My Sister's Husband

Silly, isn’t it? But my palms start sweating, and I feel warm all over. It’s no wonder someone as attractive and brilliant as Marcus would end up with my equally attractive and brilliant sister. They belong together. Like I said, perfect. It makes me sick sometimes, but that doesn’t stop my heart from beating a little too quickly whenever Marcus walks into the room. It’s wrong, but it’s a reflexive reaction that I have to my brother in law. I couldn’t stop it if I tried, and even now, my stomach’s doing backflips.

Marcus ignores the rest of the room and strolls towards me.

“Kelsey,” he says in his deep voice. “Good to see you.”

I avoid eye contact. Whenever I look into those blue eyes, I nearly lose it like a blabbering teenage girl fawning over her favorite Tiger Beat heartthrob. It would be so humiliating if he knew about my secret crush on him, so I try to smile like nothing’s wrong.

“You, too,” I say neutrally. I wait for Marcus to leave and make the rounds with the rest of the people he knows at this party. He’s always been really popular no matter where he goes, and for sure this crowd will be swayed by his charm and charisma. But instead, he takes the seat next to me.

“How have you been? I haven’t seen you around the house lately,” he says, blue eyes flashing.

“I’ve been busy,” I choke a bit. “Nothing much.”

Marcus doesn’t take the hint that I want him to leave. I finally suck it up and shift in my seat so that our eyes meet.

Big mistake.

His hard, smoldering gaze meets mine and I can’t look away. My mouth opens and closes. I can’t find any of the words I want to say to him which fall along the lines of Don’t look at me like you want to tear this dress from my skin and have your way with me right here, or Where is your wife, who also happens to be my sister?

I know I should look away, tell him where to shove it, and take what’s left of my pride and leave, but I just can’t. We keep staring at each other and my body temperature rockets. My nipples grow hard and I pray that they don’t show through the fabric of my dress. His head slowly moves towards mine and my chin tilts up. With just another inch or two, our lips would touch in an adulterous kiss.

Then my mother screams.

“Mom?” I yell, breaking eye contact and jerking my head in her direction. Oh my god, something’s really wrong. My mom is collapsed on the floor, almost like she’s having a heart attack. I rush towards her, with Marcus right on my heels. In the meantime, Dad picks up her cell from the ground and holds it to his ear.

“This is Robert Smith. What did … what?” he asks in disbelief. “No, that’s not… It can’t be….”

“Dad? Mom? What’s going on?”

Everyone in attendance has gathered around my hysterical parents. I hadn’t noticed Marcus following me towards the ruckus, but he stands by my side.

“Give them some space,” he growls, shouldering his way forwards. Automatically, everyone falls back before my charismatic, commanding brother-in-law. “Mr. and Mrs. Smith, what’s going on? Who was on the phone?”

Dad looks at Marcus and starts to cry. I’ve never seen my father cry before. Something is horribly wrong.

“Dad? Talk to us,” I plead.

“Your sister…,” he mumbles. He covers his face with his hands. “Jane is dead.”

I gasp, and Marcus takes a step back from the chaos. “That’s not possible,” he grinds out, that handsome face deathly pale. “They’ve made a mistake.”

My dad puts his hand on Marcus’s shoulder, then pulls him in for a tight hug. I fall to the floor beside my mother and wrap my arms around her as tightly as I can. I don’t care that my behind is probably on view to everyone in the room. They can deal with seeing my giant ass right now. My sister is dead, and there are more important things.

I almost kissed my sister’s husband, and now my sister is dead.

After what feels like hours but was only a minute, Dad composes himself. “It was a car accident. A truck… a truck hit Jane’s car head on, and she died instantly.”

Marcus’s face looks dark and thunderous. I pull my mom up with me from the floor and we hold each other in tears. The guests at the party gather around to offer condolences.

“Thank you all for coming,” my dad addresses the crowd, his voice cracking. “But as you can imagine, we need to spend time together as a family right now. We will be in touch with everyone about… about funeral arrangements.” His voice cracks again as tears begin to pour from his eyes. My heart goes out to him, breaking a little at my dad’s reaction because even if I always complained about Jane, she was still my sister. We had our spats, for sure, but there’s no one who knows me better in the world. Jane was there during that period when our parents were fighting a lot, and she knows how hurt I was after Tim Morgan stood me up for senior prom. She knows my secrets, good and bad. She was someone who was related to me by blood, and her death has wrenched my soul apart.