The house we were staying at was right on the beach. Upon our arrival, Dawn had given us a tour of the house and shown us the guest rooms in which Kristy and I would be staying. Both of our rooms were upstairs; my room opened out onto a balcony, while Kristy had chosen the small alcove with a porthole window that looked onto the beach. We were sharing a bathroom. Dawn had the downstairs master suite to herself. In addition to the bedrooms, living room and kitchen, there was a deck with a hot tub and lounge chairs off of the first floor. Dawn said she spent a lot of time out there when she wanted to be outside but away from the beach crowds.

The first thing Kristy did after the grand tour was raid the refrigerator and announce that we had to go to the store to get some real food, so Dawn drove us to the nearest grocery store so we could buy what she referred to as poison: Chicken breasts and hot dogs, luncheon meat, non-organic cereal, ice cream and a case of Dr Pepper. We'd spent the rest of the day and evening hanging out at the house and catching up. Kristy and I had both gone to bed early; between the time change and the traveling, we were exhausted.

On Sunday morning I woke to the digitized strains of U2's "Beautiful Day" issuing from my cell phone. "This is your morning wakeup call," Sam said when I answered. "How'd you sleep?"

"Great. I can hear the ocean outside my window. It's really soothing. It would be nicer if you were here, though. What do you have planned for today?"

"Not much. I'll do some studying, maybe go to the gym later. A couple of the guys are coming over to watch the game this afternoon. What's going on over there?"

"I don't know yet. Dawn gave us the grand tour yesterday. She has today off, but we didn't really make plans." Dawn could be kind of laid back about things like that. It drove Kristy crazy.

"Well, have fun. Send me a postcard."

"You, too. Have fun, I mean. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Sam and I hung up, and I took a quick shower before heading downstairs. Dawn was at the kitchen table with a mug of tea and the newspaper. "Kristy went for a run," she said. "Want some tea?"

"Thanks," I said. I took the mug Dawn had left out for me and filled it with the green tea Dawn had brewed.

"So," Dawn said when I sat down. "Why haven't you told Kristy about you and Sam?"

The reason I hadn't told Kristy about me and Sam was complicated. Kristy's jealousy was not one of her more positive traits. It had taken her quite awhile to accept Dawn as my friend when Dawn had first come to Stoneybrook. And when we were little kids…I still remembered summers spent playing with kids in the neighborhood—me and Kristy, Sam and Charlie, Claudia and Janine Kishi and other neighborhood kids. Although Kristy and Claudia and I had been the youngest on the block, even then Kristy had attempted to take charge. I remembered the way she would go off and pout when she didn't get her way. I especially remembered the way she would get angry if I spent too much time with Sam or Charlie instead of her. Like the time, when we were five and Sam was seven, Kristy had wanted to roller skate and Sam and I had wanted to go to the park. She had stormed off in a huff and ignored us for the rest of the day. We'd all grown up and matured, but I still feared that my being with Sam might cause a permanent rift between me and Kristy.

I also worried about putting Kristy in a position where she might be forced to take sides in the event Sam and I broke up. Then there was her recent cynical attitude toward romance. Sam and I had started dating shortly after her breakup with Cary. I'd known it would hurt her if she knew I was happily involved with anyone, let alone her brother. But, if I was really being honest with myself, the number one reason I hadn't been able to tell Kristy was because I was too embarrassed. Not that being with Sam himself was embarrassing. Just the thought of trying to explain it. So we didn't say anything. And didn't say anything. And now we were in a hole that seemed too difficult to dig out of.

I tried explaining all of this to Dawn, who just sat there with a smug look on her face.

"Don't you think Kristy would be excited and happy for the two of you? You're her best friend."

"Dawn, I know you have no problem with being direct, but try to put yourself in my shoes. If you were me, would you really find it all that easy to tell Kristy you've been sleeping with her brother? It was bad enough telling our parents. Dad still hasn't forgotten about the time he caught Sam and Charlie spying on him."

"Wait, I haven't heard that one. What the heck?"

"Yeah, it was when they were in middle school. They thought Dad was really weird. I guess they used to look in the windows and watch Dad vacuum straight lines into the carpet and straighten the pillows on the couch."

"Your dad is pretty weird," Dawn said. "But I don't know why you're so embarrassed. It's not like you have to introduce the concept by telling her you've been getting it on with Sam. Tact is one of your strong suits, Mary Anne."

"I know…" I fidgeted with my mug.

"You need to tell her. I feel like I'm living in a house of lies. I have to watch everything I say around her. Just get it over with."

"It would make things a lot easier," I agreed. "I'll talk to Sam about it, first. It was kind of something we wanted to do together."

Before Dawn could reply, we heard the front door bang and Kristy bounded into the kitchen, apparently energized after her run. "You have to come running with me tomorrow morning, Mary Anne. It's awesome." Kristy's cheeks were flushed and her short hair was slipping out of its ponytail. She actually looked better than I'd seen her in a long time. Maybe a change of scenery was exactly what she had needed.

"You'll have to go slow for me," I said. "I don't know if I can keep up with you."

"Oh, shut up. Sam told me you guys go jogging together. If you can keep up with him, you can keep up with me."

Dawn kicked me under the table. But I had resolved not to tell Kristy until I had talked to Sam. Kristy, oblivious, rambled on. "I'm going to shower, then maybe we can hit the beach. You guys game?"

"Sounds good," Dawn said. "We can spend the morning at the beach, then play the rest of the day by ear." I nodded in agreement.

"Great!" Kristy said. "I'll be down in a few." She jogged upstairs to the bathroom we shared.

"Coward," Dawn mumbled. I looked into my cup of tea and wished there was some easy way to get out of the situation I'd gotten myself into.