Page 47 of So Much More
“Come on,” she says. “Let’s do this.”
I hesitantly stand. “Do what? Are we having a water gun fight? I’m so confused.”
“Come with me.” She nods toward the bathroom.
I follow her into the small space and burst out laughing. She has taped pages from aGQmagazine onto the walls of her shower. Every single man in the photos is dark haired and wears a suit. The one at my eye level looks freakishly like Randall.
Before she can say a word, I grab a water gun from her and start emptying it onto the picture. I start with the head, move down to the heart, and finish a couple inches lower.
Melissa cackles. “You have excellent aim.”
“Join me,” I say. “You know you want to.”
We spend the next ten minutes reloading our guns and unleashing on the suited men until the pages tear and fall down into the bathtub. Then I turn on Melissa and start spraying her. She shrieks but retaliates, and we both end up gasping on the floor in a puddle of water.
“Oh, I needed that.” I grin at her. “I like you, Melissa.”
* * *
Partway throughVacation,the phone rings, and Melissa goes into her bedroom to answer it so I can keep watching. After the movie’s over, while we’re waiting for the videotape to rewind and are grabbing snacks for movie number two, she asks me about my sister.
“I don’t know much about her,” I say. “Her name is Andrea, she lives in Little Rock, and she’s in town for a wedding.” I sigh. “I need to get in touch with my father to see if he can let her know I still want to meet her at some point, but I don’t have the energy to deal with him right now.”
“Does he live in Little Rock, too?” Melissa asks.
“No, he lives in Green Bay. Or at least I think so. I haven’t heard from him in a while, so he might be somewhere else by now.”
“Do you think your sister has his last name?”
That’s an odd question for her to ask, but I say, “No, he didn’t know about her until recently, so her mom wouldn’t have given her his name. Mom said her last name is Doyle. Isn’t it weird that not only does she look like me, with the red hair and green eyes and all, but her last name—that didn’t come from our father—is also Irish?”
“It’s quite a coincidence,” she says. “Does your father also have red hair?”
“Bright red and curly. What’s funny is his last name is MacDonald—like Ronald.”
nineteen
“Iwant you to know,” Melissa says in a hushed voice over the phone, “I’m doing this for Wendy and her sister.Notfor you.”
“I get it,” I say. “But I appreciate the help. Hopefully I can make this one thing right.”
“You’re going to need more than hope. Anyway, Andrea’s last name is Doyle. And if it’s helpful in any way, her father’s last name is MacDonald. I don’t know his first name, though.”
“Thank you. Truly.”
“Yeah. Gotta go before she gets suspicious.”
“Bye.”
I sit right down to write a letter to Wendy’s sister.
Dear Andrea,
I’m a friend of Wendy O’Halloran, and I was supposed to meet you for breakfast this morning. Please accept my apologies for missing it, as I set my alarm wrong and didn’t arrive until just after 9:00. I can only imagine how disappointed you felt when nobody showed up.
Wendy thinks she’ll want to meet you, but she’s not ready yet. She’s still adjusting to the idea of having a sister. I offered to meet you today instead, so I could find out a little about you for Wendy, and so I could tell you a little about her. In a nutshell, she’s an amazing woman, and you’re incredibly lucky to have her as a sister.
She said this morning was the only time you were free this weekend, but if there’s a chance I could still meet you for even five minutes tonight or tomorrow before you leave town, I would love to do so. If you’re interested, please call me at 312-555-5309. You can call anytime, no matter how late or how early.
