like to watch them that first day I arrived and we hiked Coopers Road Trail, I had to pinch my eyes shut. My sister, the delicate flower she was not, was hissing and spitting at Tucker like a wounded cat. Like she couldn't help her reaction.
I rubbed at my chest. Yeah, almost everyone in my family had gone through this to varying degrees, but I wanted to know if a single person had ever found the love of their life connected with so many entanglements. With so many complications.
But that wasn't Grace's fault.
She was the only person in my life who could read my mood at twenty paces. The person who I'd count on to always have my back and come out swinging for me.
I opened my eyes and gave her an apologetic look.
Immediately, a tear fell down her cheek.
"Don't cry," I groaned.
She laughed, and it was wet-sounding. "You're not usually so snippy with me."
"Yeah, well ..." I spread my arms out. "This is uncharted territory in the moods of Grady."
Grace sighed, giving a quick glance over her shoulder at Tucker. He smiled at her but hung back, giving us some privacy. I tried to gauge his face because this was probably strange as hell for him too, but his features were inscrutable.
If I were in his position, I wouldn't know what to say either.
So ... you fell in love with my first girlfriend. Want any tips?
Kill me now.
"This is so ..." She shook her head when words failed her.
"Yeah."
Fill in the blank. Weird. Awkward. Uncomfortable. Weird. And that was just for the parts of this related to Tucker. All the other facets of what just happened could create an entirely new list.
Frustrating. Heartbreaking. Discouraging. Depressing.
Those were the kinds of words I normally banished from my vocabulary, which Grace knew. If any piece of life could be described in those terms, then I'd change that part of my life. Why sit in it? Why choose to spend your days feeling anything like that?
It chaffed against everything that made me me, to purposely step into a space where I might feel any or all those things.
Grace must have sensed that too because she took a cautious step forward and wrapped her arms around my middle. Her hug was welcome because this was just one of those situations when talking it to death wouldn't make it go away.
It wouldn't make it easier, even if Magnolia gave me the time of day after this.
I wrapped my arms around my sister and set my chin on the top of her messy blond hair. A curl lifted on the wind and tickled my nose.
"What'd you do to your hair? Stick your car key in a light socket this morning?"
"Screw you," she muttered into my chest.
Normally, I would've laughed, but that muscle seemed to be weak at the current moment.
"Magnolia, huh?" she asked quietly, keeping herself tucked against me.
I eased her away from me. No avoiding eye contact on this one. I'd screwed up my first foray into that possible relationship, and I didn't want to do the same to my second attempt.
"Wanna walk?"
She nodded.
I lifted my chin in Tucker's direction. "He okay waiting over here?"
"If I ask him to, yeah." Grace nudged me with her shoulder. "Plus, he knows I'll tell him everything you said as soon as we get in the truck."
My smile was small, but it was a smile. And even that felt like a victory in light of how hollowed out I felt inside.
"We'll be right back," she told him.
He nodded. "Take your time."
What a strange feeling to give him a lift of my chin and still fight against the urge to get his blessing. His permission that this was okay.
Now wasn't the time for that particular conversation, and from the looks of it, both Tucker and I knew it.
Grace and I didn't wander far because that wasn't the point of this little jaunt. It was giving us space to breathe, time to look for words to a strange situation, and give my sister—if I knew her at all—a chance to rein in her wild emotions at her twin brother loving this person who used to be her biggest stumbling block to being with Tucker.
Her deep exhale was how I knew she was ready to hear it. "Why don't you start from the beginning?"
I hopped over a log and waited for her to do the same. The only sound for a minute was the rush of the creek and the leaves rustling