Then, “Are you talking about Adler Beck?”

My head whips to the left. “What makes you say that?”

“Matt set up a Google alert so we wouldn’t miss any articles about you. I saw a photo of you two together.”

“You know who Adler Beck is?”

“Duh,” Hallie replies, sounding less like my serious older sister and a lot more like a preteen at a boy-band concert.

“Well, excuse me for being surprised you know about a German soccer player considering you asked me how many touchdowns I scored last season.”

Hallie rolls her eyes. “You know I can’t keep any sports terminology straight. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate male athletes. I’m married, not blind. Adler Beck is—”

“Yeah, yeah.” I cut her off because, for some reason Hallie talking about Beck’s appearance has the same ew factor as her brother-in-law asking me out on a date.

“So?” Hallie and I may be polar opposites in a lot of ways, but we’re both tenacious.

I sigh and look back out at the scenery. “Yeah,” I admit. “It never would have worked,” I continue, mostly to myself. “I’m not cut out for a relationship.”

“Of course you are,” Hallie responds. “Do you think I planned to end up married with a kid at twenty-seven?”

“Um, honestly? Yes,” I reply. Hallie and her husband had one of those insta-love connections that were all the rage in middle school but rarely lasted past puberty. They spent the entirety of their high school and college years attached at the hip. I would have been more surprised if she’d told me they weren’t getting married when she made the announcement three years ago.

Hallie’s eyes are on the road, but I have a feeling she’s rolling them. “Well, I didn’t. I mean, maybe I liked the idea of having the stable family we didn’t, but that was also why I was terrified. Worried Matt and I might end up like Mom and Dad.”

“You were?” I ask, surprised.

“Yeah, I was,” Hallie confirms. “And the point is I realized it. I moved past it. I’m not sure if you have.”

“I don’t need a psychology degree to know I’ve got trust issues because Mom left, Hallie. I didn’t turn him down because I think he’s going to take off after I’ve popped out two kids. I told him I didn’t know how I feel because I genuinely don’t. Because he’s an international soccer icon who’s probably fucked half the women in Europe. He doesn’t take anything off the pitch seriously. He’s unreliable. Annoying—”