Chapter 1

My brother and his wife had invited us over for Sunday dinner. Now that summer was over and college had started back up again, we didn’t get to see each other as often as we would have liked. Don was twenty months older than me, but we’d always been extremely close. I don’t think that’s usual for a lot of girls and that’s unfortunate. Someone like Tricia, my new girlfriend, didn’t understand our relationship at all.

We were in my old Ford Focus and on our way.

“Are you sure he’s your brother?” she asked me. Her tone was light, but I could hear a slight edge beneath and I didn’t care for it much.

“What kind of question is that?” I asked, smiling and determined not to argue.

“Barbara!” She frowned, obviously exasperated, and that didn’t take long. It never did.

“Why are you so pissie?”

“For one thing, you call him every single night,” Tricia started listing her reasons. “We hardly ever go out and when we do, it’s either with your brother or over to his house. He gives you presents all the time and...”

“Don’s a giver, he always has been.” I shrugged. “I give him stuff, too.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You’re mad because I got him a book he wanted?”

“I’m not mad, I just...” Tricia sighed. “I feel like you care more about him than you do about me.”

“What?” I looked at her; we were stopped for a red light anyway. “I love you, Trish. You know that. But he’s my brother, I love him, too.”

“It’s weird,” she decided, getting all pouty. “Especially when you call him right after we have sex. I hate that.”

“You do?” I almost laughed, but she was serious. “I didn’t know it bothered you. Sorry.”

“And I don’t even know what you guys are talking about,” she continued. “Do you talk about me?”

“We talk about everything,” I said. “So yeah, sometimes we talk about you.”

She actually looked surprised that I’d admit to it like that, but I don’t know why.

“What?” I asked. “I’m not going to lie to you. I’d never lie to you, so ... I guess I’m sorry again, huh?”

I regretted those words as soon as they left my lips. They were about as close as I can get to really letting my temper go, at least so far as Tricia was concerned. I really did love her and now she was going to sit there for the next fifteen minutes and give me the silent treatment.

Whatever.

If the girl wasn’t so completely hot, I probably would have broken up with her after the first three months. Instead, we’d pulled a U-Haul and moved out of our respective dorms and into a small, off-campus apartment. I was tempted to remind her that Don had put up the security deposit for us without batting an eye. I think his wife, Angie, had been a bit miffed that she hadn’t been consulted, but he didn’t care. If I needed something, anything, he was always there.

My pretty little girlfriend should have been grateful for my brother’s help, not jealous of him. It seemed very strange, her reaction, and not entirely healthy. I wondered what she’d do if I ever got a puppy, you know? Some people just want to be the center of attention, I suppose. Like my sister-in-law. She was another one with jealousy issues.

Don had met Angie in the Army Reserve, of all places. Neither of them were active reservist anymore, although I think they were eligible to be called up in an emergency, like a war or whatever. But for a couple years they’d been in the same unit and one weekend out of every month they’d meet at the Reserve Center and do their army stuff. After awhile they were meeting on other weekends, too, until finally Don brought her home to meet the family.

I knew all about the girl, of course. Don and I had talked over the phone or Skyped nearly every day for two full years once he’d left for college. And then we were together again. I’d been twenty years old at the time and still living in a dorm, fighting through my sophomore year, while my brother coasted towards graduation. It was nice being able to hang out again and we’d always been very open with each other. So naturally, once he got a girlfriend, he wanted to share everything. Sometimes he shared too much though, if I’m being honest, like the first time they made love – his words, not mine. He was so nervous!

“Nervous about what?” I asked him that afternoon. “It’s not like you never had sex before.”

“Yeah, but she hasn’t,” Don told me.

I blinked at him. “She’s a virgin?”

That made me laugh out loud and my brother had to smile, but I could tell it wasn’t a laughing matter for him. We were sitting in a Burger King parking lot and when I stop to think about it, a lot of our most serious discussions had been held over fast food. I’m not sure what that means. Anyway, we’d gone through the drive-thru because we wanted to be alone. Don had to talk to me about something important, and now I was choking on an onion ring and reaching for my soda.

“Are you okay?” He slapped my back as I leaned forward, nodding and catching my breath.

“Yeah, uh ... Whew. Don’t tell me stuff like that when I’m eating, dude.”

“Not my fault. I always said onion rings will kill you someday.”

“Ha-Ha.” I rolled my eyes and sipped more diet cola. “I thought this girl was in the army? Don’t they test people? How did a virgin ever get in?”

He ignored my jokes and went straight to the heart of the matter. “She’s the one, Barb, I can feel it. I love her.”

“What do you mean by the one?” I asked. “She can dodge bullets?”

“No,” He shook his head and lowered his voice, staring straight into my eyes. “She doesn’t have to.”

“Fuck you!”

Of course, that just set me off again and this time Don laughed right along with me. He rubbed my back and shoulders as I wiped some small tears from my eyes. I liked to laugh, and I loved my brother because he always knew exactly what to say. It had to be a pretty solemn occasion if he couldn’t at least get a smile out of me. Growing up there’d been plenty of times when I’d been in trouble for something and getting lectured by my parents, and Don would say something that made me grin. Then, because I was in trouble, that grin would turn into the giggles, and by the time it was over I’d be in twice as much trouble as before.

