To be fair, she was pretty talented.
“Don’t cry,” I grumbled, shuffling toward her. I wrapped my arms around her skinny body, wincing in concern at how frail she felt. “There, there.”
“Don’t”—she shoved me gently away—“you’ll mess up my hair.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’ll call a cab to take you to my place. You can sleep on the couch.”
“The couch?” She looked horrified.
“It’s a one-bedroom house.”
“Then I’ll take the bed.”
I stared at her, incredulous. “Baby sister, Mom and Dad aren’t here. This is my playground now, and if I come home to find you in my bed, I will haul you out of it by that pretty flat-ironed hair of yours.”
“You’ve gotten mean,” she huffed.
“And you haven’t changed a bit.”
Five minutes later Aydan and I helped the cab driver out with the luggage while my sister shouted things like, “Watch the wheels on that suitcase. It cost more than you make in a year!” and “Don’t snatch at the fabric like that. Do you know how much that bag will be worth in fifty years’ time!”
By the time Aydan and I stumbled, exhausted, up the steps to the inn it was like we’d been through a war.
“So that’s your sister,” Aydan said blandly.
Something about the whole situation seemed stupidly hilarious in that moment and I broke out into hysterical laughter, having to stop mid-step. I slumped down onto the porch stairs and Aydan’s laughter joined mine.
We cackled until our stomachs hurt and tears rolled down my cheeks.
I wiped them away, trying to catch my breath. “Oh, it’s not funny but it is.”
“I don’t remember her. You would think I would remember her. Was she always like that?”
“Kind of. But she’s worse now. She’s spent the last eight years traveling all over the world, hopping from one rich man to the next. She’s very good at the sugar-daddy thing. Not so much at the nice-human-being thing.”
“Do you think she’s serious about the inn?” Aydan sounded concerned.
The truth was I didn’t know. I just knew that wherever Vanessa went destruction followed. “I don’t know. I do know that until she realizes how bored she used to be living here, we’re stuck with her. I don’t know for how long.”
“Is she going to be a problem?”
“Not if I can help it. If she comes here and starts ordering you around or trying to make changes, I want to know immediately.”
“She’s going to be a problem,” Aydan surmised.
“I won’t let her hassle you.”
“Hey, boss, I’ve worked in some lousy places over the years, and this is not one of them. This is the best job I’ve ever had, and I’m not going to let some skinny wannabe socialite scare me off. No offense.”
“Oh, none taken. I would have called her worse.”
We laughed and I leaned into Aydan. “Thank God you’re here.”
“We’ll get through this together.”
Reassured that Vanessa wouldn’t send Aydan running for the hills, I strolled back into the inn. Aydan went to check with Mona about the dinner menu that night, and I hurried into the haven of my office. I closed the door behind me and closed my eyes.
I was way less composed than I’d let on to Aydan.
Vanessa Hartwell was the last problem I needed. Knowing only one person who’d understand, I called him.
My brother picked up on the fourth ring. “Hey, Bails. What’s going on?”
“Vanessa is here. At the inn. She just turned up. Says she wants to help run the place.”
“What?” He sounded as shell-shocked as I felt.
“She says she’s bored of the wanderlust and wants to take her responsibilities more seriously.”
Charlie swore. “Get her out of there. Now.”
“And how do you propose I do that?”
“Find a rich man, dangle him on a fishing pole, and wave him under her nose.”
I snorted and then felt guilty. “Maybe I should give her a chance. She is our sister.”
“And she’s a spoiled, selfish, lazy little brat.”
“Maybe she’s changed.”
“Did she seem like she’s changed? Because last Thanksgiving she didn’t seem like she’d changed.”
“You saw her last Thanksgiving?”
“Yeah, she was in the States so she came to see me.”
An old hurt flared. “She never came to see me, Mom, and Dad.” Little brat. “I knew it. She has never liked me.”
“Don’t take it personally. I think she was avoiding Hartwell more than she was avoiding you guys.”
“Well now she’s not avoiding either of us.” I groaned. “Charlie, what will I do?”
“I think I gave you a solution to that problem.”
“Mom and Dad would tell me to give her a chance.”
“Because Mom and Dad love unconditionally and cannot see her for the conniving little brat she is.”
“Maybe we should stop letting her be a brat. Maybe if I let her work at the inn I could teach her to work hard, to see the value of hard work.”
Charlie laughed.
“Everyone deserves a chance.” I found myself arguing my way into a decision and situation that could end horribly for me.