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“Your alarm code is the same one you use for your phone.”

“You know the code to my phone?” I reached back and took off my lone heel.

“I know all your codes. Even when you change them.”

I laughed dryly. My brother and I had a touch of twin telepathy going on. Always had.

“What are you doing back?” I asked, padding across the room in my bare feet and flopping on the sofa. “I thought you were in Cambodia for another six weeks.”

“Came back early.”

“But not early enough to save me from half a week in Cedar Rapids alone with our parents,” I deadpanned.

“Wild horses couldn’t have dragged me there.”

I laughed again, leaning my head back on the sofa and closing my eyes.

“Is that a hickey?”

My head shot up. “WHAT!?” I bolted off the couch and ran to the mirror over the credenza, looking at my neck.

“Damn,” I breathed, seeing the quarter-size purple blotch by my ear.

“That’s a little tenth-grade retro, don’t you think, sis? And I’m slightly pissed at you for not telling me you got back with Neil.”

I groaned, touching the splotch with my finger. “I didn’t.”

Derek eyed me. “Then who gave you that…” He seemed to notice my hoodie at the same time. “And since when do you wear camo?”

“I don’t,” I said, groaning at the mark. I was going to have to put a Band-Aid over it, it was so big. I pulled the hoodie open and rolled my eyes. There was a hickey on my breast too. I looked again. Both of them.

Derek waited in silence for me to elaborate.

“I met someone. It’s over,” I said, abandoning my examination, dropping back down on the sofa, and scrubbing my hands over my face.

“You met someone? When?”

I lolled my head to look at him. “About ten hours ago?”

He blinked at me. “Okay. You’re having a midlife crisis. I’ve seen this before. We can get you help.”

I laughed. God, I probably was having a midlife crisis. How else could I explain this?

“My car got stuck on the way home from the funeral and this guy towed me out. He was nice and very cute, and I went home with him to eat a grilled cheese—which was really good, actually. He made it from stuff in his greenhouse. Then there was this loose pig running around and it got mud all over me—”

“A pig?” He looked amused.

“Yeah. It came running out of the woods. Scared the crap out of me. It was like three hundred pounds. I guess it got loose from a nearby farm or something? It was friendly. I petted it. Then a dog jumped on me too. The guy had a baby goat in pajamas and—”

He put up a hand. “Say no more, that explains everything.”

I laughed tiredly.

“Anyway, it’s not going to be a thing,” I mumbled. “I didn’t even get his last name.”

“Did you use protection?”

“Yes. Of course. I still have my IUD and he used a condom.”