So unfair and he did it on purpose, the jerk.

People who don’t really know us, say we’re not very much alike. Don is over six feet tall and slim, without being skinny. He’s got a swimmer’s body, I guess. Toned without being muscular, although some of those Olympic guys look pretty strong. He’s not like that, but pretty nice all the same. A lot of my friends back in high school liked him, that’s for sure. It used to annoy the hell out of me, too. I used to complain to him about it, until I figured out that my brother actually liked the idea of all these little girls fawning over him. But he never fooled around very much, neither of us did.

And I looked good myself, just in a different way. I topped out at 5’8” which didn’t seem fair, and up until I started college, I always had some baby fat. My brother was skinny, and I had kind of a big butt and my hips seemed just a little too wide, my boobs were always like a size bigger than the rest of me, which made me super self-conscious for a while. I wear a C-cup, which is pretty normal, and the extra padding has long since melted away, but back in tenth grade? I felt like a cow.

My brother has brown hair, thanks to our dad’s side of the family, and I have sandy blonde hair, just like our mom’s. We both have hazel eyes, but it’s hard to tell. His are probably just a bit darker and they usually just look brown. Don has kind of a big nose, which he used to be self-conscious about, but then I found an article once that said guys with big noses usually have big dicks. Of course, I wanted to find out if it was true, but our mom overheard us and we had the most awkward birds-and-the-bees discussion ever when our dad got home.

That had happened about ten years ago, but it still gives me shivers!

Anyway, we look different enough that people don’t guess were related, but when my brother and I start talking? We could be twins.

“I wish you could be there,” Don said, more or less out of the blue. We were still in the parking lot, windows down and enjoying the sunshine.

“Where?” I asked, tossing a French fry at some little bird flitting around the curb.

“There ... With me and Angie, tonight.”

“When you have sex?” I felt another giggle rising. “She might think that’s kinda weird.”

“Oh, she definitely would,” Don agreed. “Angie won’t even make out with the lights on.”

“Really?”

“Well, maybe she’s not that bad, but still...”

“You’re such a liar!”

“I just don’t want to do something wrong.”

“Tab A into Slot B,” I said. “I can draw a diagram if it’ll help.”

“What if she doesn’t like it?” he wondered. “What if she doesn’t, uh ... you know...”

“Cum?”

“Yeah.” Don nodded. “What if she doesn’t cum?”

“Lot’s of girls don’t cum,” I told him. “I don’t cum every time.”

“You don’t?”

“It’s different for girls.” I gave him a cockeyed look. “Why are you being such a retard? You’re twenty-two years old, for Christ’s sake. Just fuck her. She’s a virgin, it’ll be great.”

“I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

“What?”

“Tonight,” Don told me, reaching across my knees to open the glove compartment. “Right after we have sex for the very first time.”

“You can’t do that!” I said.

“Look, I bought a ring.”

He held a red velvet box, the kind that engagement rings come in, and he opened it with a big smile. It was a nice one, I’ll give him that. Like a one carat solitaire? Maybe a bit bigger even, which is a lot of jewelry for a guy still trying to graduate college. Don didn’t have a bunch of cash lying around.

“Listen to me very carefully,” I said, closing my hand over his and snapping the box shut. “If you have sex with Angie and then ask her to marry you five minutes later, she’s going to feel like a whore.”

“What?”

“She’ll always wonder whether or not you still would have asked if she hadn’t put out.”

“Uh...” Don gave me a blank look. Jesus, men could be stupid sometimes.

“She’s what, twenty-three already?”

“Yeah, she’s eight months older than me.”

“And still a virgin, so that should tell you something.”

“Okay.” He shrugged, waiting for the answer.

“For crying out loud,” I sighed. “She’s saving herself, Don. She’s been dodging dick her whole life and the minute she doesn’t, you pop the question? How’s that gonna look?”

“Dodging dick!” My brother grinned at me.

“Shut up,” I said, frowning. “You get my point.”

“Yeah, but...” He made a sideways, half-apologetic face. “It was Angie’s idea.”

“What do you mean? She proposed to you?”

“No, not that part,” he replied. “She said she wants to have sex with me. She loves me. She said she doesn’t need to dodge dicks anymore.”

“Aw, fuck.” I didn’t want to laugh, but I did anyway. I really hated my brother sometimes.

“So it’s all cool, see?”

“Yeah, I see everything now,” I told him.

I had it backwards. My brother wasn’t trying to manipulate this poor girl into a marriage she may or may not want ... She wanted to trap him! Angie had crawled onto his lap and thrown her arms around his neck, and given him her big doe eyes. I could just imagine her lips tickling his ear as she whispered, “I’ve been saving myself for my wedding night, but I love you so much, Don. I need you inside me. I’m tired of waiting, but I’m scared.”

And my big dumb brother, with his arms around her waist and his hard cock pushing against her tight round butt, is kissing her wet cheeks and already making his promises. “Don’t be scared, Angie. I love you, too. I’d never hurt you, baby.”