’ I really was confident that she would pass first time, she had been practicing a lot with Mum in the evenings and at weekends and Maggie and even ...anice had taken her out several times and her instructor agreed she was ready. Lunch seemed to be a good opportunity, when she would be in a good mood to try and have a talk with her about the situation that was developing between us….if I could work out some way to do it without upsetting her. I started towards the door and she stepped up behind. In one final and desperate bit to put an end to his attempts to draw meout, when he asked me how it was that I was only two years younger thanEmma, a fact I know I didn't provide him with, and still only asophomore in college, I hit him with an answer that I was sure wouldshut him up. Looking up from my plate, I gave him the best deadpanexpression I could muster. "I was in the Army, as a medic, in Iraq." Myresponse, delivered with a cool, unflinching deliberateness seemed tohave its desired. The truth was, summer was long gone, and we hadn't seen each other for months. I'd been so busy in December I hadn't come home for Christmas, and by the time I was able to visit I was already seeing someone else. It wasn't serious, but I was guilty all the same. "Listen," said Monica, easing against my side and laying her hand on my chest, "this is just us saying hello."I laughed. I couldn't help it. "This is not how siblings say hello."Monica grinned and took my jaw in her hands. She kissed. "I guess it does," she said. "I guess I'm in for a bad time. How bad a time do you plan to give me?" I'll make it up as I go along. First, I want you to strip down. Right now." He said it with no shift in the tone of his voice. She didn't react right away. It took a moment for the meaning of his words to sink in, and then she looked at him with widened eyes. Something in the flatness of his voice, he guessed, had sent a shiver of fear through her greater than she had felt before. Besides, this.