It wasn't that he didn't love his sister, and he understood that she was passionate about food the way he was about solving mysteries. But sometimes Flip found it hard to be patient with Nancy, even when there wasn't a mystery to solve.

He knew they shouldn't have gone down the street with the candy store on it, and he knew he should have tried harder to say no when she begged to go in. But his big brother's tenderness won out over his big brother's annoyance, and all he'd told her was not to take too long.

Sometimes he wondered how he and Nancy even got along. She was timid and clumsy and would be happier sitting at home drawing or eating snack cakes or playing dolls with Mimi than being a detective. Only Nancy could look in a drawer and think finding a box of biscuits was "better" than finding stolen doubloons. Only Nancy could decide going to the candy store was more important than getting to Anne's volleyball game on time.

And he knew Nancy didn't always have such patience with him, either. He'd gotten them into plenty of tricky situations, and he knew he could be pushy when it came to their investigations. Sometimes he wondered if maybe the problem was him.

"Flip?"

He looked up to see her standing in front of him, holding out a small white bag. She laughed, and he wondered if there was some sort of joke he'd missed.

"Boy, I thought you'd be counting how many minutes I was in there," Nancy said. "Here, this is for you." Now Flip was really confused.

"Me? I thought you wanted to go for you."

"I already went for me earlier," Nancy said. "But I didn't have enough money then."

"Money? For what?"

"For blue jellybeans!" She pressed the bag into his hands. "I know you like them and the candy store almost never has them, so I wanted to surprise you."

He couldn't believe her. Only Nancy could remember a guy's favorite candy when he'd only told her once.

"You didn't have to," he said. "But thanks just the same. That was awful nice of ya." He tucked the bag into his schoolbag and took her hand.

Here he'd been wondering how they ever put up with each other, and there was no need.

Only Nancy could do something so nice for a guy who gave her such a hard time.