A Peach of a Pair by Kim Boykin

to Nettie. “Don’t believe her for a second, Nettie; those two are forever ganging up on me to get whatever they want.”
    “Why, Remmy Foster Wilkes, you take that back,” Katie said playfully. “Cora May and I have never conspired against you. Not once. Except of course when you ordered that awful blue suit. You should have seen it, Nettie; it came all the way from Chicago and was so ugly, I had Cora May burn it.”
    “I loved that suit.” Remmy smiled.
    “You have rumpled old pajamas that look better than that suit,” Katie laughed. “I considered it my sisterly duty to save you from yourself.”
    “Enough about the one poor clothing choice I’ve made in my life,” Remmy said, making Katie nearly choke on his words. “What did you think about the sisters, Nettie?”
    I didn’t know Remmy or Katie well enough to tell them what I really thought, that Emily was rude, overbearing and Lurleen was at best brutally honest. “They were nice.”
    Remmy and Katie looked at each other and burst out laughing, making me wonder what I’d gotten myself into.
    “My apologies, Nettie,” Remmy said. “Of course the sisters are nice.”
    “In their own way.” Katie punctuated the thought with a huge grin.
    “I spoke to Miss Lurleen before we left,” Remmy said, fully recovered but with that inherited Wilkes smirk. “She mentioned she would like to have your things shipped to their home.”
    “Oh, I’ll call Dean Kerrigan’s office and arrange it first thing tomorrow,” Katie piped up. “She’s such a dear; I haven’t spoken to her in ages. She wasn’t in when I called to have the advertisement put on the bulletin board. It will be great to catch up with her.”
    “That’s okay,” I blurted out, my heart racing. I knew Dean Kerrigan would keep my secret, but I wasn’t so sure about the girls who worked part-time in the administration office. Of course, after my tirade with Mother, everyone knew my sordid tale, and some would be only too happy to share it with Katie. “My roommate will mail my things.”
    “Nonsense,” Remmy said. “I’ll just swing by the college tomorrow and pick them up. I’d planned to visit a colleague at Baptist Hospital anyway.”
    “Oh, I’d like to see that, a dormitory room’s worth of girly chattel in that red sports car, flying down the highway. Besides.” Katie narrowed her eyes. “You have appointments tomorrow.”
    “Only until two o’clock; that’s plenty of time to get there and back, and I’m sure Nettie is anxious to get her belongings, settle in.”
    “It’s not much, really. Just a suitcase, a few boxes of clothes, some mementos,” I said. “They don’t warrant a special trip; they can be easily shipped.”
    “I’m sure they can,” Remmy said, pouring himself more tea. “But I’m more than happy to do it for you, Nettie.”
    The glow from the brotherly-sisterly banter left Katie’s face andwas replaced with a look that resembled the one I’d seen when she was talking to the husband hunter. Katie turned her attention to her plate, head down, quiet. Diagnosing her mood, her brother threw out a playfully arrogant line about the college, much like the one I’d snapped at him for earlier. He looked hopeful his sister would take the bait. She didn’t. Neither did I, and the remainder of the dinner was noticeably silent.
R EMMY
    N ettie had protested when Remmy sent the girls to porch sit while he washed the dinner dishes. Come morning, Cora May would fuss at him for sure, but that was okay. He thought the menial task would take his mind off of the call he’d gotten from Cecil, but it didn’t. Tomorrow Remmy would interview for the job he’d always wanted, even if it wasn’t in Charleston.
    But he wasn’t fresh out of med school, like Cecil was when he started working there. No doubt the powers that be would wonder why he hadn’t plowed ahead with his career, sold the practice in Camden right off the bat, and moved on with his life.
    From the