Loving Siblings: Aidan & Dionne by Catharina Shields Page A

swimming contests, and she wondered if she could
convince Mom and Dad to have the pool renovated for the kids.
    Her gaze roamed the giant, blue sparkling
pool, already seeing the colorful waterslides and water cannons
placed here and there. Her gaze inevitably landed on herself, and
then down her length. Her lips tightened as she glared at the flaws
of her much too plump, young body.
    She believed she had the fattest
thighs in the world! They were, in addition to being much too
wide , pretty pasty and pale,
too. She really needed more sun. And a good aerobics workout. That
Fonda lady had a few tapes she might be able to rent for longer
periods of time IF she asked her boss nicely.
    Although she hated wearing a swimming
suit—and would’ve rather worn a tee shirt and shorts to camouflage
her “thunder-thighs”—a proper swimming suit was mandatory wear in
the family pool.
    So not really having any choice, she pulled
on her really unflattering one-piece that, at least, had pretty
colors going for it. It was a bathing suit in various shades of
green and aqua, but the cut would have appealed more to
grandmothers rather than twenty-three year old college co-eds.
    Then again, she was a bit of a nerd, and she was alone. Or, so she thought.
    As she stood at the edge of the pool, close
to the pre-molded steps, she quietly braided her long, mousy brown
hair in a single braid. This was another rule Mom and Dad were
fanatical about. They wanted to avoid loose hair from getting
caught in the filter and have Jason, their pool man, blow a gasket
in an easily provoked fit when he’d find gobs of it in the filter.
So everyone with long hair had to braid it before entering the
pool.
    As she was busy doing just that, she allowed
her toe to gingerly test the temperature of the water. Satisfied
that the gas heater had sufficiently warmed the pool water, she
smiled and nodded. Actually, the water temp was perfect. She could
dive right in without feeling as if she’d been hit by a block of
ice.
    She was so engrossed in her thoughts that
she didn’t see a tall, dark, handsome Adonis in a tropical blue and
black Bermuda silently walk up behind her. She didn’t notice a
thing, actually, as deep in thought as she was. Not even the long,
lean, sinewy arms slowly slipping around her body—until it was too
late.
    She jolted into a stiff stance feeling arms
snake around her. She knew they couldn’t belong to anyone but
Aidan. But the arms were not the end of that physical touching. His
body followed, pressing gently against her from behind.
    She held her breath as her heart thudded so
hard she was sure he’d feel it. Instead of immediately fighting him
off—and weeks later, she’d still ask herself why she hadn’t—she
squeezed her eyes shut just before she felt him rest his chin on
her shoulder.
    She could barely breathe! And what was that
zooming in her ear??
    “ I know you’ve been avoiding me,
Dionne,” she could hear her brother say in her ear. “I know you’re
still upset with me for being too brash. I didn’t mean to. I’m
really sorry. Let’s stop this. Let’s end this. Okay?”
    End this?
    Her blood swirled thick and hot like lava,
making its way slowly up to her dizzy brain. The higher it crept,
the hotter it got, and she found she could barely think straight
while being completely conscious how good it felt in her brother’s
warm, loving, strong arms.
    “ N-No, don’t worry,” she finally got
out. “It’s-it’s fine. It’s okay . . .”
    She really tried to sound normal, but
even in her ears, where there was a lot of whooshing going on, she
could hear how breathless she sounded. She could only hang on to
the tiniest hope that she sounded normal enough in his ears.
    She was sure everything would be right as
rain if only she could get him to remove his arms, maybe take a
step or two back . . . a foot or two? Who was she kidding? Short of
him vanishing into thin air, she knew she was in trouble. Deep
trouble.
    She