Page 25 of The Summer Club

It was like the air was sucked out of the bar area. “Oh man.” Martin ran his hands across his closely cropped hair and looked away.

Hugh sat very still and silent. Too still and silent.

Andi couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

“So you are planning to keep the family house?” she asked.

Sydney crossed her arms. “Like I said, I have no definite plans. But I’m considering everything. I’d be a fool not to.”

Hugh slammed his beer down. “I knew it. She’s going to keep it for herself. Until maybe James arrives and does a quick market analysis.”

“This has nothing to do with James!” Sydney insisted.

“Well, it shouldn’t! It’s the place our grandfather rescued and restored for his family. For all of us, no matter how distantly we’re related or not. What makes you think you’ve got a greater stake in it?”

Sydney pushed the shot glass away from her and it clattered noisily to its side, threatening to fall off the bartop. As she lunged to catch it, Andi caught a glimpse of what Hugh saw: a little girl. Always right underfoot. Always needing something. Perhaps the favorite of their parents. It was an ugly and unfair thing to think; and yet Andi realized it was also mostly true.

Sydney stilled the rolling shot glass and clasped her hands. “You’ve always treated me like an afterthought. A little joke. Someone to be pushed aside. Well, I’m not a child anymore. I’ve got one more graduate degree than you, Hugh. And I’m getting married. So your big-brother bullying isn’t going to work anymore.”

“I never bullied you!” Hugh looked at her with exasperation.

“No? What would you call it?” She made a face. “Sissy Sydney? Princess Cry Baby? You made it pretty clear how you felt about me growing up. Like I was some kind of baby.”

“We’re ten years apart. You were a baby!”

Sydney looked askance at Andi and Hugh. “Do you have any idea how lonely it was growing up in your shadows? You were the big kids with all the big privileges. Always going off and leaving me behind.”

It was somewhat true, but Hugh also had a point. “Syd, we didn’t mean to leave you out. But you were in fourth grade when we were seniors in high school. Besides, we had our own challenges as twins,” he added.

At that Sydney scoffed. “Don’t even get me started on the twin thing.”

This brought Martin to life. “Yes! She’s got you there.”

“What does that mean?” Andi asked. She and Hugh exchanged a look.

“There! That’s it right there!” Martin said, and he and Sydney reached over to high-five across the counter between the twins.

“It was like you two had this secret society,” Sydney told them. “Some weird twin-speak thing that none of us could break through. It was always just the two of you in your own little world. And I was never welcome.”

Andi almost looked at Hugh again to see what he thought of all this, but caught herself. So maybe there was some validity. “I’m sorry, Syd. It wasn’t intentional.”

Syd lifted one shoulder. Suddenly, she looked smaller and less angry, as if unloading all of that had worn her out. “Maybe not. But it hurt.”

Hugh had been unusually quiet. Now he leaned around Andi toward Syd. “I’m sorry if that hurt you,” he said.

Sydney narrowed her eyes. “Not a real apology.”

He cleared his throat. “All right. I’m sorry that I hurt you. It wasn’t my intent.” He looked to Martin. “You and I can talk about this later.” Then, to Sydney, “You also need to know how hard it was to grow up with a sister so much younger, from our perspective.”

“See? ‘Our’ perspective. Like it’s two against one.”

“Fine. I will speak for myself. If we’re going to be honest, it seemed like you were the favorite. Mom and Dad doted on you in ways they never did with us. You got away with stuff we never would have.”

“That’s not true,” Sydney said. “Maybe it felt that way because I was younger. I needed more from them at that age than you did as teens. I was a little kid.”

“Exactly,” Andi interjected. “I don’t think that Mom and Dad necessarily did things on purpose, as far as treating us differently. But they had to. Not because they thought we were more capable or that you were more special. But because we needed such different things from them at those ages.”

“Yeah?” Hugh said. “Well, then how does that explain Tish?”

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