“It just kind of hit me when I put my arm around you before . . .” I began. “It’s about what happened last May. It never should have happened, and I’m sorry.”

She looked at me, a little incredulous. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No . . . no, I’m serious.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said. “Ash, don’t treat me like I was some damsel in distress. It was my idea, remember? It wasn’t like you forced it. And although I wouldn’t exactly call you a gentleman most of the time, you certainly were that night.”

But all I could do was shake my head, trying to make the whole episode go away.

“I should have stopped it before it started,” I insisted. “I’m the older one—”

“Yeah, by eleven months,” she pointed out, more and more annoyed with every word I said. “And between the two of us, I’m a hell of a lot more mature than you.”

“I’m sorry, I just—”

“Enough!” she said, throwing up her hands. “Ash, it happened. And you know what? It wasn’t bad . . . but it wasn’t all that good either. It just . . . was. I let it go; why can’t you?”

“Because . . . I thought I was a better person.”

She shrugged. “You’re not. But that’s okay. And hey, maybe you’re better now.”

“If you’re fine with it . . . then I guess I am, too.”

Angela breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Because I’m sure the last thing you want is for Leo to find out.”

“Find out what?” said Leo, who was right there, standing at the door behind her.

You rarely stop to think about how life hinges on the smallest events. Things so small you can’t even really call them events. Looking right instead of left, and missing the person who could have been the love of your life. Picking the package of meat in the supermarket right next to the one contaminated with E. coli. Arriving at a door just in time to hear something you weren’t supposed to hear.

Angela and I were caught red-handed, or blue-handed, I suppose, and there was nothing either of us could say. Leo let it linger for a moment, then he became deadly serious. “What, you think I don’t know about the two of you after that party?”

It was the last thing either of us expected to hear.

“You knew?” I asked, stunned.

“Of course I knew—do you think I’m an idiot?”

“How come you never said anything?”

“What the hell was I supposed to say? Don’t bang my sister?” Leo stared me down, then turned a gentler gaze to Angela. “Your business is your business,” he told her. “I respect you enough to let you make your own decisions. Even the really stupid ones.”