Page 98 of Harmony

“Younger than that,” I admit. “It’s hard to watch someone be as good as you when you know you’ve worked twice as hard.”

She crosses her arms. “Now that’s not fair. Donny worked as hard as anyone else on the football team. You know that.”

I pull at my hair. “Damn it, that’s not even what I mean. Your brother was an A-plus athlete, but so was I.”

She pulls me to the bed, sits down, and pats the place beside her. “I think there’s something you need to know about Donny.”

“Trust me. I know all I need to know. I know he loves my sister. I believe it. I see the way he looks at her.” I sigh. “It’s the way I look at you, Brianna.”

“Then let go of your resentment toward my family,” she says. “Please. For me.”

“I thought I had.”

She kisses my shoulder. “Letting it go doesn’t mean you turn it off like a faucet. Things will still creep up on you. That’s the nature of harboring those feelings for so long.”

“That sounds like it came straight from?—”

“Aunt Melanie?” She laughs. “That’s because it did.”

“I was going to say a therapy session, but same difference.”

“So accept that it’ll still bug you from time to time, but recognize it for what it is, and tell yourself each time that you’ll let it go. That it doesn’t matter. Life isn’t always fair, but that’s not important. What’s important is how you deal with that fairness or unfairness.”

I can’t help a smile then as I caress her soft hair. “Did you ever think of going into psychiatry?”

She laughs. “Are you kidding me? This cowgirl? I can’t think of something that’s more difficult to understand than the human psyche. I prefer my trees in the orchard. My horses in the barn.”

“I’d say you have a knack for helping people.”

She shakes her head. “I just repeat what I’ve heard Aunt Mel say since the day I could understand words. She’s so brilliant. But she doesn’t need me to be her protégé. That’s Angie.”

“Dave’s sister?”

She clamps her hand over her mouth. “Shit. She told me that in confidence. She hasn’t told her parents yet. Just Aunt Melanie and me.”

“You certainly don’t need to worry about me blabbing it,” I say. “I doubt I’ll say two words to Dave while he’s here.”

She swats me in the arm. “Oh yes, you will. We’re all going to get along splendidly like one big happy family. Because, Jesse, we are family. Or we will be soon, whenever my brother and cousin get around to setting a date.”

I can’t help another laugh. “You sound just like Callie.”

“Great.” She rolls her eyes. “I don’t want you thinking of me as your sister.”

“Trust me,” I say, narrowing my gaze. “I don’t. But she gave both Donny and me that same speech about family and all the other bullshit. Even made us shake hands. I’m surprised she didn’t make us hug.”

“Maybe she should have. We Steels tend to be huggers. Except for Dale. He avoids touching people.”

I pause a moment. “Why do you suppose that is?”

She twists her lips and looks away from me.

There’s something you should know about Donny.

Her earlier words.

Donny and Dale were both adopted by the Steels when they were seven and ten, respectively. No one knows about their earlier lives.

Funny how I never considered that before. I was so hell-bent on envying and resenting the Steels for their good fortune, I never stopped to think that appearances can be deceiving.

---