“What’s it to you?”
She pushes her way inside and closes the door behind her. “Here’s the deal. You love my brother, and he loves you.”
Tears well in my eyes. “Of course I love him,” I harrumph, “but that doesn’t change the fact that I ruined everything.”
“I knew you were holding something back,” she grumbles. “You’ve always been so easy to read.”
“If I’d told you the truth when we first saw each other, you would’ve thrown me out on my ear.”
“True,” she acknowledges and then flashes a grin. “Nice article.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks.”
She shakes her head. “You never could let things go. I can’t believe you spent all of those years hating Seth over a stupid dance that took place back in junior high.”
“Yeah, well, the joke’s on me,” I say darkly.
She gives me a shrewd look. “You must really love him. It takes an awful lot of energy to hate someone that much.”
“I do love him.”
“I know. That’s why you’re going to fix this.”
“How?”
“Well, for starters, you’re going to get cleaned up. And then you’re going to perform with Seth.”
“No,” I balk. “I can’t go on stage with him. He’ll refuse to perform with me.”
“It’s a possibility, but you owe it to him to at least try. He needs you.”
I squeeze my hands. “How furious is he?”
“Livid.”
I press my lips together, nodding.
She waves a hand. “But he’ll get over it. I did.”
My head snaps up. “You did?”
“Yeah, you redeemed yourself with the article.” She clicks her tongue. “That was some mighty good groveling. You’re a halfway decent writer.”
Laughter clips my throat. “Thanks … I think. I wish I could’ve told the full story about Max.”
“Well, as it turns out, that won’t be necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before I came here, I had a nice little chat with Max. He’s going to be at the benefit tonight, where he’ll go on stage and tell everyone the truth about what happened.”
My eyes go round. “How’d you convince him to do that?”
She juts out her chin. “It’s either that or face a lawsuit.”
“Would Seth sue him?”
“No, but Max doesn’t know that.” She chuckles. “The guy was sweating buckets by the time I got through with him. Maybe I should’ve gone into interrogation rather than nursing. Better hours.”
