Family Ties — читать онлайн бесплатно полностью

”

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.