Why not? It had been a long, strange day. She stepped aside to make room for him on the small balcony. He took up so much more space than she remembered.

He poured two glasses, handed her one, and lifted the other. “To the end of festival season.”

“Well, you still have to watch your sister star in Medea tomorrow.”

“Yeah, well, in overhearing her running her lines, it seems like she spends a lot of the play cursing men. I don’t want to come off like the Neanderthal older brother, but I think I’m down with that.”

So much for her theory that maybe he’d figured out Clara’s secret. “Well, big brother, I don’t think you have to worry about Clara. She seems like a really responsible kid.”

“She is. And she hasn’t really shown any interest in boys.”

You don’t say?

“Although, the other day when I came home, she was having what she had previously described as a calculus study group. It turned out to be just her and one boy. Some kid I don’t know.” He curled his lip.

Eve had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. “Well, calculus is hard. I don’t think most people take it in high school. It’s probably a challenge to find people to study with.”

“I know, I know. And it’s not like she’s not allowed to date. She just hasn’t seemed to want to.”

Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh.

“And less than a year from now she won’t be living with me anymore anyway. It’s just…”

“Hard to let go?” Regardless of his big blind spot, he was a good brother.

He made a sheepish face. “Something like that.”

They were still standing there with their wine. She lifted her glass. “To little sisters. To Medea.” They clacked their plastic cups together. “Wow,” she said. “I don’t really know wine, but this is great.”

“Yeah, Law is pretty knowledgeable about wine and craft beer. The lists of both at the bar definitely punch above their weight.”

“But this isn’t on the list. He ordered it just for Maya.”

He swirled the wine around in his cup. “Hmm. You know, sometimes I think he likes her, despite their battles.”

“Isn’t that usually how it works? A boy pulls a girl’s hair because he likes her?”

He shrugged. “I never really went in for that method.”

“True.” They’d gone seamlessly from “hanging out” at the monkey bars to entering the annual sandcastle competition to being boyfriend and girlfriend. She’d never had to wonder about his feelings. “I don’t think Maya likes Law, though. Her disdain seems genuine.”

“I think you might be right, at least judging by the fact that she never tries to make him be in any of her plays the way she does everyone else.”

“Exactly.”