“Oh God.” Arlo slashed his hand through the air to halt Tucker. “Thanks. I get the picture.” He sucked in a breath. “When did this all happen?” he asked. “No, wait…how did this happen?”

“Well, when a boy and a girl like each other,” Drew explained with exaggerated patience, “sometimes they share a special hug.”

“Drew!” Arlo snapped. “Not the time.”

“It started with the whole…teaching her how to drive/wingman thing and kinda escalated from there. Like I said, it was just a temporary thing, to help her get her groove back. But—” Tucker paused for a moment, wondering if he should tell all. Tell the truth and get it all out. He and Arlo had been through a lot together, but could he handle this? He took a steadying breath. “Truth is, I’ve had feelings for Della for a very long time.”

Arlo shoved a hand through his hair. “How long?”

“This past year for sure. Probably longer than that, in reality. I don’t know if there was any one moment because I didn’t…let myself go there. It’s only been recently I’ve realized how much a part of my life she’s become. She’s the last person I think about when I go to sleep and the first person I think about when I wake up. I can’t remember a time when I’ve thought about myself not in relation to her.”

Tucker breathed slowly out. He wasn’t sure any of that had made sense. It sounded as jumbled coming out as it did swirling around in his brain.

“I love her, Arlo, and I’m sorry I snuck around behind your back, but I’m not sorry for being in love with your sister.”

“Well…fuck.”

“Yeah.” Tucker nodded. He couldn’t have put it better.

“Has she told Selena about you?” Arlo asked.

“Yes.”

“Really?” His face registered surprised before he continued. “Has she told anybody else?”

For a crazy moment, Tucker was wondering if Arlo was trying to ascertain a potential pool of witnesses who may testify against Arlo should Tucker mysteriously disappear. He seemed a little too calm. Drew had said that Arlo would be reasonable once he got over the shock, but this seemed too easy.

“She hasn’t told anyone else, no, but Rosemary Forbes knows something is going on. So do Molly and Marley and Ruth from her work. And Winona.”

Arlo grimaced. “Of course she does.”

Drew laughed at the long-suffering note in Arlo’s voice, but Tucker continued. “Also, Mrs. Doyle, who lives across the road from Della, definitely knows.”

“How do you know?”

“She’s been blackmailing me for weeks. There’s a couple dozen diner boxes and really expensive birdseed packets in her recycling to prove it.”

That surprised a laugh out of Arlo. “Good,” he said with a little too much satisfaction.

Tucker smiled, but it didn’t last long.