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took him to pick up some more beer. They’ll be back by dinner.”
    “Great. He’s probably spilling his guts to Ricky and telling him I’m the one who’s being so unreasonable.”
    Leaning against the gazebo and crossing her legs, she regards me uncertainly before she asks, “What the hell happened?”
    I look back to the ground. “I can’t talk about it. We talked about something and we’re not in agreement.”
    “About getting married?” Is my desperation written all over my face? Fantastic.
    I shake my head. “No. Not this time.”
    “You want a baby.”  I look at her and my eyes widen. She says, “I know.”
    I tightly cross my arms and legs, wishing I wasn’t such a damn harpy. “How?”
    “Because I think that’s something that you’d want with my brother. I also know that he doesn’t want kids. That’s what your fight was about.”
    I don’t respond. Instead, I stare at my crossed legs. She goes on, “I wish he’d rethink things. He’s going to lose you, isn’t he?”
    Impulsively, I look up and shake my head. “I love him, Simone. I’m with him no matter what.”
    “What exactly made you two fight about that topic then? You were so happy earlier.” She mockingly scoffs with a smirk, “You were making out for crying out loud! He even took you up to his room and he wasn’t very stealthy about wanting to get laid. What happened?”
    Glancing past her, I say, “I can’t. It’s too personal.” I can’t talk about this with his little sister!
    We sit in silence for a minute, but I can practically hear the wheels spinning in her head. She finally asks, “You brought the subject up in the middle of having sex with him, didn’t you?”
    I incredulously laugh and avoid her scrutinizing gaze. Diffidently tucking hair behind my ears, I mutter, “How do you know?”
    She shrugs. “I’m a good guesser.”
    “It wasn’t in the middle. We weren’t that far yet.”
    “Oh.”
    “There’s more to it than just…that topic.” I sigh and look around, noticing there are rose bushes outside the gazebo, no flowers, only buds since it’s early spring. I quietly confess, “Simone, I don’t think I’m enough for your brother.”
    She prods me with her elbow and I glance at her as she questions, “Why would you say that?”
    “Because I want different things than he wants. Your brother wants us to live together, but he doesn’t want us to get married or have a family.”
    “Who says Finn doesn’t want to get married?”
    I raise my eyebrows at her. “Finn. Several times. I thought maybe he had gotten a tattoo broadcasting that sentiment.”
    She sneers, “My brother is absolutely full of shit. He wants to marry you so much it’s slowly killing him.”
    “ What? ” My eyes nearly bug out of my head, and she rolls her own blue eyes at my reaction.
    “Finn wants to marry you. Trust me,” she resolutely asserts.
    I counter, “He doesn’t. He can’t stress that enough. We’ve argued about that on a couple occasions.”
    “And trust me when I tell you that is all bullshit. He may be not afraid of trains, planes or automobiles going at high speeds, but the thought of marriage absolutely scares the shit out of him.”
    Gaping at her, I suspiciously delve, “How do you surmise this? He said it’s because of your mom’s divorces.”
    She nods. “It is. He’s always been angry about them. He doesn’t want to live through those messes again.”
    “I’m in love with him, Simone. I would never divorce him, but he doesn’t believe me.”
    She sighs. “Things happen, Hadley. Sometimes love dies. He’s afraid that will happen with you two. In fact, he’s doggedly convinced that it will if he marries you.”
    “Again, how do you know all of this? Has he told you himself?”
    “Not in so many words because h e doesn’t talk to me about what petrifies him; however, I can read between the lines. I’m not a psych major for nothing.”
    “I feel like he keeps so much from me.