Page 55 of So Much More

Thankfully the girls are happy with his suggestion. If we got into a debate about it, they’d undoubtedly try to ferret out the real reason we’re avoiding McConnell’s. And while I need to go back by there and talk to Tammy, I don’t want to do it with an audience, nor do my sisters need to know why I want to talk to her.

“What movie did you bring?” I ask with a feeling of dread. They usually force us to watch a romantic comedy, which I secretly enjoy, but I can’t deal with anything relating to romance tonight.

“The Untouchables,”Tonya says.

My eyebrows jump. “No way.”

“Have you seen the men in that movie?” Sonya puts her hand over her heart. “Yum.”

I pretend to gag, though it’s not much of a leap from what I’m really feeling at the thought of my teenage sisters being attracted to grown men.

“You’re really going to complain about our choice?” Tonya asks.

“Did you hear me complain? Nope, you did not. But keep your drooling to a minimum while we watch, please. I don’t want my dinner to come back up.”

“Speaking of dinner, let’s go,” Ash says.

* * *

“When are you proposing to Leslie?” Tonya asks Ash over dinner. Neither of our sisters is known for beating around the bush.

“None of your business,” he responds.

“It issoour business,” Sonya retorts.

“How do you figure that?” he asks.

“Because we need to start planning our wardrobes, finding our dates, and all the other things that go along with a wedding,” Tonya says.

“There will be no dates,” I say to them.

Tonya rolls her eyes. “Stop with the protective big brother nonsense. Our dating lives are none of your business.”

Ash gives her a pointed look.

“Okay,” she says, “I realize the hypocritical nature of my statement, but we love Leslie.”

“We do,” Sonya chimes in. “And we want her to be our sister as soon as possible.”

“We do. So get on with it,” Tonya orders. “But just so you know, I’d prefer the wedding to be during one of my college breaks, not on some random weekend during the school year.”

Ash chuckles. “I’ll make sure to plan my wedding around your schedule.”

“You’d better.” She grins at him.

“What are you most looking forward to about college?” I ask Tonya, to take the spotlight off Ash and Leslie’s hypothetical wedding. My brother is starting to sweat, though he’s attempting to play it cool.

“Not being at home,” she says without missing a beat.

My face falls.

“Stop looking like your dog died,” she says to me. “We’ve told both of you over and over again none of this insanity with Dad is your fault. He’s an awful person, you did what you needed to do, and we support it. But that doesn’t mean things are easy at home.”

“Mom misses you two so much,” Sonya says. “She even cries sometimes.”

Her words are a knife to the heart. I’ve only seen Mom cry once in my life, and it kills me that what I did—what Ash and I did—put her in this position.

“Stop it,” Tonya says to me again, although I didn’t say a word. “You didn’t do that to her. Dad did.”

---