Something had shifted after that moment with Shannon. It was hard to name exactl just a quiet settling. Understanding what she was carrying, what she'd lost and how recently she'd lost it, made the clinginess make sense in a way that stripped away all the awkwardness it had carried before. She wasn't being strange. She was just a person with a hole in her life that was shaped like a brother, reaching toward the nearest thing that fit.
Once I understood that, being around her stopped feeling like something I had to manage.
"Alright, that's enough."
Maribel stepped forward and peeled Shannon off me, one arm around Shannon's shoulders, pulling her back and away with a decisiveness that left no room for argument.
"We were having a moment!" Shannon protested immediately, twisting around.
