I care about Ben and my family, and maybe the church ladies, a little bit, just because I want them to like me and think I’m right for Ben, because I know how much they all love him. But that’s it, I swear.”
“Well, I still don’t want anybody to think you kicked me out of town,” Kathie said. “So I thought if I just came back for a little while, and people saw us together and happy, they’d know that’s not true.”
“Okay.” That worked for Kate. Anything that got her sister back and had them spending time together, worked for Kate.
“And Joe didn’t want to tell me, but…I guess everybody hates him now!”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d go that far….”
“Everybody blames him for what happened. Not me. Him. He said they all think he dumped me, after…you know, making trouble between you and him, and you and me. That he dumped me when everybody found out about it, and I was so devastated, I left town.”
“I guess it’s possible. I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve heard every rumor in the world about the whole thing, and I just try not to listen anymore.” Kate would have said again it didn’t matter to her, but like her brother, she wanted her sister to come back to stay.
She wasn’t going to be as bad as her brother, was she?
No jaw breaking and no threats, but still as bad in her own way. Like being ready to let her sister believe anything to keep Kathie here?
“It wasn’t Joe’s fault,” Kathie insisted. “Honest, it wasn’t. It was me. All of it was me.”
Kate didn’t believe that for a second. After thinking about it for a long, long time, she chose to believe that two of the people she knew best in the world had, completely unexpectedly, developed real feelings for each other, which might have been a real problem for her if, in the middle of the whole thing, she hadn’t found the love of her life.
So whatever had happened between her sister and her ex-fiancé was completely okay with her now. She just couldn’t seem to convince Kathie of that, no matter how hard she tried. Mostly, Kathie wouldn’t even let her bring up the subject. She wanted her sister here, and she wanted her happy, and one thing Kate had figured out was that Kathie and Joe both seemed miserable without each other.
Which wasn’t okay with Kate at all.
So, Kathie was worried about people blaming and hating Joe for whatever had happened between the two of them?
“Well…I don’t know what you can do about that,” Kate said carefully, in case there was something and it was something that would keep her sister in town, where she belonged.
“That’s why I came back,” her sister said. “To show everybody that you’re not mad at me and that you didn’t kick me out of town.”
“Okay,” Kate said. That was fine with her. That was very good.
“And to show everybody that Joe didn’t dump me,” Kate said. “I dumped him.”
“You dumped him?” Kate asked. Why would her sister dump Joe, if Joe was the one she truly wanted?
“Okay, I didn’t really dump him. I mean, he was never mine to dump. He and I were just…” Kathie’s face turned beet red. “I don’t know what we were. Stupid, I guess. I was just stupid and selfish and confused, and once everyone found out last fall, I just couldn’t stand to be here, with everybody knowing and talking about us. So, I have a plan.”
Kate nodded very carefully. “What plan?”
“If it’s okay with you, I mean, I’m going to pretend to see Joe for a few weeks….”
Her sister waited…for Kate to object? “Okay,” Kate said.
“And then I’m going to dump him, so people won’t blame him for the whole thing anymore. So he won’t be the bad guy.”
“Joe asked you to come back to town to pretend to date him, then dump him, so that people would stop blaming him for dumping you?” Kate asked.
“No! He would never do that. I don’t think he even meant to tell me. It just slipped out, but once I knew, I had to try to fix things, because it wasn’t right for people to blame you and him when it was all my fault,” her sister explained.
Okay.
That kind of made sense, but only because Kate knew her sister so well.
Joe had been threatened within an inch of his life and forced to go see Kathie, and then, when he tried to talk her into coming back, as ordered, something had gone wrong, and he’d ended up giving her the impression that everyone in town blamed Joe and Kate for Kathie’s decision to leave, and Kathie was here to make sure everyone blamed her instead?
Not what Joe intended, Kate was sure, but it had gotten her sister to come back. Once Kathie saw a problem that she believed she’d created, she wouldn’t give up until she fixed things.
And Kathie could only fix things from here in town.
Kate weighed her options carefully. If she protested that she wasn’t mad at her sister at all, that it was fine with her if Kathie and Joe fell madly in love, and that she didn’t care what anyone in town thought of any of that, Kathie might not stay and try to fix things.
And she really wanted Kathie to stay, no matter what the reason.
Maybe Kate was as bad as her brother.
“Well…that sounds like a good plan,” Kate said, feeling guilty about it but happy. It sounded like a plan that would keep her sister in town for weeks at least, forever if Kate had anything to say about it.
“Still mad?” Ben asked, coming up behind Kate in the kitchen and putting his arms around her.
“Maybe.”
He kissed her cheek, then nuzzled her neck. “Come on. It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Only if she’s in love with him,” Kate said.
“In love with him?” Ben turned her around in his arms.
“Yes,” Kate said, letting him draw her against him, her head tucked against his chest. “Think about it. She’s in love with him, and he just let her leave after our wedding. Probably because his head was still spinning from everything that had happened and because he was still trying to make sense of it and failing miserably. Joe doesn’t change his mind easily. He doesn’t change his plans, either. It would take him some time to figure everything out, and she left so fast, thinking he didn’t care about her at all, that it was some crazy fluke.”
“Okay, but—”
“I don’t think it was a fluke to Kathie. I think she’s in love with him, and now look what’s happened. Her brother and her new brother-in-law went to the man she loves, who she thinks doesn’t love her, and threatened to break his jaw if he didn’t go see her and get her to come back to town.”
“But…if she’s in love with him, doesn’t she want to see him again?”
“Not if she thinks it’s hopeless and the only reason he came to get her is because he didn’t want his jaw broken into sixteen pieces. Then, it’s just humiliating to have to be here with him, thinking he couldn’t care less about her.”
“Oh. Okay. I get it now.”
Yes, now, he got it.
Poor Kathie.
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