Page 87 of Heartland

“Oh, so you don’t share the shitty things you do, but I’m supposed to?”

“Who says I did anything shitty?” She eyes me over the box she’s folding. “Did you?”

“Well, sure. Just the usual, though—having fun without stopping to think of the consequences.”

“And what are the consequences?” she asks. “You’re not dumb enough to get her pregnant, right?”

“No!” I yelp. “Jesus. Bite your tongue.”

“Sorry,” she says, plunking caramels into the box. “So what’s the problem?”

“It’s…” I hesitate, because I’m not willing to violate Chastity’s privacy. “She doesn’t deserve a random hookup. And that’s the only kind I ever have. So now it’s just really awkward.”

“She wants a boyfriend?” my sister asks, studying me.

“Possibly,” I hedge. “We didn’t, uh, actually have that detailed of a conversation.”

“So you’re justassumingyou know what she wants.”

“Well…” This is why I try never to argue with my sister.

“Did she ask you for the hookup?”

“Yes.”

“And you went with it. You did exactly what she asked?”

“Yes, but—”

“So what’s the problem?” Daphne is like a verbal bulldozer. “Maybe it’s you who’s making this awkward.”

“She won’ttalkto me, Daph.”

“Do you know why?”

“No. I don’t know. She didn’t, uh, hate the experience. But Kaitlyn made everything weird by freaking out and screaming at both of us. So Chastity and I never got the chance to figure out how to look each other in the eye again.”

“Kaitlyn is a very interesting person,” Daphne says.

“I used to think so, too.”

“You lose interest in everything, don’t you?” She finishes another box. “It’s a good thing the caramels are only a seasonal business.”

“Thank God we’re almost done here. I’m allowed to get sick of things at four in the morning, right?”

“I suppose.”

We lapse into silence for a minute. But when your twin sister says something mildly offensive, you can’t always let it go. “I didn’tget sick ofKaitlyn. She decided to hook up with another guy to make me jealous. And I hate games and drama, so I parachuted out of there. Learned a lesson.”

“What lesson? Not to date rich girls with daddy issues?”

“Not todate,” I correct her.

“But you have feelings for Chastity,” my sister says. It’s a statement, not a question.

“Yeah. Too many. That’s the whole problem—I like her too much to get her naked.”

My sister snorts. “And people say I’m the crazy one.”