“Hormones. I turned eleven and suddenly they were really interesting.” She set down her bottle. “Too bad Mia is so much younger. She was still a baby when we made these. I wonder what she would have been.”
“The Smart One,” Francesca said.
“The One Most Likely to Take Over the World,” Katie said.
Brenna smiled and climbed back on the bed. “So, Francesca, I was thinking we’d show Katie’s bottle to Zach the next time he comes over. What do you think?”
“Brilliant idea.”
Katie shook her head. “No way. I don’t need to be humiliated in front of him again. I’ve already had that pleasure, remember? The first time he came to the house.”
“But you recovered,” Francesca pointed out. “And you seem to be spending a lot of time together.”
Katie felt heat on her cheeks. She told herself it was the wine, but she knew she was lying. “I’m working with the man.”
“Uh-huh.” Brenna picked up the bottle of Cabernet and topped up her glass. “I wonder if there’s more to it than that.”
Francesca took the bottle. “Me, too. All those late-night conversations could be leading to something interesting. He’s good-looking, smart.”
“For a divorce lawyer, he has a lot of heart,” Brenna added. “He cares about his son.”
More than either of them knew, Katie thought uneasily. “We work together. That means we have to keep things professional.”
“And here I was hoping you were going to tell us you’ve already seen him naked,” Brenna said.
“In your dreams,” Francesca told her. “As if Katie would sleep with him.”
It had to be the wine, Katie thought as her mouth opened and words formed. Because she’d certainly planned to keep this particular piece of information to herself.
“Actually I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep.”
There was a moment of silence, then both her sisters started screaming and laughing. Brenna recovered first.
“No way! You did
Katie grabbed the wine and drained the last few ounces into her glass. “You make it sound like group sex.”
Francesca nearly choked. “When? Where? Start at the beginning and talk slowly.”
“I went over to his place for a tasting dinner.”
“And you were the entree?” Brenna asked.
Francesca threw a pillow at her. “That’s disgusting.”
“You haven’t had sex in years, so your opinion doesn’t count,” Brenna told her.
“We actually had the tasting dinner,” Katie said, ignoring them both. “We were talking, and then we were kissing, and then we were upstairs.”
“And?” Brenna prompted.
“It was very nice.”
“It should have been a whole lot better than nice,” Francesca grumbled. “You slept with David’s
“Don’t make him sound old. He’s all of thirty-five,” Brenna said. “I’m guessing all the important bits are still functioning just fine.”
“They are,” Katie said primly.
Brenna collapsed on the bed and rested her feet on Katie’s lap. “I’m going to miss sex. Not that I was having it all that much with my soon-to-be ex.”
“Why not?” Francesca asked.
Brenna shrugged. “He was busy, or gone. Or screwing the bimbo. I don’t know. In the past few months we just never did it. I guess the flame had been dying out for a while, but I was too busy working all the time to notice.”
“Don’t think about him,” Katie urged. “You’ll only upset yourself.”
“You’re right. I’ll think about sex instead. Having it, or not having it. I suppose the good news is that giving up sex with Jeff won’t be a huge hardship.”
Katie nearly dropped her glass. “Excuse me?”
Brenna sat up enough to take a sip of her wine. “Dr. Jeff might be an up-and-coming cardiologist, but he doesn’t know dick about a woman’s sexual wants and desires.”
Francesca struggled into a sitting position. She shifted so that her legs hung over the bed and stared at her sister. “Brenna? What are you saying? How exactly would you know he wasn’t good in bed?”
Katie was also playing mental catch-up. She got there before her sister. “You had sex with someone other than Jeff?”
Brenna blinked several times. “Uh-huh.”
Katie couldn’t believe it. She thought she knew everything about her sisters’ lives. Apparently she was wrong. “Did you have an affair?”
Brenna dropped her head back onto the bed. “Of course not. I wouldn’t cheat on Jeff. Only he did that. This was before.”
Francesca nearly fell off the bed. “You weren’t a virgin when you got married?”
Brenna stared at her sister. “What century are you in? You were the only bridal virgin
Francesca reached for her wine and took a gulp, then turned her attention to Katie. “Did you and Greg, well, you know?”
Katie laughed. “Yes, we had sex, and I regret every drop of bodily fluid exchanged.”
“I can’t blame you,” Brenna said. “Who wants to be with a man who prefers death to marriage?”
“That’s not why he went into the army,” Francesca protested.
“Then why?” Brenna asked.
Francesca shrugged.
Katie tried to laugh, but she couldn’t. After all this time her lie should feel like the truth, but it didn’t. Maybe it never would. That was the thing about lies-they tended to live on forever.
“Okay,” Brenna said, reaching for another bottle and the corkscrew. “Your turn, Francesca. ’Fess up. Did you have any secret lovers?”
“Of course not,” she said primly. “I was a virgin when I married Todd.”
Brenna hooted. “Figures. The family beauty is the only one who waited to get laid.”
“I wanted my first time to be with my husband.”
“Talk about pressure,” Brenna muttered.
“I wanted the memory,” Francesca said.
“Fair enough,” Brenna said.
“But I regretted it,” Francesca announced.
Katie felt her mouth drop open. Brenna pulled the cork out of the bottle and nearly dumped the contents onto the bed.
“Being a virgin on your wedding night?” Brenna asked.
“Well, not exactly regretted it, but I do wish I’d slept with Nic Giovanni.”
Katie burst out laughing. “Nic? Our neighbor? Heir to the hated Wild Sea Vineyard? Francesca, I’m shocked.”
Francesca rolled her eyes. “Come on, Katie. Nic was incredibly hot. That tall, dark, brooding thing he had going on was irresistible. Plus he rode a motorcycle and dated lots of girls who put out. I always knew he would be the perfect guy to lose my virginity to. He would make a girl’s first time perfect.”
Katie held out her glass to Brenna, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll confess to Nic Giovanni fantasies, too. I ran into him once when he was home from college one summer. We were in town and he stopped to talk to me. I thought maybe he’d ask me out, but he didn’t.” She sighed at the memory. “I probably would have been willing to give it up for him.”
