Chapter 36

After we returned from UT’s Freshman Orientation, we planned a big party at the Coulters’ house. It would be an end-of-the-summer party as well as a going-away party for Gina and me. Susan was even going to fly over from South Carolina.

A couple of days before the party, while Dad was on a trip and Erin was at Leah’s, Mom knocked on my bedroom door.

“Come in.”

“What’re you up to?” she asked, looking at my open dresser drawers and clothes-covered bed.

“Trying to decide if I really want to take all my clothes or not.”

“You’ll be doing your own laundry,” she cautioned. “So I’d only take what you really need.”

“No kidding.”

“Take your comfortable clothes, a few things for formal occasions, and don’t worry about most of your winter clothes. Only take a few. You can come home one weekend when it starts getting colder.”

“Come home?” I asked, a little confused.

“To pick up your winter clothes...”

“Oh yeah! Right.”

Then she paused for a moment and stepped into the room. “Do you have a few minutes?” she asked.

“I guess. What’s up?”

“We need to talk.”

Ice water ran through my veins. Talk about what? I wondered.

“Relax,” she said, reading me perfectly. “It’s nothing bad.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, the word drawing out as I felt my heartbeat race.

“I just wanted to talk to you about the party.”

“The party?”

“Mmm hmm, the party at Chris and Elizabeth’s. You know, The Party.”

“Oh yeah. Got it.” I know I’m a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but I guess I was still a little panicked at how the conversation had begun. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Well... , “ she said, hesitating. “It’s not so much about the party as about boundaries, and our relationship, and ... lots of things,” she finished with a shrug.

“Okay, I guess.”

“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just come right out and say it,” she said. “I told your father about us.”

Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. “Us?” I croaked.

“Us.”

“Us, as in us-us? As in ... you know?” I made a vague gesture with my hands. Foolishly, I thought about circling my forefinger and thumb and poking the hole with my other finger, the universal “screwing” sign. Luckily, I didn’t actually do it.

She nodded.

“E-everything?”

“Everything.”

“Everything-everything?”

“Paul,” she said firmly, “everything. I told him about the blowjobs. I told him about what happened in the cabin during the thunderstorm. And I told him about the parties at Susan’s.”

Dad’s gonna kill me.

“I told him it was consensual,” she continued. “And I told him we both enjoyed it.”

“Uh...” In my head, I was screaming at myself to say something, anything, but I couldn’t make my brain form the words.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I swallowed hard and nodded. “When does Dad get home?” I asked, my mouth suddenly dry. I guess a part of my brain was telling me to pack my bags and run away from home. A bigger part was telling me to take it like a man, but that part wasn’t nearly as insistent as the “run away” part.

“Tomorrow afternoon,” she said matter-of-factly. “But I actually told him about a year ago.”

“A year ago?!”

“A year ago.”

I frantically searched my memory, trying to determine if Dad’s attitude toward me had changed. Had he started looking at me as if he were angry? Had I narrowly missed getting kicked out of the house, saved only because Mom talked him out of it? Would he ever want to speak to me again?

Stop it! I mentally shouted. If Dad were angry, he would’ve gotten angry a year ago. I would’ve been out of the house, or worse. But nothing bad had happened. Try as I might, I couldn’t remember a single thing that Dad had done to make me think the axe was about to fall.

“He was shocked, but not upset,” Mom said.

Relief washed over me as I finally found my voice and asked, “He wasn’t?”

“No.”

“He wasn’t upset?”

“Paul, this conversation is going to take a lot longer if you keep repeating all of your questions,” she said gently, smiling to take the edge off her words.

“Sorry,” I said, wiping my clammy palms on my shorts.

“It’s okay.”

“Why wasn’t he upset?” I asked. Then I hastily added, “It’s not the same question.”

“No,” she said, smiling, “it’s not.” Then she took a deep breath. “He wasn’t upset because he and I love each other very much, and he trusts me. And I explained the situation to him. I was lonely and frustrated because he’d been gone so long. I only intended to tease you at first, and hadn’t planned for things to go so far. And ... well ... there were other reasons.”

“Hadn’t planned for things to go so far?”

“Not the first time,” she said. “The time in the lake.”

“Oh yeah.”

“I only wanted to tease you, but you got me so worked up,” she said, her tanned complexion darkening as she blushed.

