Finding Ms. Right Box Set

Chapter 2-2

Growing up, the five years between them had seemed a chasm. Joanne was much farther ahead in school than her brother, and most of the time, she thought he was a royal pain in the ass. Always hanging around, a toddler trying to play with his older sister and her friends, then a nosy kid when she was a pre-teen, and an annoying brat when she was in high school. It wasn’t until she was in college and he was a teenager that they started to get along. In fact, Michael was the first person in her family she told about her sexuality.

Then again, she hadn’t had much choice. The summer before his senior year of high school, he caught her making out with the girl he’d taken to junior prom a few months before.

In Joanne’s defense, Crissy was older than Michael, and more mature, and Lord, sexy as hell in that way only eighteen year old girls seem able to be. Long blonde curls spiraled out around her in a nimbus, held in place with mousse and hair spray. Bright blue eyeshadow and black mascara, garnet-stained lips that pouted so prettily, pert breasts that defied gravity, and long legs stretching out for miles. Joanne fell for Crissy, hard, and spent the whole summer home from college mooning after the girl.

At the time, she sort of knew Crissy wasn’t completely queer. The girl had gone to junior prom with Michael, after all. But Crissy was curious, which was enough for Joanne, who was more than a little curious herself, and ready to find out all she could about her own budding interest in girls. Crissy was soft in all the right places, and had a sexy, breathy laugh that tickled Joanne’s ear whenever her fingers slipped into the warm promise hidden between Crissy’s legs.

It was the Fourth of July, and Joanne had invited Crissy out for a ride in her beat-up old Toyota Corolla. The car was ancient—it still had rubber bumpers, for God’s sake—and it didn’t have any air conditioning or radio to speak of, but the back seat was roomy and at least it got her where she needed to go. That evening, her destination was a secluded hill behind the junior high school, from where the two of them could watch the fireworks at the army base across the river. The girls set off a few fireworks of their own, and Joanne’s fingers were still sticky with Crissy’s juices when the real show began.

Because Crissy had driven over to Joanne’s parents’ house, Joanne didn’t have to take her home. They spent a few minutes in the driveway, though, Joanne’s hand under Crissy’s shirt, cupping one firm breast as they kissed goodbye. Patting down her disheveled hair, Crissy giggled as she hurried over to her own car. With a lingering smile, Joanne watched her leave, then climbed out of her Corolla.

When she turned around, Michael was sitting on the porch swing, watching.

“How long have you been there?” Joanne snapped, slamming her car door shut.

The lit end of a cigarette winked at her from the darkness. “Long enough,” her brother said.

Sudden anger flooded Joanne. “Does Mom know you smoke?”

“Does Dad know you’re gay?” Michael retorted.

At the top of the steps, Joanne stared hard at her brother, gauging him. There was no malice in his voice, and she knew him well enough to know her liking other girls wasn’t an issue with him, but their parents were from a different generation. They still expected her to get married and settle down some day, to have children, and she hadn’t yet managed to find the courage to tell them that wasn’t what she wanted out of life. Crissy wasn’t, either, not exactly—too young, for starters—but someone like her, eventually, sometime farther down the road. The last thing Joanne’s parents wanted for their little girl was a wife, but that was exactly what Joanne hoped to have one day.

Finally, to end the standoff, she said softly, “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Deal.” The cigarette winked once more as Michael took a long, last drag, then disappeared as he crushed it out in their mother’s flower box. “So, was she good?”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” She headed for the front door, but stopped with her hand on the knob. “But hell yeah.”

Michael laughed. “Damn it! My sister scores with my date. No fair.”

“You missed your chance,” Joanne said with a grin.