I made up my mind in that moment. I would make her fall in love with me. That was all there was to it.