“How do you think I felt?”

“I know how you felt,” she said with a grin. “Remember?”

“Vividly,” I replied, sitting down to hide the bulge in my shorts. “So why did you tell Dad?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“Because I love him,” she said as she sat next to me. “And I don’t like keeping secrets from him. Besides, it was the right time.”

“The right time?”

“Mmm hmm. We were talking about ... something else ... something similar.”

“Something similar?”

“I need to talk to Susan about the wisdom of teaching you to ask open-ended questions,” she said ruefully. Then she smiled and looked me in the eye. “Erin has had a crush on your dad for a long time, and she was ... well, she was acting inappropriately.”

“What was she doing?” I asked, suddenly piqued.

“Something she shouldn’t’ve been,” she said vaguely. “That’s what ‘inappropriate’ means.”

“Did Dad and Erin do it?” I asked, the heat of curiosity making my breathing quicken. “Have sex, I mean.”

“Paul,” she said evenly, “they didn’t have sex. And no, I’m not going to tell you what happened.”

“But, Mom—”

“Paul, no,” she said. “Now, moving along,” she continued, “your dad and I were talking about Erin, and I told him about our relationship. Like I said, he was surprised, but not upset.”

I nodded again. “Why tell me now, though? If he’s not upset, I mean.”

“Because of the party.”

“What about the party?”

“I know this isn’t the first time you’ve swung with us,” she said, looking at me earnestly, “but it’ll be the first time with Gina as an active participant.”

I nodded.

“She tends to get ... carried away sometimes.”

“Yeah.”

“And I wanted to make sure you understand that you and I can’t get carried away ourselves.”

I shifted position, painfully aware of my erection.

“I love you, Paul,” she said, her expression softening, “and you’re a very handsome young man. But you and I can’t...” She took a deep breath. “We can’t have sex. Whether we’re swinging or by ourselves, we can’t have sex, not even oral sex.”

My shoulders must have slumped in resignation.

“Do you understand why?” she asked softly.

“Sort of. I guess. But not really. I mean, I understand about the whole ‘society thinks it’s wrong’ thing, but that’s kinda stupid, especially if nobody ever knows about it. I mean, most of society would think swinging is wrong, which is why we don’t exactly advertise it.”

“Right,” she said, “we’re adults, and what we do in private isn’t anyone else’s business. If we’re not hurting anyone, then it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business.”

“So if you and I both want to have sex, and we do it in private,” I asked, “who would it hurt?”

“That’s the big question, isn’t it?” she asked rhetorically, to which I nodded. “It would hurt us, though, Paul,” she said softly.

“How?”

She took a deep breath and held it for a second. Then she looked up and smiled wistfully. “You know, I rehearsed what I wanted to say to you, and all the arguments I’d use, but it’s not that easy when I actually have to say them to you.”

I cocked my head to the side, a little confused by her non sequitur.

“Never mind,” she said. Then she continued. “It would hurt us because it would change our relationship. I’m your mother, I’m supposed to protect you. I know you’re not a child anymore, but I still need to protect you.”

“But if we both want to... ?”

“What would be the harm, right?” she finished for me.

I nodded.

“It would change our relationship,” she said. “It would make us equals, and we’re not.”

“Huh?”

“We’re not equals, Paul,” she said. “We’re both adults, but we’re not equals. Not yet, at least.”

“I don’t get it. What do you mean ‘we’re not equals’?”

“I mean that while we’re both adults, I’m still your mother. And in some ways, I’m still responsible for you and your behavior.”

“So? I’m legally an adult, and it’s not like you’ve had to punish me in years,” I said, trying not to sound sullen.

“I know, but I’m still your mother, and ... and ... well, I’ll just come right out and say it. You’re not as mature as me, you don’t have my experience, and you don’t have the wisdom of that experience.”

At first, I was stung by her words. But as I looked at her, I realized that she didn’t mean to put me down. And as much as I didn’t want to admit it, she was probably right.

“Sex changes a relationship between two people,” she continued. “And you need me to be your mother more than you need a new sex partner.”

“I guess.”

“It’s true. Ever since you discovered sex, you haven’t hurt for partners. Sometimes, your problem’s been the opposite,” she said, chuckling. “You’ve had too many potential partners.”

Reluctantly, I nodded.

