he didn’t want Jill at all. What he wanted was to be totally free of her. At least, that was how he’d presented things a few days ago when they’d talked.
Brad wanted that, and he wanted her to give up her remaining interest in the company. That was the message he was supposed to make her listen to. That was the message he just couldn’t bring himself to tell her. Maybe later.
He took his cup to the sink, rinsed it out and headed back into the living room. He was folding up the covers he’d used when the front door opened and a young woman hurried in.
Connor looked up and started to smile. It was Sara Darling, Jill’s sister, and she stopped dead when she saw who had been sleeping on her sister’s couch.
“You!” she said accusingly, and he found himself backing up, just from the fire in her eyes.
He knew that Sara and Jill were very close, but he also knew they tended to see things very differently. Both were beautiful. Where Jill had a head full of crazy curls that made you want to kiss her a lot, Sara wore her blond hair slicked back and sleek, making her look efficient and professional. Today she wore a slim tan linen suit with a pale peach blouse and nude heels and she looked as though she was about to gavel an important business meeting to order.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded of him. “Oh, brother. I should have known you’d show up. Let a woman be vulnerable and alone and it’s like sharks smelling blood in the water.”
“Hey,” he protested, surprised. He’d always been friendly with this woman in the past. “That’s a bit harsh.”
“Harsh? You want to see harsh?”
He blanched. “Not really.”
Okay, so Sara was being extra protective of her sister. He got it. But she’d never looked on him as a bad guy before. Why now? He tried a tentative smile.
“Hey, Sara. Nice to see you.”
She was still frowning fiercely. “You have no right to complicate Jill’s life.”
He frowned, too, but in a more puzzled way. That was actually not what he wanted to do, either. But it seemed he was right. Sara was circling the wagons around her sister. How to convince her she didn’t need to do that with him?
“Listen, staying for the night wasn’t how I planned this.”
“I’ll bet.” She had her arms crossed and looked very intimidating. “Just what did you have in mind, Casanova?”
What? Did she really think he was hovering around in order to catch Jill in an emotional state? If only! He wanted to laugh at her but he knew that would only infuriate her further.
“Listen, I saved your sister from a blind date gone horribly wrong. Seriously. Do you know the guy she went out with?”
Sara shook her head, looking doubtful.
“I think his name was Karl.”
She shook her head again.
“Well, if you knew him, you’d see why Jill needed rescuing. He was flamboyantly wrong for her.”
“Okay.” Sara looked a little less intimidating. “Good. I’m glad you were there to help her out.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. She was approachable after all.
“So I brought her back here, planning to drop her off and come back to see her in the morning, but there was a riot going on in the house. The twins had taken the babysitter hostage. I had to stay and help Jill regain the high ground. There was no choice.”
It was as though she hadn’t heard a word he’d said. She paced slowly back and forth in front of him, glaring like a tiger. It was evident she thought he was exaggerating and she’d already gone back to the root of the problem.
“So...what’s the deal?” she said, challenging him with her look. “Brad sent you, didn’t he?”
Uh-oh. He didn’t want to go there if he could help it. He gave her a fed-up look. “Why does everyone assume I can’t make a move on my own?”
She glared all the harder. “If he’s trying to get her to come back to him, you can tell him...”
He held up a hand to stop her. It was time to nip this supposition in the bud. “Sara, no. Brad is not trying to get her back.”
“Oh.” Her look was pure sarcasm. “So the new honey is still hanging around?”
He ran his fingers through his thick, curly hair and grimaced. “Actually I think that was two or three honeys ago,” he muttered, mostly to himself. “But take my word for it, Brad isn’t looking for forgiveness. Not yet, anyway.”
Her dark eyes flared with outrage, but she kept her anger at a slow simmer. “That’s our Brad. Trust him to make life and everything in it all about him and no one else.”
He nodded. That was one point they could agree on. “Brad does like to have things go his way.”
Sara’s gaze had fallen on the plastic bag of items picked up in the yard. She scowled, touching it with the toe of her shoe.
“What’s all this?”
“Oh. Uh. I left it there. I’ll get it....”
She looked up in horror. “What are you doing, moving in?”
Now he couldn’t help it. He had to laugh. “Sara, you don’t need to hate me. I’m not the enemy.”
“Really? What are you, then?”
“A friend.” He tried to look earnest. He’d always thought Sara liked him well enough. He certainly hadn’t expected to be attacked with guns blazing this way. “I’m Jill’s friend. And I really want what’s best for her.”
“Sorry, Connor. You can’t be a true friend to Jill while you’re still any sort of friend to Brad. It won’t work.”
His head went back and he winced. “That’s a little rigid, don’t you think?”
She moved closer, glancing toward the kitchen to make sure they weren’t being overheard. “If you’d seen what she’s gone through over this last year or so, you might change your tune.”
“What?” He caught her by the upper arm. “What happened?”
She shook her head, looking away.
“Has Brad been here to see her?”
She looked up at him. “Not that I know of. But he manages to make life miserable for her by long distance.”
He frowned, wishing she would be more specific.
She looked at him, shook her head and her shoulders drooped. All her animosity had drained away and tears rimmed her eyes. “Oh, Connor, she deserves so much better. If you could see how hard she works... And every time she turns around, there’s some new obstacle thrown in her path. I just
