Injured Cousin

As soon as I saw my cousin Ashley, I knew I was smitten. It had been two years since her family had visited, and since that time she had grown from a scrawny and freckly little girl into the most gorgeous sixteen-year-old beauty I had ever seen.

On the one hand, it was hard not to picture her as the cute, if a bit whiny, little girl that I remembered so well when she was just a child. On the other hand, there was no denying her beauty now. It was the first thing I noticed when I walked in the front door of my parents’ house and saw Uncle Craig’s family sitting in the front room.

Her kid sisters, of course, nearly bowled me over in their enthusiasm as they rushed to give a hug to “Cousin Bruce.” I laughed and hugged them back, enjoying the attention. Jenny and Dana had the same blond hair and bright blue eyes as their older sister, and I could already tell that one day they would probably turn out as gorgeous as Ashley. But they were still little girls for now, and Ashley held my complete attention.

Less enthusiastic was their brother Shane. Four years younger than Ashley, he was at that awkward age when he was no longer a child and yet not a teenager, and it was no longer the “cool” thing to play with his cousin, especially an ancient twenty-three-year-old like me. He simply gave a disinterested smile and waved at me from the couch, and I waved back.

“Oh, good, you’re here,” Mom said, emerging from the kitchen. “The girls have been jabbering on and on about you, wondering when you would be arriving.”

“I’m not surprised,” I laughed. “Does that include Ashley too?” I joked.

“No!” Ashley denied.

I squatted down and scooped up Jenny and Dana so that they were sitting on my shoulders, and causing both girls to giggle. At nine and seven respectively, they were not light, but I had been working out at the gym for several months now and I was eager to show off my strength, especially in front of Ashley. Still, I could only keep them up for a few seconds before I had to put them down again.

“I want a piggy-back ride!” Dana exclaimed, trying to scramble onto my back.

“You’re getting a little too big for that,” I teased her. “An old guy like me doesn’t have that kind of energy.” Despite my words, though, I squatted down and helped her climb onto my shoulders.

“Me next,” Jenny insisted.

“Oh, you’re definitely too big,” I told her with a laugh. “You’ll squash me.” Then I turned to Ashley. “And you, don’t even think about asking,” I said.

“Oh ha ha,” she replied sarcastically, but with an amused look.

“So how was the traffic?” asked Dad, who sat in a chair across the room.

“Oh, the usual rush hour,” I replied. “I’m glad I don’t commute every day. Half an hour is fine for coming to visit once in a while, but I’m glad I’ve got my own apartment in the city.”

“Try ten hours,” said Uncle Craig. “That’s how long our drive was this time.”

“Yeah, but you only visit once a year,” I told him. “In fact, you missed last year.”

“It’s hard to get the girls to sit still that long,” Aunt Wendy said.

“I’m sure,” I replied. “I’ll bet Ashley in particular was probably asking ‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’ every five minutes.”

“See? What did I tell you?” Ashley said. “Bruce hasn’t been here for five minutes, and already he’s picking on me.”

“Oh, but you’re so fun to pick on,” I told her with a grin.

It was the same pattern as with all of my cousins. I had lots of fun playing with them as kids, and as they grew older it turned into good-natured teasing. The last time they had visited when she was fourteen, I teased her about her freckles and being so skinny. Now she had a gorgeous figure and a complete absence of freckles, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. Besides, I could always fall back to my usual snide remarks about her clumsiness, unless of course she had gotten over that too.

“Well anyway, dinner’s ready,” Mom announced. “Come on in and we’ll get started.”

We all made our way into the dining room, where a hot dinner of roast beef awaited us. I would have liked to sit by Ashley, but unfortunately the younger girls both wanted to sit by their cousin, so to avoid any arguments, I sat between them.

During the meal, we discussed plans for their vacation. They would be here visiting for two weeks, which would give me plenty of time to spend with them. Their big event would be a camping trip on Friday and Saturday; we had some good camp sites not far out of town, and Dana at least had never been camping, so to her it would be an adventure. I was tempted to make up all kinds of stories about scary monsters that lived in the woods, but her parents would certainly not appreciate her having nightmares all night, so I refrained.

I kept sneaking quick, discrete glances at Ashley during the meal. I just couldn’t get over how gorgeous she had become in these past two years. She was downright sexy.

What made her even more sexy was the fact that she didn’t flaunt it. With her, there was no trace of the haughty arrogance that a lot of good-looking girls that age had. She was, if anything, a little shy. Maybe she was just getting used to being so beautiful, and didn’t really know how to deal with it. No doubt half the guys at her school were lusting after her.

After dinner, my parents wanted to take a walk, and asked who wanted to go with them. Jenny and Dana of course had to come along, but Shane declined, preferring instead to play a hand-held video game that he had brought with him. Uncle Craig and Aunt Wendy decided to just relax, which left only Ashley and me. I glanced over at her, and she glanced over at me. Our eyes met for just an instant, but in that instant I thought I saw a bit of a question, probably the same question I had in my own eyes. It was as if we both wanted to see what the other one would do first.

I took the initiative. “I’ll come,” I shrugged.

“I will too,” said Ashley, confirming my suspicion. The signals she was sending me suggested that she wanted to spend time with me, but didn’t want to admit it.

