don’t you ask him?”
“He doesn’t answer his phone. He doesn’t answer e-mails. I don’t even know if he gets them. He’s in Hong Kong or Timbuktu or someplace like that. That’s what I told Garrett. But well, it’s a little odd—if you don’t know Daddy. And Garrett’s parents are—” the tears threatened again and Neely offered her a tissue “—wondering what sort of family he’s marrying into.”
“He’s not marrying them,” Neely said firmly. “He’s marrying you.”
“But they’re asking!” Vangie wiped her eyes, then strangled the tissue. “And Garrett would like to meet him, too! He never has. And…and it’s not normal to have a father who doesn’t even show up at your wedding! For once in my life—just once—on my wedding day I’d like to be normal.” Vangie said fiercely. “You understand, don’t you?”
Actually, Neely did. All those years in the commune had made her long for a normal family life. It had mattered a lot to her when she didn’t have a father to speak of. And the one she’d had once her mother married John was every bit what she’d thought it would be. And hadn’t she come out to Seattle to try to establish a relationship with Max?
So who was she to say Vangie was wrong. She gave Sebastian’s sister a gentle smile and patted her hand. “I understand.”
Vangie swallowed and managed a smile. “I knew you would. You’ll ask him for me, won’t you?”
“What?” Neely started. “Me? Ask your father to come to your wedding?”
“No,” Vangie gave a strangled laugh. “Not Daddy. Sebastian! To ask Daddy.” She was nodding her head eagerly now.
“Don’t be silly,” Neely said. “Your brother doesn’t listen to me.”
“Of course he does,” Vangie said. “He lives with you.”
“Not the way you think.”
“He cares about you.”
Now it was Neely’s turn to blink. “What?”
“Well, he must or he would have thrown you out. And he let you keep all your animals and—”
“It’s a free country and I have a lease.”
“That wouldn’t matter to Sebastian,” Vangie said confidently.
“He won’t listen,” Neely insisted.
Vangie set down her glass and reached out to grasp Neely’s hands in hers, imploring her, “Try. Please just say you’ll try.”
“It won’t help. It might hurt.” He doesn’t like me, she wanted to say. But she couldn’t say that with confidence anymore. Truth be told, she didn’t know how Sebastian felt about her. Only that he liked kissing her—and if she weren’t careful he would do it again.
But saying that would not convince Vangie that Neely had no influence on her brother. Wordlessly she shook her head.
But Vangie didn’t let go. She just clung to Neely’s hands. “Please.”
“I’ll tell him you came by.” Neely relented at last. “I’ll tell him what you wanted. I can’t promise any more than that.”
Vangie looked at her with her heart in her eyes. Then, she pressed her lips together and her eyes shut. She squeezed Neely’s hands between hers, and Neely got the worrisome sense that there was some praying going on and she was somehow involved in it.
Then Vangie opened her eyes again and smiled a beatific smile. “Thank you! You’re a dear!” And she lunged forward to give Neely a fierce hug. Then almost before Neely could get a breath, Sebastian’s sister bounced off the window seat, bent to give Harm a hug, too, then started for the door.
It opened just seconds before she reached it.
“Seb!” And she launched herself into his unsuspecting arms.
“What the—!” Sebastian dropped his suitcase and caught his sister with what were clearly the reflexes of long practice, hugging her to him with an obvious fierce affection at the same time glaring over her head at Neely.
“What’s she doing here?” he demanded as if she had orchestrated the whole thing.
“You’re asking me?”
He eased Vangie away from him to look down into her eyes. “What’s going on?” he said, and Neely was once more caught by the mixture of love and exasperation in his voice.
“I need you to talk to Daddy,” Vangie said plaintively. “Please!”
Sebastian’s face hardened. He opened his mouth, but then his gaze went to Neely and grimly he shut it again.
“I think I’ll just take Harm for a run,” she said briskly, grabbing the leash. “You two have things to discuss.”
“Oh, but you can stay and—” Vangie began.
But Neely was already brushing past them. “Lovely to meet you,” she said to Sebastian’s sister and, giving both Vangie and Sebastian a bright smile, she chivvied Harm out the door.
He was back.
Right when she least expected him, of course.
And maybe she was “running scared” as Max had accused her, because the very sight of him in the doorway sent her heart kicking over double time. And seeing him with his sister didn’t help.
It was far easier to think of Sebastian as a coldhearted, cold-blooded iceman. And far harder to resist him when she knew how very hot-blooded he was—and how warmhearted his sister, at least, considered him.
“Which does not make him a good man to get involved with,” she reminded herself more than once as she and Harm walked mile after mile, determined to stay away as long as possible. He was kind to his sister, yes. He was—though he might deny it—a family man.
But he didn’t want a relationship. He was adamant about that.
And Neely didn’t want anything less.
“Remember that,” she said out loud, making Harm look back at her quizzically as if it were a command he didn’t quite understand.
It was. But not for him.
She felt relieved, then, to open the front door and find the houseboat completely quiet. The only light was the one above the stove that she could see down the hall. Sebastian must have left again. Probably with his sister.
Despite the tears, Neely was sure that the two of them would have come to an agreement. And she had no doubt that Vangie had convinced him to contact their father.
Neely unclipped Harm’s leash and shrugged out of her windbreaker, then padded out to the darkened living area. It was one big room, really, just carved into a living room space over by the deck, an office space, where she stood now, and a kitchen, where she should go feed
