“Hi, Andi,” she says. She’s got this weirdly soft, quiet voice, but she steps a little closer to me than I’d prefer, eyes steely. I shut the water off and dry my hands. She smiles. On reflex, I smile back bigger. “We need to talk.”
“Beth, right?”
“Yes. Gideon’s sister. I’d like you to leave him alone,” she says, all in one breath.
“Oh,” I say, because that’s a level of directness I wasn’t expecting, and toss the paper towel into the trash. “Okay. No.”
I cock my head and keep smiling my friendliest smile as Beth purses her lips slightly.
“He deserves better than someone who’s just looking for a good time,” she says, sayinggood timein the same tone of voice Gideon uses to saycat vomit,and it’s a little disconcerting how much they sound and look alike.
“Hm,” I say, and cross my arms over my chest. “Hard disagree.”
“Then you don’t know him.”
I wish I knew she was wrong. I wish I were so confident it didn’t occur to me, even a little, that she might be right, but it does, and like hell am I telling her any of that.
“I know he deserves to have a good time,” I say.
“He deserves a loving wife, and a comfortable home, and a family. Every moment you spend together deprives him of that for just a little longer.”
“You don’t think he’s got plenty of family already?”
Now, Beth looks downright disdainful, so I push a little more.
“There’s a whole lot of you,” I say, all sunshine and rainbows because it’s pissing her off.
“Is that why you’re driving a wedge between us?” she asks, eyes narrowed. “You think he hastoo muchfamily, so you’d like him cast out?”
Fucking hell, how does goddamnBethknow the shit I’m secretly worried about?
I don’t crack and roll my eyes instead.
“I thought I was just a good time,” I point out. “Which I think he’s earned after allyourbullshit.”
“I’m trying to help my brother out of love,” she says, which, debatable, in my opinion. “He’s been blinded to the truth by—lust—” Beth blushes a very familiar blush, “and I consider it my duty to return him to the fold.”
“Blinded?” I ask, delighted. “Aww, he likes me that much?”
“You’re leading him astray.”
“Very,” I agree. I’m grinning like a madwoman, my heart thumping in my throat. Beth is bright red now, the only giveaway on her serene face.
“If you truly cared for him or his well-being, you’d let him go.”
“Again, gonna disagree.”
Beth grabs my forearm and holds on, her grip surprisingly strong, and it shocks me out of my sunshine-and-rainbows facade. Shit, is she about to—am I gonna have to fight Gideon’s sister in a diner bathroom? I don’tfight, I’m not—
“I’m sure this is a fun game for a harlot like you, disappearing for years and then coming back for vengeance,” she says. “I know how easily men are led down the wicked path by feminine wiles.”
“Plenty aren’t, actually,” I say. It’s basically a reflex.
Beth drops my arm with the smallest sneer.
“This is a favor to you,” she goes on. Any veneer of politeness she had has melted away, and suddenly I can see the kid she used to be. The one who was always furious that her brothers got to wear pants and wander the woods, so she retaliated by enforcing the law wherever she could. “Soon he’ll come to his senses and move on to someone who hasn’t given herself away so freely. I know he thinks he wants you now, but he’ll change his mind.”
“Did you just call me afloozy?” is the thing I manage to ask. Beth stands up a little straighter.
