“Oh my,” I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand. I’m actually trying not to laugh. The image is pretty bad.

“Go ahead. Laugh.” Tessa snorts. “I would laugh, too, except he may have broken his wrists trying to untangle himself.”

“Couldn’t anyone get him down?”

“None of them could climb that high. Took a while to find gym staff capable of getting up there. Meanwhile, Mr. CPA insisted on trying it himself. Got halfway down and then bam! He fell. Broke his fall with his hands.”

“Ouch!” I shudder. “Did you say wrists? As in, plural?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, my God!”

“They should heal before tax season, but still.” Her eyes are unfocused, the words robotic. Shock makes people say strange things.

She checks her phone again. “I really appreciate this, Carrie. I’m pretty sure they’re taking him into Boston, so as soon as I know, I’ll leave. My mother-in-law will be here in about four hours, so it’s not forever.”

“Even if you need longer than that, it’s fine. Don’t worry about the boys. I’ve got them.” I give her a big hug. She grabs me back, hard. I can feel her worry through the facade of emotional control she wears.

You can tell she’s Ryan’s sister.

Tessa pulls back and looks at me, eyes a little watery, but she’s not letting herself cry. “You’re so nice. I see why Ryan fell for you.”

“Why Ryan… what?”

Tessa does this twist with her mouth that makes her look so much like Ryan for a second. Must be a family trait. “Oh, screw him. He’s so stupid. Why are men so stupid about love?” She sighs. “Ryan’s liked you since the day you two met at work.”

“What? He said that?”

“He never had to. I know my brother.”

“But he never said a word!”

“You were taken. You met Jamey the same day, Ryan said. Something about Jamey visiting his sister and you started dating right away?”

I did meet Jamey the same day I met Ryan. Jenny was training me for my new job, and we had lunch together at a little Asian-fusion place on Congress Street. Jamey popped in, saw his sister, and an hour later he asked for my number.

A simple twist – being trained by Jenny – changed everything between Ryan and me?

“Carrie?” Tessa hands me a half-full pint of my favorite ice cream. I take it and open it, eating directly from the pint. I don’t care.

“Ryan’s right. I met Jamey at lunch that first day at O. But it’s not like I was engaged to him. I mean, Ryan could have — ”

She squints at me. “You expected my brother to snipe you from another guy? My brother, who didn’t have his first date until he was nineteen? Little Ryan Donovan, who never went to a single dance in high school?”

“WHAT?” I practically scream, the chocolate brownie mixture in my mouth muffling my surprise. “Ryan what?”

She gives me a rueful look and walks past me, bending down before a big bookcase with cabinet doors on the bottom. Rifling around, she comes back with a big photo album, flipping through pages. Tessa settles on one and thrusts it at me.

Class of 2008, the picture says. A very thin guy who looks like he’s twelve is in the picture, all glasses and braces, wearing a t-shirt with a joke from the television show Big Bang Theory.

“Who’s the twelve-year-old?” I ask, my voice trailing off as I recognize the muted brown eyes behind those coke-bottle lenses. The melted ice cream in my mouth turns to cement. “No way!”

Tess a laughs. “Yes way.”

“That’s Ryan?”

“He was a late bloomer.”

I stare at the picture. “That’s like saying sloths can be a little slow. He was, um...”

“Not at all like he is now.”

I swallow my mouthful and stare, dumbfounded. “No. Not a bit. He looks so much like the guys I dated in high school.”

“Really?” Her voice floats so high with skepticism.

“Other than my gay high school boyfriend, yeah.”

“Oh, honey. We all had that one gay boyfriend back then. Hell, I grew up in the Bay area. It was basically a rite of passage.”

“But what does this have to do with Ryan never telling me he, that he — ”

“Loves you?”

The room spins, and not just because Elias and Darien somersault into me, making my ankles weak. They giggle in stereo, then look up at me. Elias looks so much like a little version of Ryan that I just stare, time stopping. All I can do is breathe.

Love.

Bzzz. Tessa grabs her phone, looks at a message, and rushes out the door, shouting.

“Speaking of love — Carlos! Got to go. Only one hand has broken bones. The other one just aches. He says they transferred him and now I need to go to Beth Israel Deaconess. He says the best hand surgeons are there.” Freezing, her eyes go unfocused, staring over my shoulder. “Hand surgeons. Oh, geez.”

Tears spill over her lower lids and her hand grasping the phone starts to shake. I reach for her, holding her shoulders.

“Do you need me to drive you? We can all pile into a car and I can drop you off.”

She sniffs and wipes her tears, squaring her shoulders, stretching her neck. “No. I’m fine. It’s just — ‘hand surgeon’ makes this more real.” She looks over at the twins, who are deeply engrossed in a Peppa Pig episode. “I guess I should be grateful it’s just his hands.” She sniffs again. “When it rains, it pours. You heard about my dad?”

“Your dad?”

“The stroke? Ryan didn’t tell you?”

“Um, sure,” I lie. “I heard about it. Is he okay?”

“Better than okay. They think he had a slow brain bleed that led to what we thought was dementia. He’s got more clarity now than he’s had in a while. Still not out of the woods. Ryan’s been there for over a week.”

“Oh. Right. The last thing you need is Carlos getting hurt.”

She shrugs. “That’s the risk.”

“Risk?”

“Of life. Of love. Getting hurt. Watching them get hurt. It’s all part of being alive. The alternative isn’t all that great.” She gives me a quick hug. “Thanks. I’ll keep you posted.”