“I love you,” she said.

“I know,” he smiled at her,”I really do.”

She ran her left han through her hair, “You don’t have to worry.”

“I don’t?” He asked with the vaguest hint of a fake smile hanging in the sparkle in his eyes.

She rolled her eyes casually, and started to put away dishes from the dishwasher.

After a few clinks of glass he stopped looking at her and started putting away the condiments and wiping down the stove, “You’ve always had a thing for my brother, it’s fine, I’m not mad or anything. You don’t have to pretend like I don’t know. We all have secrets.”

“You’re nuts, I never liked him at all,” she grimaced and started dropping the silverware into the tray in the drawer.

“Bullshit,” he smirked,”I’m not blind. I see the way you look at him.”

“So you’re saying that if I appreciate a nice body I’ve ‘got a thing’? Is that it?”

“Yeah”

She didn’t say much as she put the last dish away, “That’s ridiculous.”

“Not really,” he said.

“I love you, I have no desire to run off with your brother,” she said seriously.

“I know you do. I know you don’t,” he smiled, almost genuinely. She didn’t notice the difference.

She glanced in the mirror behind the stove, she could see the decades piling onto her brow, and gray building up in her dark brown hair like soap spots from cheap dishwasher detergent.

He filled the kettle and turned on the burner pausing just long enough to enjoy the edge between the blue and orange in the flame as he placed the stainless steel over the heat.

She twisted her lips into the semblance of a smile then asked as non-confrontationally as she could, “Then why’d you bring it up?”

“Sometimes, I just get tired of pretending I’m stupid.”

Her jaw dropped,”What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Sorry. Nothing. I just wish you were slightly better at keeping your secrets from me, there are some things I don’t want to know.”

She raised an eyebrow and wondered if he truly knew what she had done.

She grabbed some cookies off the shelf and sat down at the table as he put two mugs out with teabags in them.

“We all got secrets,” he said,”and it’s ok.”

He took the deck of Bicycle cards and put them in front of her. She cut the deck, and he started to shuffle them.

“Rummy?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m in the mood for some cribbage.”

“Ok, sounds good,” he watched her reach to the shelf and grab the board.

She fiddled with the meddle slide on the back and then shook the pegs out from within, “Green?”

“Sure, that’s fine,” he said.

He carefully dealt 6 cards to each of them and laid the deck down in front of her. They each looked at their hand and put two cards in front of him before she cut the cards again. He turned the cut card over, a three of hearts. He smiled at the irony.

“I wonder what you put in the crib, hope some twos,” he winked at her.

“Hey, it’s a secret,” she deadpanned.

“Indeed it is,” he reordered his cards.

He looked at her with a straight face, “For now.”

She didn’t say anything at all.

He didn’t want to take this any further, that’s enough. He certainly didn’t want her to know the truth. It’s already hard enough without that.

“I love you,” she smiled.

“I know,” he said, “I know.”