I noticed the plural. Holding my hand, Nora led me upstairs. Em followed. I wouldn’t have dared to say Nora shared any genetic traits with those Brewster girls. Like the hips Nora had in common with her mother, an off-limits subject, I would have been risking my life to suggest that Nora was similar to her mom and Aunt Martha in other respects. Yet Nora had autocratic tendencies. Her sexual politics may have been at the opposite end of the spectrum from my aunts’ beliefs, but Nora was a sexual autocrat and a bully. The complicated part, for me, was how much I revered her—and agreed with her.

It was with the greatest trepidation that I entered the room Nora and Em were sharing at the Exeter Inn. The view of the tent for the rehearsal dinner was the first thing I saw out the open window. Apparently, the tent wasn’t going to be removed on a Sunday. I tried not to look at the unmade bed, the sight of which recalled Em’s plaintive wails. The rumpled bed represented a gladiatorial arena where Em had been sexually slain, repeatedly.

“What I don’t get, Adam,” Nora was saying, “is how you could know so much about a kiss by just watching it. I mean, there’s a limit to what you can see—isn’t there, kiddo?” I saw that Em had opened her mouth; she was pointing to her tongue. It was unnecessary for Nora to tell me what Em meant, but she did. “There’s a lot of kissing that happens inside the mouth, Adam,” Nora explained. I knew I wasn’t in the same league with Nora or Em when it came to kissing. All I could think was that Em had the tiniest teeth and the pinkest tongue. “Don’t even think about kissing me, Adam,” Nora suddenly said. I wasn’t. “You can’t kiss me, kiddo—I’m your cousin.” I was relieved to hear this, but not for long. Em suddenly moved closer. She’d shut her eyes and had lifted her face to me. She wasn’t exactly grimacing or squinting—her lips were only slightly parted. Em wasn’t so much waiting for me to kiss her as she was resigned to it. She and Nora must have talked about it, and Em appeared to be bracing herself for it. “Go on, kiss her,” Nora told me. “Show her how Ray kissed the snowshoer—then Em will show me how Ray did it.”