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her.
    “Ah ha,” Caroline exclaimed a few minutes later. She held up a dusty box of Cheerios. “You were holding out on me.”
    “I forgot. Those have been there for months—probably left over from when I babysat Christopher.”
    Caroline searched the box for an expiration date. “They’re still good. See, it was all a matter of my willingness to put forth the effort to find a box of cereal. If you’d put forth the effort to find a nice, LDS man, you’d also get what you’re after.”
    Jane scowled at her sister as Caroline sat down again.
    “That’s easy for you to say when you met your husband at the tender age of nineteen. Love practically dropped itself in your lap, but I’ve never had that experience before. I’ve never even had what I would call a decent date.”
    Caroline waved her spoon. “You’ve just forgotten, that’s all. Think back to high school. I remember you going out with—let’s see it was . . . Evan Thatcher.” She pointed her spoon at Jane and flashed her an I told you so look. “I know he asked you out once. I remember helping you get ready.”
    “ Once being the key word,” Jane said. “And it was a disaster.”
    Caroline poured milk into her cereal. “What happened?”
    “Nothing.”
    “C’mon. Tell me,” Caroline coaxed.
    Jane pushed her finished grapefruit aside and looked at Caroline. “All right, but don’t you dare laugh.”
    “I won’t. Pinky promise,” Caroline said, linking her little fingers together.
    “I think you’re supposed to do that with the other person,” Jane said.
    “Oh, right. Well, I still promise.”
    Jane took a long drink from her water bottle and leaned back in her chair. “We’d been to a movie and ice cream and were sitting in the parking lot of Swensons when Evan asked me if I wanted a French kiss. I said yes, and he told me to close my eyes and open my mouth. At this point I was thinking along the lines of french fries, French bread, French mousse—I don’t know, some special chocolate like a Hershey’s Kiss, but made in France.”
    “ No!” Caroline said, nearly choking on her cereal.
    “You promised, ” Jane warned. “I haven’t even gotten to the awful part yet.”
    Caroline clamped a hand over her mouth. “I’m not laughing,” she said in a muffled voice. “Go on.”
    “So . . . he stuck his tongue in my mouth and . . . I bit it.”
    Caroline choked. “Hard?”
    “Mmm-hmm.” Jane nodded. “Really hard. We ended up at the emergency room. He got five stitches.”
    “ No way,” Caroline exclaimed. “They stitch tongues?”
    “They stitched his. It was nearly cut through.” Jane stuck out her tongue and made a cutting motion with her fingers.
    Caroline let out a horrified shriek. “I never knew.”
    “We made a pact, Evan and I, that we’d never tell anyone what happened.”
    “Wasn’t he angry with you?”
    “Probably.” Jane smiled wickedly. “But it wasn’t like he could yell at me right then.”
    “How old were you— sixteen ? I can’t believe you didn’t know what French kissing was.”
    “Me either. Especially with you for a sister.”
    “Yeah really— hey.” Caroline looked properly offended. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    Jane shrugged. “You know. You dated everyone. Wasn’t it your senior-year goal to kiss the entire football team?”
    “Of course not,” Caroline said, indignant. She wrinkled her nose. “Football players are gross. They’re always grunting and butting heads.” She sighed. “ I was trying for the basketball team.”
    “See,” Jane smirked. “You had all the men.”
    The teasing look on Caroline’s face was suddenly gone, replaced by sadness. “Please don’t say that.”
    Jane looked at her in surprise. “Sorry. I was only stating the obvious. You dated tons. You—”
    “Came very close to ruining my life and a few others’,” Caroline finished. “I probably single-handedly caused every gray hair on Mom’s head.”
    “I wouldn’t say