These women were fun and friendly, they were like me…but only on that surface level. They were like the Danny that everyone knew. Erin…she was like the real me. Her love for electronics was like my love for engines. We’d both happily tinker away all day. And where she was different to me: shy where I was confident, innocent where I was experienced…I liked those differences. Terri and Vanessa were familiar and comforting. But Erin made me want to grow, to be smart like her, to try new things. And her nose twitched like a rabbit’s. And she talked to herself, when she was deep in her work….

I knocked back one more shot with Terri and Vanessa and then made my excuses and left. Outside, the snow had turned to a miserable sleet. Great. I stalked home with it pelting my neck and trickling under my collar. It was the first time I could remember walking back to my place alone.

What’s going on? This whole thing made no sense. I couldn’t have Erin. Even if she wasn’t JD’s little sister, the whole thing would be doomed from the start. I don’t do relationships: I can’t. And she deserved better than a one-night stand. I knew all of this.

So why couldn’t I get her out of my mind?

7. Erin

7

ERIN

As long as I can remember, I’ve been trying to fit in.

I wasn’t planned. Our mom thought she was long past the age when she could get pregnant but then suddenly, ten years after JD was born, there I was. Even so, she and my pop and JD all made room for me in their lives and I should have been just another South Texas girl growing up on a small ranch.

Except right from the start, I was different. While the rest of my family seemed to be genetically wired to crave the outdoors, all I wanted to do as a kid was stay inside and build with my Lego bricks. JD and my folks are tall and look like they could wrestle bulls but I capped out at 5’2” and can be dragged around by a medium-sized dog. And while they all had 20/20 vision, I needed glasses by the time I was eight.

When I was two and JD was twelve, our pop was thrown from a horse and broke his back, leaving him bedridden for months and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. JD took on a lot of the ranch work and a good slice of my parenting. I sometimes wonder if that’s why he wound up as a leader, helping shape younger soldiers. I know it gave us an unbreakable bond: I love my folks but there’s no one I’m closer to than JD.