“But what I mean is that we can be lovers, or we can be mother and son, but not both. And you need a mother far more than you need a lover.”

“It won’t change our relationship,” I protested.

“Oh yes it will. Trust me. This is where the ‘wisdom of experience’ part comes in. Sex changes everything. Sometimes, the changes are profound, while other times, they’re subtler. But sex changes things. Think about it for a second,” she said. “Think about your relationship with Susan. You haven’t called her ‘Aunt Susan’ for years. Did you realize that?”

I nodded.

“You and she have a different relationship than you would if you weren’t having sex with her. You can talk to her as an equal. Just because you’re having sex with someone doesn’t make them your equal, but sex with someone you love usually does, more often than not.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve got a physical and emotional intimacy with Susan. And your relationship has changed because of the physical part. With me, we have an emotional intimacy—you’re my son. But if we have sex, we’ll have the physical side of things too, and that would change things between us. A lot.”

I nodded. I guess I didn’t want to, but I was slowly beginning to understand what she was talking about.

“And like I said,” she continued, “you need a mother far more than you need another lover. We’d lose more than we would gain.”

“I guess.”

“So while it might be fun to fantasize about it—”

I looked up sharply. Did she fantasize about me?

“—some fantasies have to stay fantasies.”

I nodded slowly. Then, “Hold on a sec ... what about Gina and her sisters? They have sex. Isn’t that incest?”

“Yes,” she said. “But that’s different.”

“Why?” I asked. “Because they’re girls? Isn’t that a double standard?” Belatedly, I was embarrassed by the sarcasm in my tone.

“No, it’s not because they’re girls,” Mom explained patiently, “it’s because they’re siblings. Incest between parents and children is a problem.”

“But not between sisters?”

“That depends,” she said.

“On what?”

“Whether it’s innocent experimentation or a serious relationship with lasting—and potentially damaging—consequences.”

“Huh?”

“If you’re just fooling around with your sister—or brother—there’s probably nothing wrong with it,” she said. “But if you don’t have normal relationships with your friends and you’re fixated on your sibling, incest can be a problem. A big problem.”

“So you’re saying that it’s not wrong for Gina and Leah to have sex?”

“Correct.”

An idea suddenly struck me. “What about Erin and me?”

“What about it?” she asked with deceptive calm.

Was I about to ask what I thought I was? I was! “What if Erin and I started fooling around?” I asked, sure that I’d found the hole in her logic. “Would that be okay?”

“If it was consensual, yes.”

“You’re kidding, right?” I tried not to look as shocked as I felt.

“As long as it’s healthy, your dad and I wouldn’t have a problem with it. Just like Chris and Elizabeth don’t have a problem with their daughters’ experimentation.” Then she looked at me shrewdly. “Have you ever thought about it?”

“About what?” I asked. I knew what she was talking about, and so did my erection (which swelled uncomfortably at the thought), but I wanted to buy some time.

“You know,” she said softly, “you and Erin.”

“What?” I asked. “Do you want me to do something with Erin?”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t say we want you to. But ... well ... have you ever thought about it?”

“No,” I lied.

She arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

I shook my head adamantly.

She smiled indulgently, and I realized that she could see through my façade of protests. “You know Erin’s got a crush on you, right?” she asked.

I looked up sharply.

“You didn’t know?”

I didn’t respond, but my expression was probably answer enough.

“She does.”

I swallowed hard.

“You’re her big brother,” Mom said quietly. “She looks up to you more than almost anyone else. Even more than Sean Sullivan,” she said, chuckling softly. “And that’s saying a lot.”

“You’re serious?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Jeez. I had no idea.”

“You’re a really smart guy, Paul,” she said, smiling warmly, “but sometimes, you need to pay more attention to the world—and the women—around you.”

“No kidding.”

“But,” she said, getting serious again, “back to the original subject. Do you understand why we can’t have sex, especially in the charged atmosphere of the party?”

I nodded.

“Are you upset?” she asked.

“No.” Then I sighed. “Yes. No.” Then I threw up my hands helplessly. “Oh, I don’t know.”

“That’s okay. It’s not a straightforward situation. See how sex complicates a relationship? Even the possibility of sex...”

“No kidding.” Then I pondered the original question for a moment. “No,” I said at last, “I guess I’m not upset. In a way, it’s a relief.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You’re one less woman I have to worry about not disappointing.”

