the chef. She’s French. You know how much Mom loves everything French. And, best of all, there will be no reminders of Dad.”
Seth felt a wrench in his gut. His father’s sudden death was recent enough that he saw reminders everywhere. He wasn’t sure if they were painful or precious, but one thing he did know was that traveling to Vermont wouldn’t make the loss any easier to bear.
“Plan without me.”
“I’m planning with you, that’s why I’m calling.” There was a pause. “I thought you could invite Naomi.”
It was Seth’s turn to feel irritation. “Why would I do that?”
“Because she’s still in love with you! You dated her for almost a year, Seth.”
“And we broke up ten months ago.”
“Dad died and it was a terrible time. None of us were ourselves.”
It was more than that. So much more. “Drop it, Vanessa.”
“I will not.”
Families, he thought. “Why are you bringing this up now?”
“Because I don’t understand what’s going on with you. You meet the perfect woman and then you break up with her?”
“This isn’t your business, Vanessa. You don’t need to understand. It’s my relationship. My life.”
“What relationship? That’s the point, Seth, you don’t have a relationship! You had a dream relationship, the perfect relationship, and you crashed it. And I just don’t get you. I love Naomi. Mom loves Naomi.”
“Yeah, well, this may come as another surprise to you, but it’s not enough that my family loves the woman I’m dating. I have to love her, too.”
“How could you not? Naomi is the sweetest person on the planet. What is wrong with her?”
“There’s nothing wrong with her. And you’re right, she’s a sweet person.”
“Finally we agree on something. So the question I should probably be asking is what is wrong with you?”
The problem was that he didn’t have a sweet tooth. He liked something with a kick. Bite. Tooth-rotting sweetness didn’t hold much appeal, but he had no intention of sharing that detail with his older sister. His youngest sister, Bryony, would never in a million years have dreamed of interfering.
“You need to leave this alone, Vanessa.”
“I can’t leave it alone. You’re my brother, and Naomi is my friend.”
And for Vanessa, that was enough. She wanted things to be the way she’d wanted them.
“Seth won’t play my game,” had been her constant whine as a child. Remembering brought a wry smile to his lips. He hadn’t played her game then, and he certainly wasn’t playing it now.
“If you truly care about Naomi then you’ll step back from this one. If you interfere, you’ll make things worse. It’s not fair to her.”
“I thought, maybe, if you spend some time together in Vermont the two of you might—”
“It’s over, Vanessa. And if you hint at anything else to her, if you imply that if we got together for the Fourth then there might be a big reconciliation, then you’ll be the one hurting her. It’s the wrong thing to do.”
“Is it wrong to want to see you settled and married one day?”
“I’ve been married.”
There was a tense pause. “That one didn’t count. It wasn’t real.”
He’d counted it. Every hour. And it felt as real now as it had then. “Are you done?”
“Now I’ve annoyed you, but it was Vegas, Seth. Vegas! Who gets married in Vegas? I can only assume you did it because you had some misguided notion about taking her away from her father. Protecting her. You’ve spent your life rescuing things, but she didn’t need protecting. You’re such a gentleman, and she took advantage of you.”
Seth decided it was a good thing his sister couldn’t see him smiling. “Maybe I’m not such a gentleman. Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“I know you never would have married her unless she’d forced you.”
“You think she handcuffed me to the door of the Elvis Chapel?”
“So if it was a real wedding, why didn’t you invite us?”
“Because it’s impossible to invite you without your opinions coming along for the ride.”
“You hurt Mom’s feelings.”
He tensed, knowing it was true and knowing also that his sister knew exactly how to wound. “I need to go, Vanessa. I have patients to see.” An ex-wife to track down.
“Maybe I’m crossing a line—”
“You always do.”
“—but that happens every time we talk about her. You’ve seen her, haven’t you? That was why you took the job in New York.”
He didn’t need to ask whom she meant. He contemplated not answering but decided that would prolong the conversation. “I haven’t seen her yet.”
“‘Yet’? That means you’re intending to. What are you thinking? Or maybe you’re not thinking and it’s testosterone affecting your brain.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I want you to be happy, that’s all. Maybe you should meet her. Maybe if you actually came face-to-face with her again, you would get her out of your system.” She made Fliss sound like a drug overdose; something that could be overcome with the right antidote.
“There’s nothing wrong with my system, but thank you for granting your permission.”
“I hate sarcasm.”
“And I hate your need to control other people’s lives as well as your own.”
“You drive me crazy, do you know that?”
“It’s a brother’s duty to drive his sister crazy.”
“Not this crazy.” Vanessa sighed. “On second thoughts, I take it back. I don’t think you should see her. You don’t make good decisions when you’re around her. She ripped your heart out, Seth, and then she used it as a football.”
“‘She’ has a name.”
“Felicity. Fliss—” Vanessa almost choked “—and you’re talking in your quiet voice, which I know means you’re mad at me—messes with your head, Seth, and she always did. She’s a—a minx.”
Minx? Only his sister would have come up with a word like that. Seth thought about Fliss, remembering the wicked gleam
