Between Sisters

“Damn you, Meg. Can’t you be happy for me?”

“I want to be,” Meghann said, and it was true. “It’s just that you deserve the best, Claire. ”

“Bobby is the best. You haven’t asked about the wedding. ”

“When is it?”

“Saturday, the twenty-third. ”

“Of this month?”

“We thought, Why wait? I’m not getting any younger. So we booked the church. ”

“The church. ” This was crazy. Too fast. “I need to meet him. ”

“Of course. The rehearsal dinner—”

“No way. I need to meet him now. I’ll be at your house tomorrow night. I’ll take you guys out to dinner. ”

“Really, Meg, you don’t have to do that. ”

Meg pretended not to hear Claire’s reluctance. “I want to. I have to meet the man who stole my sister’s heart, don’t I?”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow. ” Claire paused, then said, “It’ll be good to see you. ”

“Yeah. Bye. ” Meg hung up, then punched in the number for her office and left a message for her secretary. “Get me everything we’ve got on prenuptial agreements. Forms, cases, even the Ortega agreement. I want it all delivered to my house by ten o’clock tomorrow morning. ” As an afterthought, she added, “Thanks. ”

Then she headed for her computer to do some checking up on Bobby Jack Austin.

This was what she’d do on her idiotic vacation. She’d save Claire from making the biggest mistake of her life.

TEN

CLAIRE HUNG UP THE OFFICE PHONE. IN THE SILENCE THAT followed, doubt crept into the room.

She and Bobby were moving awfully fast. . . .

“Damn you, Meg. ”

But even as she cursed her sister, Claire knew the doubt had been there all along, a little seed inside of her, waiting to sprout and grow. She was too old to be swept away by passion.

She had a daughter to think about, after all. Alison had never known her biological father. It had been easy so far, bubble-wrapping Ali’s world so that none of life’s sharp edges could hurt her. Marriage would change everything.

The last thing Claire wanted to do was marry a man who had itchy feet.

She knew about men like that, men who smiled pretty smiles and made big promises and disappeared one night while you were brushing your teeth.

Claire had had four stepfathers before she’d turned nine. That number didn’t include the men she’d been asked to call Uncle, the men who’d passed through Mama’s life like shots of tequila. There and gone, leaving nothing behind but a bitter aftertaste.

Claire had had such high hopes for each new stepfather, too. This one, she’d thought each time. He’ll be the one to take me roller-skating and teach me how to ride a bike. Of course, it had been Meg who’d taught her those things; Meg, who never once called one of Mama’s husbands Daddy and refused to have any hopes for them at all.

No wonder Meghann was suspicious. Their past had given her reason to be.

Claire walked across the main lobby of the registration office. On her way to the window, she picked up a fallen flyer, no doubt dropped by one of the guests, and tossed it into the cold fireplace.

Outside, the sun was just beginning to set. The camp lay bathed in a rose-gold light in which every leaf edge seemed sharper, every green distinct. Sunlight sparkled on the blue water in the swimming pool, empty now as the guests were firing up their camp stoves and barbecues.

As she stood there, feeling vulnerable and uncertain, she saw a shadow fall across the grass.