Golly gee, I was certainly glad that I could play a part in Susan finding her dream career. Now I could go to my deathbed feeling fulfilled.
“The weight of that stupid will started to make it hard to breathe.” She returned to wearing out the carpet. “After another couple of weeks I’d had enough. I snuck away and took a flight back to the States.”
“But what about the money you’d sleazed so hard for?”
Her eyes narrowed. “In exchange for a few disgusting moments with Hooch, I’d enjoyed living a life of luxury in his huge beach house for months. That was good enough for me by that point. End of story.”
“But it’s not the end of the story, is it?”
“No.” She blew out a breath. “Unfortunately, Hooch didn’t change his will and the fool lawyer was still pining over me. I’d given a fake address back in the States on all of the paperwork I’d signed, which kept him at bay until two weeks ago. He’d tracked down my last address and sent me a letter, which the post office forwarded to me here. In it, he explained that Hooch had died in November and I was still in the will. He also sent me several love poems he’d written since I’d left.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s still using your name in them.”
This whole story was nutty as peanut butter frosted fruitcake. “Is that all?” I asked.
“No, he also sent me a picture of his penis. You should see it. Even you’d be impressed.”
I flinched. “I meant, is that all of your story about how I ended up married to a man I never knew existed?”
“Yeah. That’s it.”
I sat there for a moment, letting it all gel in my head. “What did I wear at my wedding?”
“A sexy little nurse uniform with fishnet stockings and a pair of Valentino Garavani rockstud ankle-strap heels. Hooch really got off when I played Violet the slutty nurse with him and took his temperature with my extra-long thermometer.”
Eek! I was going to need to soak my brain in bleach for a month to clear these stains. “Well, at least I was wearing nice shoes.” I covered my face with my hands, peering at Susan through my fingers. “What did I ever do to you?”
“Besides the obvious?”
“What’s the obvious?”
She pointed at me. “You treated me differently.”
I lowered my hands. “Different from what?”
“From Quint. I could never quite put my finger on it until you came clean about Blake not being my real dad.”
“He raised you as his own.”
“Yes, he did, but you didn’t treat me like a sibling.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
“When you looked at Quint, your eyes practically glowed with adoration. Then you’d turn to me and there was nothing there but hate.”
Not hate. Not at first, anyway. “That’s because you kept destroying my things.”
“I only did that because I was mad at you for not adoring me like you did Quint.”
Dear Lord in a flatbed Ford! My sister was driving on one lug nut.
“Is that why you screwed Rex? Because I didn’t adore you enough growing up?”
“I fell in love with Rex,” she defended.
Apparently, my mom had been telling the truth on that one. “How could you fall in love with someone you barely knew?”
“Barely knew?” She sniffed. “Rex and I were having sex long before the day you caught us.”
“What?”
She looked like the cat that had eaten the canary. “I guess Rex never told you about that and how we’d—”
“Stop!” I held up my hand. “So, you and Rex were screwing around behind my back before the day I caught you two in my bed?”
“Yes. We’d had sex in your bed several times before that day.”
I let that settle in my gut, waiting for the flames of anger to flare. Oddly, I felt nothing—no ire, no hurt, no humiliation. Hmmm, that was different.
“Rex liked to keep our rendezvous hush-hush. He said it made him hot thinking about me as his naughty secret.”
Of course. Rex had been into all kinds of stupid sex games. I’d donned a few silly getups myself back then upon request. Memories flashed through my mind, my cheeks warming at my stupid naiveté. Ah, there was my old friend, humiliation. Welcome back.
I returned to Susan and the here and now. “And you fell in love with him?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t think him screwing around with you behind my back was a red flag when it came to a long-term relationship with the rat bastard?”
“Rex told me he loved me. That he was going to break it off with you, but he wanted to let you down easy.”
That dickhead had been playing both of us.
“Enough about Rex.” I stood from the chair. “You need to fix this mess with the will.”
“That’s what Mom said, too.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I made her cry.”
I held back a snort. Hell, I’d made our mom cry more times than I could remember. She’d bawled buckets when I told her I was pregnant. What surprised me was that causing Mom’s tears seemed to bother Susan all of a sudden. Apparently even black widows have hearts.
I looked at her luggage. “Are you running away again?”
“I’m going back to St. Barts.”
“Why?”
“Mom told me I have to make things right by you.”
Hmm. Susan’s history when it came to anything involving me raised some doubts. How could I trust that she wouldn’t go and screw up things even more?
But before we went any further, I wanted to address something else. “You need to keep your hands off of Doc.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hold your breath. I saw him with the kids this morning while they were playing with their presents. I’m not going near that.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you after your past with my boyfriends?”
“Those other guys were ticking time bombs. I’m surprised you couldn’t see it.” She glanced at my hair. “Then again, you were always an easy mark for charmers, falling for anyone spewing compliments about your curls.”
I let that
