Peaches

night.”
    Leeda plucked at the beads on her sundress. She was still a little sheepish about her speech. “You’re welcome.”
    “It’s funny, you said it was easy to be jealous of a sister like me. I’ve always felt the same about you.”
    Leeda let out a half laugh. “Jealous of what?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. You’re just different than me and Mom. I feel like a clone sometimes.”
    Static cut in again and then out. Leeda didn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say.
    “I talked to Rex at the wedding,” Danay said, seeming awkward. “He’s actually not such a bad guy.”
    Leeda breathed into the receiver. “I know.”
    “Lee, I have to go. Have fun at Tybee, all right?”
    “Yeah, okay.”
    “Byeee.” Danay’s voice was punctuated with a laugh as she hung up the phone. Leeda held it for a minute, then hung up too.

    The next morning, Leeda was sitting on the stairs of the verandah when Rex pulled up. They were going to the beach, but he looked like he was on his way to a funeral. As soon as he saw her face, he lowered his head and walked up to sit beside her.
    They sat like that for a long time, Rex finally reaching out and taking her hand.
    “Don’t say it,” she said, pulling her hand away gently and clasping her fingers in front of her. “You don’t have to break up with me.”
    “Leeda, we can’t…”
    “I’m not going with you to Tybee. I don’t think it’s working out, Rex. I don’t think I can be with you anymore.”
    Rex looked at her, then down at the stairs beneath their feet.
    “I don’t think you were ever really in love with me. Do you?” Leeda asked.
    He let out a long sigh. “I do love you, Leeda.”
    “I know, but that’s different than being in love, isn’t it?” She looked up at him. His eyes were wide and sad. “It’s a lot different, right?” she pushed.
    He nodded very slightly.
    “Rex, I’m not in love with you either. And the thing is, I don’t think I need you anymore, the way I did. I think I can take my family. Or myself. Or whatever it is I need to take.”
    Rex looked a little hurt. But she didn’t really have much sympathy for him right now.
    “The fact is, you’re the guy who broke up me and Murphy. And I think that makes me angrier than anything.”
    Rex clasped his hands in front of his mouth and ran his thumbs along his closed lips thoughtfully.
    Leeda kept her eyes steadily on his profile. “I know I’m not perfect. But I deserve better.” Rex didn’t answer. Looking at him now, she marveled at the idea that she had turned to him so long for some kind of strength, and she was so much stronger than him.
    “Look,” she said, her voice cracking. “I love her too. But you should have told me. You owed me that.”
    “I know. I wanted to. I thought maybe it wasn’t the right time. And then what happened at the orchard…”
    Leeda held a hand in the air in a stop motion. “I’m not that evolved. Please don’t tell me.”
    “Sure. Sorry.”
    She shook her head, her curls wafting around her ears, using her own breath to calm herself down. “You’ve acted like such a dumbass.”
    “Yeah,” Rex said.
    “Say it.”
    Rex looked at her. “Say what?”
    “Say, ‘Leeda, I’m a dumbass.’”
    Rex raised his eyebrows at her. She couldn’t keep a tinysmile from playing at the corners of her mouth. She shoved her knee into his, forgetting that she might bruise.
    “Go on, say it.”
    Rex rolled his eyes, pulled his hands from his mouth, and spoke flatly. “Leeda, I’m a dumbass.”
    “And you are a goddess.”
    He smiled slightly. “And you are a goddess.”
    “And from now on I’m going to do anything you say.”
    Rex looked at her like he’d had enough. But she continued. “And I’m going to make it up to you.”
    Rex shifted uncomfortably, then managed to blurt, “Ditto.” It was good enough.
    Leeda nodded once decisively. It gave her a sadistic pleasure to see Rex looking so uncomfortable and so desperate. She knew that it wouldn’t last—his discomfort and her pleasure in it. She cared about the guy, after all. But she milked it anyway.
    “Now,” she said, her chest pinching a little at the thought of what she was about to do but pinching in a satisfying way, like she was overcoming a small part of herself and leaving it in the dust. “Are you ready to make it up to me?”

Chapter Twenty-five
    B irdie couldn’t believe that it was light out. She curled instinctively against Enrico, pulling his arm