“Don’t try and derail me from my point with your pedantic nit-picking.”

“There’s a point to this?” Luke wondered, knowing the question was just going to egg her on.

“Yes, if you’ll shut up long enough for me to get to it.” Penelope tugged on her hair, a sure sign she was agitated.

Luke decided to keep his mouth shut and let his sister finish.

“Kissing someone you don’t really care about is a completely different thing than kissing someone you…” she hesitated, pulling on her hair again, “have feelings for.”

Luke stared at his sister. Was this a specific question about specific feelings she had for a specific someone? Who?

Those jumbled thoughts faded away as the truth of her words crystallized. Pen was right. Kissing Julia had been different. Not that he’d kissed a lot of girls, but he’d had the occasional girlfriend. Nothing serious. As Pen had said, just for fun. He never really felt like he had time. His focus had always been more on his sister, on making sure she was doing well and had everything she needed. Besides, based on his parents’ track record, Luke hadn’t been in a hurry for a relationship of his own.

“You’re right. But it’s not that Julia is different from other girls…” He paused, searching for the right words. “It’s that my feelings for her are different. Something about her and me together and the way she makes me feel.” Luke shifted on his seat. “I’m not sure I can explain it.”

“Try.”

“Some people might think this conversation between siblings is odd, you know.”

“We’re not ‘some people.’” Penelope scooted her chair closer to his. “Stop stalling.”

His sister was right. They’d been through so much together, shared so much. Besides, Luke thought with a pang, it wasn’t like Pen was going to ever have a talk like this with their mother or something. That would require too much time and effort on Mom’s part.

He pushed the negative thoughts aside. He was still digesting what Julia had said about breaking up being better than staying together, still needed to unpack how that affected his opinion regarding his parents’ relationship.

That was another way being with Julia was different. That day on the beach, when Penelope had seen them kissing, he’d told her things he’d never shared with anyone. Luke focused on that. On how he’d felt in that moment, when the urge to kiss Julia had been so strong. He hadn’t cared about anything else.

“Kissing Julia is like…” He tried to think of a way to put it in words for his sister that wouldn’t be too embarrassing for either of them. “Like hearing music.”

“What, like a choir of heavenly angels?” Pen wondered.

“Um, no.”

“Violins?”

“Nope.”

“Then what did you hear?”

“Spandau Ballet.”

“Ah, so something classical.”