They volunteered to ride with me because I’m not ‘old’, like my sister and parents, but I’m not quite one of them either, even if I am screwing one of them on a daily basis. Carter’s yummy smell of soap and detergent entices me from his spot in the passenger seat, his long legs giving him the privilege to ride shotgun. I keep my eyes on the road, not on him. Not on his movements. Not on his sex-satisfied grin. Not even on the fingers that just made me come. Twice. The secret burns in the air between us. Josh knows but doesn’t care. Maddie? She’s clueless. “The tree looks lovely this year,” my mother says as we approach the sanctuary doors. “The women’s group outdid themselves.” Through the window the huge Christmas tree towers over the pews. Decorated with white and gold symbolic ornaments, each year the tree seems to get bigger and bigger. My father holds the door for us and as I pass through last he wraps his arm around my shoulder.