I grabbed my coat, and the six of us left the house. It was a pretty typical neighborhood, with modest houses encircling a cul-de-sac. None of the neighbors were outside at the moment, which wasn’t unusual; it was a quiet neighborhood after all.

We walked down to the end of the road, then turned the corner to follow the sidewalk up the avenue. It was about five blocks to the elementary school, which made a good destination for our walk, especially since there was a playground where the little girls could have fun for a few minutes before heading back home. The jungle gym in particular gave them an alternative to Cousin Bruce to climb on.

Mom, Dad, Ashley and I sat on one of the benches while the girls rigorously tested every piece of equipment in the playground. I smiled as I watched them, remembering what it was like to be that young.

Despite the fact that it was summer, we had had a nice rain storm that afternoon, and the chill still lingered. I noticed Ashley shivering; she had forgotten to bring a coat, and her tee-shirt and shorts didn’t offer much protection against the elements. She moved in close to me for warmth, and even slipped under my jacket. Since I had it unzipped, it was like wrapping herself in a blanket. Her actions both surprised and thrilled me; I was overjoyed to be this close to her.

I remembered that she had always been extra affectionate with me when she was a child. There was one particular time when she was eight and I was still living at home, when her family came to visit during the summer. One morning I woke up to find her curled up next to me in my bed. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, or at most, that it was a little bit annoying. After all, what fifteen-year-old boy wants to have an eight-year-old little girl sleep in his bed with him?

Her parents thought it was cute, but I told her not to do it again. She seemed to be a little hurt at my words, but she got over it soon enough.

When she grew older and began to understand the concept of what was and wasn’t appropriate behavior, she stopped acting quite so affectionate. It was only on rare occasions like this that she did anything that could be construed as flirting.

I was tempted to put my arm around her shoulder, but figured that that would have been too obvious. Instead, I did the gentlemanly thing and took off my jacket and placed it on her.

“Thanks,” she said with an embarrassed smile.

The truth was that I would have been more than happy to have her cuddle up with me under my jacket for a while longer, but even though she was my cousin, it might not look good to my parents or any of the neighbors who happened to be watching. If we were alone, perhaps I would act differently.

I used this time to talk with Ashley. I was curious as to what she had been up to in the past couple of years. She was about to start her junior year in high school, and was beginning to make plans for college. She hadn’t made up her mind yet whether to study architecture or law (“As if this world needs another lawyer,” I teased). Most importantly, she didn’t have a boyfriend.

I don’t know why that made me glad. After all, she was my first cousin, so there was no chance that there could be anything between us. Of course I found her attractive, but that didn’t mean anything would come of it. I was more than happy to settle for simple friendship with her.

We only gave the girls ten minutes to play, then called them back over so that we could return to the house. They grumbled and complained and pleaded for “another five minutes,” then gave in and followed us only when my mother promised them she would bring them back tomorrow so they could play all afternoon. That wasn’t enough to keep Dana from jumping on my back though, and I had to give her another piggy-back ride all the way home.

After we arrived back home, I spent the rest of the evening roughhousing with the younger girls or discussing the latest computer games with Shane. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to spend time with Ashley; in fact, I would have been more than happy to be alone with her. But I felt a little self-conscious about appearing too friendly with her. In fact, I even wondered myself whether my feelings toward her were entirely appropriate.

The time passed quickly, and soon it was time for me to leave. I had work in the morning after all, and needed to get back to my apartment for a good night’s sleep. I said my goodbyes, gave everyone a hug (and discovered that Ashley was even nicer to hug than I had imagined), then headed out the door.

***

That was Monday. I didn’t get a chance to see them again for the rest of the week, but Ashley occupied my thoughts the whole time. Sure, I liked my other cousins too. Jenny and Dana were particularly adorable. But Ashley was just too good to be true.

In particular, I kept thinking about that walk we had taken after dinner, and how nice it had felt when she had cuddled up to me under my coat. Now I regretted not letting her walk the rest of the way home with me like that. We were cousins, so surely my parents wouldn’t have a problem with it, and I didn’t care what the neighbors thought.

Oh well. So I had missed an opportunity. That was fine; it wasn’t like there was the potential for anything between us. Ashley cuddling up to me was no different from her younger sisters wrestling around on the floor with me.

It was too bad that they were planning to go camping on Friday. I would have loved to go with them, but all the campsites filled up early this time of year, so they had to leave early in the day, and I had to work. I worked as a semi-independent computer consultant, so I could technically have taken half a day off if I wanted, but I had the deadline for a big project coming up, and couldn’t afford to lose the time, or I would be scrambling to finish it at the last minute.

At least they would be back Saturday night. I could drive home on Sunday morning and still get to spend all day with her. With them, I meant.

As it turned out, I got to see Ashley sooner than I expected, and a whole lot more of her than I could possibly have hoped for.

On Friday I decided to go home for lunch, since my apartment was only a ten minute drive from work and I needed to take a break from the office. I had just stepped into my apartment when the phone rang. I picked it up. “Hello?” I said.

“Hi, Bruce,” said the voice on the other line. It was my mother.

“Hi, Mom,” I told her. “I thought you would have left by now.”

“That was the plan,” she said, “but we had a little problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“Ashley sprained her ankle this morning. We just got back from the hospital.”

“Is she all right?” I asked, concerned.

“She’ll be fine. Her foot’s all taped up, and she has to stay off of it for a couple of days.