She laughed richly and then leaned forward to hug me.

I was acutely aware of my erection pressing against my shorts, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“You’re a good young man, Paul,” she said. “I’m proud of you.”

To my chagrin, I felt my face heating. Why do I have to blush so much? I wondered miserably.

“And I love you,” she said.

“I love you too, Mom.”

Then she stood and smoothed her skirt. To my surprise, her nipples were erect. Her eyes followed mine and then she grinned wryly.

“I’m only human,” she said. With that, she kissed my forehead and then turned to leave.

“Thanks, Mom,” I said as she reached the door.

“For what?”

“For being a mom ... instead of ... you know.”

“You’re welcome, honey.”

The night before the party, my parents went out to dinner with Susan, the Coulters, and another couple. Erin and I spent the night at the Coulters’ house. We stayed up late, eating popcorn, drinking Cokes, and watching music videos on MTV. Chris and Elizabeth let us know when they got home, but then headed to bed. Around midnight, Erin and Leah went upstairs. When they did, Gina gave me a sultry look.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.

“That depends,” I teased. “What are you thinking?”

Instead of answering, she ran her hand up my thigh. When she reached my crotch, she trailed her fingers over my stiffening dick. I was wearing loose cotton shorts—without underwear—and she could easily feel the outline of my manhood.

“I’m thinking about the party,” she purred. “I’m thinking about watching my mom suck your dick. And I’m thinking about a preview of what she’s going to get.”

“A preview?” I asked as innocently as I could.

“Mmm hmm. A preview.” With a coquettish grin, she reached for the waist of my shorts. When she found the drawstring, she waggled her eyebrows at me and then scooted closer. “You know,” she continued, “a preview. I want to ... um ... sample the coming attractions.”

As she extracted my erection, I pulled her tight and then kissed her. While she slowly jerked me off, I thrust my hand down the back of her shorts and teased her damp pussy.

Our kisses heated up and she started moaning softly. With my free hand, I reached around and tugged up her t-shirt. We separated long enough for her to pull the shirt over her head and toss it to the floor. Then she wrapped her fingers around my shaft and pressed herself against me.

After a few minutes, I tried tugging her shorts down, but I couldn’t get them off because of the way she was sitting. With a playful grimace, she rose, pulled them off, then pressed her nude body against me.

“You have too many clothes on,” she said a minute later.

“I do,” I agreed as she helped me drag my t-shirt over my chest and shoulders. Then I lifted my hips so she could slide my shorts down my legs.

Instead of resuming where we’d left off, she slid to the floor and moved between my legs. She’d just taken my shaft in her mouth when we heard a noise from the doorway.

“Sorry,” a voice said.

I immediately recognized Elizabeth’s crisp British accent.

“I thought you’d gone to bed and left the TV on,” she said.

When I looked up, she lifted her eyebrows in amusement. She’d clearly been in bed before she’d come out to turn off the TV. Her glance trailed down my body to where Gina knelt between my legs.

“Getting an early start for the party?” Elizabeth asked wryly.

“I guess,” Gina said.

“We were just about to go upstairs,” I said.

“From the looks of things,” Elizabeth said, “you were just about to go down.” Then she chuckled softly. “Turn the TV off when you head to bed.”

With that, she winked at me and then turned to leave.

“We’d better head upstairs,” I suggested.

Gina half-whined in protest.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her, “we can pick up where we left off.”

Before agreeing, Gina wrapped her lips around my dick. Then she ran her hot tongue over my shaft as she plunged her head down. For a few minutes, I let her bob up and down. Finally, she moaned softly and swallowed as much of my length as she could.

“C’mon,” I said. “Let’s go upstairs.”

With a wet slurp, I pulled her mouth off my shaft. She gazed up at me with a blank expression. Then I gently pushed her backward so I could stand without bumping into her.

“You get our clothes,” I said as I stepped past her, my erection bouncing gently with the motion. “I’ll turn off the TV.”

Her bedroom door was barely shut before Gina was in my arms again, her lips seeking mine as her hand sought my erection. My shaft was still slippery with her saliva, and when she ran her hand over the skin, I moaned into her mouth.

