The Cheat Sheet

I groan. “So you’re going to follow me like a stalker all the way to my home?”

“I prefer bodyguard. And yes.” He gives me an apologetic smile. He knows he’s being annoying, but his boss pays him too well to not obey. “Unless there’s somewhere else you’d like to have me take you?”

I think about this for a moment, and then realize, Why yes! There is somewhere I’d like him to take me. To the only person who always makes everything better.

“Okay, but I’m riding shotgun because there’s way too much I need to talk about to be stuffed in the back like a snooty politician.”

I throw a rock at the window. Nothing. So I throw another little pebble. It makes a really bad cracking sound, and I’m scared that maybe I broke it. That never happens in the movies! I thought those things were supposed to be indestructible!

I’m just about to turn tail and run when the curtains flutter open and my sister glares down at me from her second-story window. I can see the shock register on her face. I gesture wildly for her to open the window like maybe she wouldn’t think of doing it on her own.

She slides it open and I quietly yell, “Rapunzel, let down your hair!”

“Bree?! What the heck are you doing here?” Lily’s so cute. She never cusses.

I point aggressively toward her front door. “Come down!”

“This is so weird! I feel like I’m dreaming.”

“Itt’sss noooot a dreeeammm,” I say in a spooky voice. “I am the ghost of Christmas—”

“Oh my gosh, I’ll be down in a second.”

Two minutes later, I’m sitting on the front porch with my big sister and laying my head on the shoulder of her fuzzy pink robe.

She nods toward the curb. “Who’s that?”

“Bob. My driver.” Only his true friends call him Bob. I sat in the front with him all the way here and we shared a bag of convenience store candy while he told me the story of how he met his wife, Miriam, forty years ago. So yeah, best friends.

“Why do you have a Bob?”

“Because Nathan wouldn’t let me walk home alone.”

“Sure. Sounds logical.” We’re quiet for a minute. “Not that I don’t love having you here with me, but can you please tell me why in the world you drove two hours in the night to throw rocks at my window and sit on my porch?”

“I thought the rocks would be cute. Just like the movies. But I think I might have cracked your window pane.”

“Are you serious?” she asks in a heightened tone that tells me she doesn’t find it nearly as cute as I do.

I grimace. “No. Just kidding.” Okay, I might have to call in a favor with Nathan and have his magic worker bees get that window replaced before my sister finds out.

“Oh.” She sighs with relief. I really hope she doesn’t check it later. “Do you want me to go put on some water for tea?”

“No, thanks. I’ve got to get Bob back home soon or Miriam is going to hunt me down.”

Lily laughs incredulously. “Okay, come on. Seriously—you didn’t drive all this way for a hug. What’s going on? Did something happen?”

I whimper and snuggle deeper into my sister’s softness, letting the reality I’ve been avoiding finally crash over me. “I think Nathan and I almost got freaky tonight.”

“WHAT! I—”

I whip my head up to level her with a stern look. “If you say the words I told you so, I will steal this pink robe right off your back and go throw it in a muddy puddle.”

“Rude! But fine. I won’t say it. Just know I’m thinking it.” She grins at me, and I feel a little bit of the weight on my shoulders lessen. “So, I’m guessing since you’re here instead of there with him this means you didn’t get freaky, as you so immaturely put it?”

“Right. I was completely in control of my emotions and able to calmly put a stop to it before it went too far.”

She coughs. “You panicked.” And coughs again.