Kim’s hands made into fists. “His mother is Lucy Cooper, the woman who’s been hid
ing from me for four years. She was afraid I’d recognize her from when I was a kid.”
Reede took a breath to calm himself. He could see that he was making his sister angry, and an angry Kim didn’t listen to anyone. “Maybe that’s so,” Reede said. “Maybe this guy Maxwell came here because of his mother. But what does that have to do with you?”
“Nothing, I guess,” Kim said. “Except that I’m helping him. We’re making plans about what to do. We’re—”
“You think you’re helping him to make plans?” There was contempt in Reede’s voice. “Kim, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but Travis Maxwell is a notorious playboy. And now he’s using you.”
“For what?”
“For what all men want!” he said in exasperation. “He’s already manipulated you into giving him the guesthouse you promised to me.”
Kim looked at her brother in surprise for a moment, then couldn’t help laughing. “You’re talking about sex, aren’t you? You think Travis conned me into lending him the little guesthouse that you don’t want just so he can have sex with me.”
Reede glared at her in silence.
“You know what, Reede, I have never been so flattered in my life. That a man would go to so much trouble to get me into bed is the best thing I’ve heard this century. Men today don’t make any effort to get a woman. If they ask you on a date, they tell you when and where to meet them. That’s so if you don’t pass their every test for beauty and for making less money than they do, they can walk out and leave you. They don’t even have to drive you home because you have your own car.”
“Not all men are like that,” Reede said. “And they’re not the point. This man you’re playing around with isn’t like Paul the Caterer. Maxwell is—”
“Dave!” Kim said. “His name is Dave and I’ve been going out with him for six whole months and I’ve withstood the most boring sex imaginable. Someone should tell David Borman that there is more than one position.”
“I’d prefer not to hear—”
“Not to hear that your baby sister isn’t a virgin?”
“I never thought—” Reede began, then threw up his hands. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. You never do. Kim, you’re my sister and I don’t want to see you hurt. Whatever reason Maxwell is here for, when he’s done, he’ll leave you.” He looked away for a moment. “Kim, I know what it’s like to have your heart ripped out. I don’t want to see that happen to you.”
Kim saw the pain in his eyes. When Reede was in high school and through most of college, he’d been in love with a hometown girl. He never looked at anyone else. Then suddenly, she dumped him, said she was marrying someone else. It had taken Reede years to get over the pain. “I know,” she said softly. “I understand why you’re so upset, but Reede, I know what I’m doing. I know that Travis is a long way from being someone from Edilean. He’s not here to get married, move into some three/two house, and have kids.”
“But that’s what you want,” Reede said. “I know it is. When Jecca and Tris got married you cried through the whole ceremony.”
“Yes,” Kim said gently. “It is what I want. With all my soul. Do you think I bought this big house because of the damned garage? I . . .” She had to hold back tears as she said what she knew to be true; it was going to hurt to say it out loud. “Sometimes I think I bought it as bait, to lure some nice guy here, to make it easy for him to move in, to—”
Reede put his arms around her, held her head to his chest, and stroked her hair. “Don’t say such things. Any man would be honored to have you. You’re smart and funny and caring and—”
“So where is he?” Kim said as she hugged her brother. “Where is this man who is going to see my good qualities and overlook my bad ones? I’ve spent six whole months with Dave the Caterer and I’ve never complained about how boring he is.” She pulled away from him and wiped her eyes. “At least Travis made an effort.”
“Yeah, but for what?” Reede asked as he handed Kim a tissue.
She blew her nose loudly. “I hope it’s because he wants wild, all-night sex with me.”
“Kim!” Reede said, sounding like a Victorian father.
“Look, I know Travis is going to leave. Once he fully believes that Joe Layton is a great guy who is mad about Lucy, Travis will leave as abruptly as he arrived. It’ll be like when we were kids and one day he just wasn’t there. No note, nothing. And he came back just as abruptly, with no warning. I know that he appears and disappears according to his own whims, without regard to other people.”
“I agree,” Reede said. “He’ll go back to his dad’s empire and . . . Someday, Kim, Travis Maxwell will be just like his father. You don’t want to be part of that, do you?”
“No,” Kim said, then looked at her brother over the tissue. “But right now while he’s here, I’ll take all the passionate sex I can get. Days of it. Weeks if I can get it. Months would be divine.”
“That’s—” Reede said sternly, then shook his head. “It’s difficult for me to think of my little sister doing—” He couldn’t seem to find words to express his feelings. Instead, he looked at his watch. “I have to go. I’m already late. I want you to promise me that you’ll do an Internet search on Travis Maxwell and see what you’re up against. He’s been dating some model named Leslie who is a truly beautiful woman.”
“Not like me, huh?”
Reede groaned as he knew he’d said that wrong. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. I just don’t want you to be hurt. Is that bad of me?”
“Of course not. You better go now. Your patients need you.”