As we continued kissing, I moved us toward her bed. Then I pulled back, turned her around, and bent her over. She braced herself with her hands on the mattress and then whimpered as I teased her soaked pussy with the head of my shaft. With one hand on her hip to hold her still and the other hand on my dick to steady my aim, I sank into her.

Soft slapping sounds filled the room as I thrust into her. We scooted forward and she moved onto the bed on her hands and knees. I stood behind her, my knees pressed against the edge of the mattress. With one hand, I reached around and cupped her hanging breast. With the other, I started playing with her clit, teasing her as I buried my cock in her depths.

“Come in my mouth,” she begged. “I want you to come in my mouth.” Before I could respond, she slid forward and crawled toward the head of the bed. “Fuck my face,” she said, gesturing for me to straddle her chest.

Who was I to refuse?

I steadied myself with my hands on her headboard and eased my hips forward. She captured my shaft and groaned in delight as she tasted her own juices. Then she held my ass to control my pace. With steady, measured strokes, I thrust my hard-on into her mouth.

She sensed when I was ready to come and let go of my ass. Then she gripped the base of my shaft with one hand. She used the other to cup my balls and put pressure on the spot right behind them. With her lips still wrapped around my glans, she began to jerk me off.

Pleasure built in my groin until I suddenly erupted, filling her mouth with my seed. As my muscles contracted and I arched my back, she moaned in ecstasy. When my orgasm finally subsided, she kept sucking, milking my cock for all she could swallow.

Even though my dick was still rock hard, the head was very sensitive, so I pulled back after less than a minute. I was careful not to put my weight on her chest as I sat back on my haunches. Instead of letting me go, she wrapped her fingers around my saliva-slick length and gently stroked me.

Suddenly, all the Cokes I’d drunk earlier caught up with me and I had the overwhelming urge to pee.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, gently pulling her hands free and swinging my leg over her body.

“Where are you going?”

“I gotta use the bathroom,” I said.

“Now?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

I crossed the room in a few quick strides and pushed open the bathroom door. When I turned on the light, I immediately pulled up short. Leah was halfway across the bathroom, headed for the door to her own room. As soon as the light came on, she froze.

Guiltily, she turned to face me. She was nude, and I immediately realized that she’d been watching Gina and me. As my eyes dropped to her sparse pubic hair, I realized why she was nervous; she’d obviously been playing with herself. Her eyes darted to my erection, but she looked back up just as quickly.

“Were you watching us?” I asked. I was sure she had been, but I guess I wanted to see her reaction to the question more than I wanted an answer.

“No,” she said too quickly. “I just came in here to go to the bathroom.”

“Uh-huh.”

“For real. I just came in here—”

“Don’t worry about it, Leah,” I said. “It’s cool. I mean, it’s not like you haven’t seen us before.”

She looked at me anxiously and then rolled her eyes. Then she looked at my erection again.

Impulsively, I clenched my buttocks and made my dick twitch.

Leah flinched and then immediately looked away.

“Is Erin asleep?” I asked, changing the subject as a kindness.

“Yeah. She was tired from shopping. I couldn’t sleep, and when I heard y’all in Gina’s room, I...” She looked up sheepishly.

“You thought you’d sneak a peek and ... um ... let your fingers do the walking?” Even with her dark complexion, I could tell that she was blushing. “That’s cool,” I added.

“Whatever,” she said, smiling gratefully. “You won’t tell Gina, will you?”

“Tell me what?” Gina asked from the doorway.

As Leah began blushing again, I chuckled. “You two work it out,” I said. “I still gotta take a leak.”

“Like that?” Gina asked, eyeing my erection.

“It’ll go down ... I hope.”

As the girls began talking, I turned toward the alcove with the toilet. Then I shut the door behind me and tried to will my erection to subside. I really had to pee, but as long as I was still hard, my body wouldn’t cooperate.

I stood over the toilet for a few minutes, hoping my erection would oblige me. When it didn’t, I started thinking about really mundane things. By the time I got to the preflight and takeoff checklist for our Cessna, I was distracted enough that I’d gone semi-limp and could finally take care of business.

When I stepped back into the main bathroom, though, my dick sprang to attention. Gina was leaning against the vanity, with one leg propped on the counter. Her eyes were closed and her nostrils flared as she breathed deeply. Leah knelt on the floor between Gina’s legs, her head moving as she licked her older sister.

