Page 39 of January

Melinda nodded in response, so Kyle checked on Jolie one more time before they went, and she smiled at her sister’s exuberance. She wasn’t sure she could remember the last time Jolie had taken any time off. It made her think of how Jolie had wanted to be a lawyer and had planned to go to law school, but it was too expensive, so even though she’d worked through her undergrad, she still wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Their dad couldn’t help out much, and while Kyle had offered to help her pay for some of her tuition, Jolie didn’t want to take her money. Now, it seemed they had enough of it, and she could finally go if she wanted to. Maybe Jolie wasn’t thinking about that at all, but Kyle definitely was. She wanted her younger sister to have everything she wanted in life, and if going back to school was one of those things, Kyle would help her get there.

“Are you okay?” Melinda asked when they sat down in a booth that gave them viewing access to the entire casino floor.

“Yes. Sorry. I was just thinking about Jolie.”

“You’re worried about her, aren’t you?”

“Not right now, no. In general.”

“Why?”

“We have this money now – or, we will when the dust settles – and Jolie is closer to our mom than I am.”

“You worry she’ll give your mom some of it?”

“I worry my mom willconher out of some of it,” Kyle said. “But that’s more about me and my messed up family. Tell me all about yours now.”

Melinda laughed and said, “You want to find out how messed up we are?”

“Yes, please; make me feel better about myself,” Kyle joked.

“It’s pretty boring.”

“I doubt there’s anything boring about you,” Kyle said just as the bartender approached and asked them what they wanted to drink. “Can I get an Abita?”

Melinda laughed and said, “I’ll have the same, I guess.”

“Two sisters and a brother,” Kyle offered when they were alone again.

“Huh?”

“That’s what you said the other day; that you have two sisters and a brother.”

“Oh, yeah. All younger,” Melinda said. “Me, my brother, Michael, my sister, Meredith, and my baby sister, Michelle.”

“All Ms,” Kyle noted.

“Yes, they went with a theme. Mel, Mike, Mere, and Mich. I guess it works.”

“So, you’re the oldest, too?”

“By about twelve minutes,” Melinda shared.

“You’re a twin?”

“Mike is my twin, yeah. It feels like we’re twelve years apart sometimes and not twelve minutes, given how immature he is at times, but after him is Meredith, who is twenty-three, and Michelle is nineteen.”

“Do they all live here?”

“No, I’m the only one now. My parents moved to Fort Lauderdale right after Mike and I left the house. Mike went to college at LSU, and he moved to Texas last year for work. Meredith is in graduate school at Miami, and Michelle just left for school at Florida State.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“I didn’t,” Melinda said. “Thank you,” she added when the bartender dropped their beer bottles on the table. “I got the job at the tour company, so I didn’t see the point in going to college when I’d already figured out what I wanted to do.”

“That’s pretty awesome,” Kyle replied, taking a drink of her beer. “This is good.”

“You should come back in the fall when they release their autumn beers. They’re better.”