I had our chance. I came out here to see you and to get together with Serena.” That was the friend she was staying with. “I’ve had a good marriage. I have no intention of trying to rekindle a fire that burned out a long time ago.”
“You don’t even want to see him while you’re out here?”
Lara shook her head. “Only if he were tied down so I could tell him a thing or two without him running off to a meeting.”
And given her father’s less than enthusiastic response to the news of her mother’s visit, Neely didn’t think that was likely to happen. She kept her eyes on the road. But as she took the off ramp for Lake Union, she thought there was something almost ironic in discovering that her mother might be able to teach her something about dealing with men after all.
“IS SHE gone?”
The voice on the phone was Max’s. It was midmorning on Sunday and Neely had just come back from taking Harm to the dog park to run with his buddies for an hour.
“From my place or from the state?” Neely replied, not having to ask who he was talking about.
“The state.”
“Nope. Not for a couple of weeks. But she’s not here if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m not worried,” Max said gruffly. “Thought I’d drop off the specs for Blake-Carmody, but not if she was there. Want to go sailing after?”
“I can’t. I’m meeting with Stephen Blake tomorrow morning. I need to get all the designs in order. Mom’s out on Vashon staying with a friend. Why don’t you take her sailing?”
“Don’t make me laugh.”
When Max showed up an hour later he still wasn’t laughing. In fact he was edgy and kept glancing around, as if he expected a jack-in-the-box to pop out of a cupboard, rather like she was whenever Sebastian was around.
Only it was more amusing to witness someone else’s agitation rather than feel her own.
“Why isn’t she staying with you?” Max asked without preamble. Again Neely didn’t have to ask who.
“Who would she sleep with? Sebastian?”
Max, who had been prowling the living room, jerked and spun to stare at her.
“Kidding,” Neely said lightly.
Max’s face cleared and he managed a grin. “Very funny.” He gave himself a little shake. “Sure you don’t want to come?” he nodded in the direction of the harbor where his new sailboat was moored.
Neely shook her head and picked up the portfolio she was working on. “Duty calls.”
“Carry on, then,” Max said, and left as quickly as he’d come.
In the silence he left behind, for the first time Neely actually did get some work done. Heaven knew there was plenty to do, and she’d been distracted all week. Now she didn’t sit around waiting for the other shoe to drop—or Sebastian to walk in the front door.
So she was deep in a sketch of one of the condos’ living spaces when the sound of the doorbell jolted her and sent her pencil skittering across the pad.
“Drat,” she muttered under her breath, but got up to answer it, nudging Harm out of the way so he didn’t launch himself enthusiastically at the kid selling cookie dough or magazine subscriptions or at Cody’s mother, come to ask if she could borrow a cup of sugar.
Mentally she prepared to say no to the cookie dough and magazines and yes to the sugar, provided they had any. But when she opened the door there was a young woman standing there looking as surprised to see her as Neely was.
She was probably close to Neely’s age, maybe a bit younger, certainly curvier, which her shorts and halter top all too clearly revealed. She was tall and tanned and had the most gorgeous honey-and-sunlight-colored windblown mass of hair Neely had ever seen.
They stared at each other in silence.
Then Harm, whom Neely held by the collar, said, “Woooof!” in his big deep bloodhound voice, and the other woman’s gaze jerked down to see him and her eyes got even wider.
“I must have the wrong houseboat,” she said, rapidly starting to back away. “I’m looking for Sebastian Savas. But I’ve obviously got it wrong. Excuse me. I—”
It took Neely this long to get her own tongue untangled. “No,” she said, “you don’t. This is…I mean, he lives here.”
And obviously had enough time for at least one gorgeous woman.
“He does?” The woman’s voice almost squeaked. “With you? I mean…I didn’t know he…well, heavens.”
Which was not quite what Neely was thinking, but close.
“He’s not here now though,” she went on, telling herself she was very glad to have met Sebastian’s girlfriend. She could stop thinking about him at all now. Could stop wishing…
“Oh.” The other woman managed a sort of smile.
“I don’t know when he’ll be back,” Neely said. “He’s out of town. But I can tell him you came by.”
“Er, I’m not sure you should,” the woman said. “He’ll probably go ballistic.”
As opposed to being The Iceman? Neely thought. Though it was quite some time since she’d considered him icy in the least. Rather she thought he smouldered. And that was conceivably worse.
“He didn’t tell me where he lived,” the woman confided. “And now I know why.” This time she took her time as her gaze swept over Neely appraisingly.
Oh, dear. “I’m not—I mean, we’re not—I think you’re misunderstanding,” she said quickly, not wanting Sebastian’s girlfriend to get the wrong idea. The last thing she wanted was Sebastian blaming her for the bust-up of whatever sort of relationship he had with this woman. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she assured the woman. “You don’t have to worry.”
The woman laughed. It was a real laugh, too. “I think you’re misunderstanding, too. He’s not my boyfriend, either. He’s my brother.”
Neely goggled. “Your—”
“Brother. Well, half brother, really. The best one in the world,” she said firmly. “For all that he’s a little, um, secretive, at times. He never mentioned you. Do you…live with him?”
“Yes, but—”
“That sod! He’s living with a woman? After he told me NEVER to live with Garrett before we got married—”
“Oh, you’re the bride?” Neely felt oddly as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Sebastian’s sister nodded. “I’m Evangeline. Everybody calls me Vangie. Who are you?”
“Neely Robson. I work with your brother.”
Vangie looked as if she was sure that wasn’t all Neely did with her brother. But she didn’t argue. She just knelt and put her arms around Harm. “And you two even have a dog! We never had pets.”
“Er, well, Harm is mine, really,” Neely said.
“But you share him,” Vangie decided. “Seb always wanted a dog. But my mother didn’t want to be bothered. And then Matt’s mother didn’t. Or the triplets’ or—”
“What?” Neely stared at her.
Vangie shrugged. “I’m glad he has a dog now,” she said simply. “He’s finally getting what he deserves.”
Neely