“We started without you,” Gina said, opening her eyes and meeting my gaze. She held Leah’s head in place with one hand and steadied herself on the counter with the other.

“So I see,” I said.

“I can’t decide what I want— oh, God,” she gasped. “Oh, right there, Leah, right there.” For a few moments, she was lost in pleasure as Leah sucked her clit. Then she regained her composure and looked at me, her eyes smoldering. “I can’t decide what I want.”

“Oh?”

“Mmm hmm,” she said, nodding. “I don’t know if I want to suck you while Leah licks me...” She closed her eyes in pleasure.

“Or,” I prompted.

“Or we can give you a Coulter sister blowjob,” she continued. Her eyes fluttered open briefly and then closed again. “Oh, God, Leah, that’s good.”

“Are you sure we should ... um ... you know?” I asked, glancing at Leah. I’d never had sex with the younger girl, not even a blowjob, and I hadn’t given it much thought. I was pretty sure she wasn’t on the pill, so I didn’t want to start something that might lead to a very complicated situation.

“God, yes,” Gina said.

“I mean, what about Leah?” I asked bluntly. “She’s not on the pill or anything.”

“I’ll swallow when you come,” Gina said. “Leah can swallow too. Right, Leah?”

“Whatever,” Leah said between licks.

“Oh, God, Paul, come over here,” she said, reaching toward me. “I wanna play with your dick while she licks me.” Then she looked down at Leah. “Do you want to suck him off?”

“I guess,” Leah responded with a shrug.

“‘You guess’?” Gina asked, her attention suddenly focused.

Leah shrugged again and tried to resume licking her sister’s pussy, but Gina lowered her leg and pushed Leah back onto her heels.

“What do you want me to say?” Leah asked heatedly. “God, Gina, not everyone likes sucking dick as much as you do.”

“You don’t like it?” Gina asked.

“I guess,” Leah said defensively. “I mean, there’s not much to it.”

“‘Not much to it’?” Gina asked incredulously. “It’s about the best thing in the world.”

“For you maybe,” Leah shot back. “Not everyone likes the taste.”

“You mean you don’t... ?”

Leah shrugged.

“You’re kidding, right?”

Leah shook her head adamantly.

“How can you not like it?” Gina asked.

“Okay,” Leah said suddenly. “I’ve never tasted it, all right?”

“Never?” Gina asked, her expression softening.

“No. So what? It’s just white and gooey. How good could it taste?”

Gina knelt in front of her sister. “I thought you sucked Drew.”

“I have,” Leah said.

From behind, I could see that the younger girl was trembling. I couldn’t tell if it was out of anger, frustration, or embarrassment, but she was clearly emotional.

“Didn’t you swallow?” Gina asked.

Leah shook her head and then wiped her eyes.

“What about that time you, Erin, and Trish were with him?”

Erin? Trish? What time they were with Drew? I wondered.

“Drew wanted us to kneel in front of him so he could jerk off,” Leah said, sniffling. “He shot his stuff on our faces.”

“I thought you said he came three or four times,” Gina said.

“He did,” Leah answered. “Erin swallowed once, and the third time, he came on Trish’s back after screwing her. I just got to suck him.”

“But what about Sean?” Gina asked. “You said you and Erin fooled around with him too.”

Sean? I thought. Sean Sullivan? Duh!

“Every time we sucked him off, Erin swallowed,” Leah said. Then she sniffled and wiped her cheeks. “I guess I’m not like you and Kara,” she said dejectedly. “I mean, I wanted to, but ... God, I must be so messed up.”

“It’s okay,” Gina soothed, wrapping her arms around her sister.

“It’s not fair,” Leah sobbed into Gina’s shoulder. “I wanted to, but ... I want guys to like me, but they never do.”

“Shhhhh,” Gina hushed, hugging Leah tight and rubbing her back gently. “It’s all right. You’ll get your chance.” Then Gina looked up at me, her eyes brimming with tears of her own.

Despite minor sisterly quarrels, I knew Gina cared for Leah, but I’d never seen her show so much compassion or tenderness toward her.

“I’m just not like you,” Leah complained softly, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

“Yes you are,” Gina answered immediately.

Leah shook her head.

“You are too.”

“But what if I’m not?”

“If you’re not,” Gina said, “we’ll love you however you are.”